Hillman Library provides resource for potential grad students

Students preparing for graduate school entrance exams needn’t look further than Hillman… Students preparing for graduate school entrance exams needn’t look further than Hillman Library for the most up-to-date resources.

Student Government Board member Alex Zimmerman completed his campaign initiative this summer to consolidate and update the resources available in the Hillman Library for potential graduate students.

Zimmerman teamed up with associate University librarian Fern Brody to order five new graduate resource books and two eBooks for the Alldred Collection in the Cup & Chaucer Cafe on the ground floor.

Three new preparation books are currently featured in the library for the GRE, LSAT and GMAT and two more for the MCAT and GMAT are on the way. Brody has also ordered two GRE practice eBooks that students can find on PittCat+.

Brody said the books are on standing order, so the library will receive immediate shipment when the publisher comes out with new editions each year.

While Hillman Library carries a few older editions of graduate school resource books, Brody said that Hillman will be sure to carry the most up-to-date resource books in one location.

“The idea is to be up to date, but eventually what will happen is you’ll see the editions printed every year,” Zimmerman said. “So if the 2011 edition is checked out, the 2010 will be in the general collection.”

Students can check the review books out for two weeks at a time.

Zimmerman said he crafted the initiative when he served as the chair of SGB’s academic affairs committee. A student confronted him about the difficulty of finding graduate exam resources in the library.

Prior to the relocation, Brody said the books were scattered throughout the library.

“We had some [review books], but sporadically, and they weren’t always the most up-to-date,” she said.

Chantal Botros, a second-year graduate student in Pitt’s School of Dental Medicine, responded positively when told about the new review books at Hillman.

“Things like that are definitely beneficial,” Botros said of the added resources. She said many of the students in her class graduated from Pitt undergraduate programs and that the free study materials would have served them well.

Botros said that to prepare for her Dental Admission Test she signed up for the Kaplan Review, purchased the Kaplan books and bought special computer software. She took the entrance exam in 2009, her senior year of undergraduate classes at Roosevelt University in Chicago.

Zimmerman hopes the new resources will save students, like Botros, from purchasing huge amounts of review material.

“One of the biggest concerns in applying to grad school is how expensive the process is. Even just submitting an application can run students well close to $100,” Zimmerman said. “There are things Pitt can do resource-wise that will make applying to grad school less financially burdensome.”

Zimmerman said a Library Guide website is in the works. The guide will list the eBooks, the call numbers for the graduate resource books and additional online resources for students studying for graduate school entrance exams.