What I like most about IE University is how many doors have been opened for me over the years. First, it helped me open my mind and be more flexible when meeting new people and dealing with individual and cultural differences. Academically, it gave me real-life experiences in different fields of my degree, which guided me in deciding which area of psychology I’d like to focus on. One of these experiences was taking part in the Marketing Lab, which allowed me to see how psychology can be applied to the marketing sector.
Another fantastic thing about IE University is that it’s a pool of diversity. Two years ago, my friend and I actually founded a club called: Cultural Diversity Club. Unfortunately, when we moved to Madrid, no one took the lead in Segovia, so the club is currently inactive. Nonetheless, it was a great experience to create different events around specific cultures and see how people interacted with them.
Lastly, something I love about IE University is the library—a place where you can be surrounded by people, while still fully concentrating on your work. Below, I’ll get into what I like best about it and how to squeeze every drop out of this fabulous resource.
A cornucopia of information
In general, I’m a morning person, so I prefer to work early in the morning. Since I commute from Segovia to Madrid every day, I arrive pretty early to the university, so I like to go to the library and get ahead on some work. If I need to consult a textbook for one of my classes, there’s always a copy there—which is handy if I ever forget mine.
In Segovia, I really enjoyed the views from the library, and its natural light, because it gave me motivation to sit down and get work done while enjoying the bright light and the place itself.
Overall, I think both libraries are great places to study, whether you prefer to do it alone in quiet or surrounded by people (obviously without talking!). I’ve always believed that at the library, when you see others studying, you’ll feel awkward if you don’t do it as well, so you force yourself to get all your things done.
Useful resources
When it comes to the resources I use the most, one of my favorite tools is linking Google Scholar to IEU Library when I do research for my papers, as it allows me to get free and full access to more papers than Google Scholar itself. Also, if I need an important paper I can always ask IEU Library to try to get it for me.
I also often use Top Links to search for articles. It’s great for both academic and personal research. In our degree, as with many others, we have a lot of research projects and need a lot of theoretical background to support our facts. Because of this, we need to consult a lot of articles and websites—even more so in quarantine—so Top Links is extremely useful.
Using IE University Library remotely
IEU Library has been one of my saviors during the quarantine, because since everything was online, if I didn’t have a physical copy of a compulsory book for one of my classes, I could check it out through the online platform. The same thing happened with articles and books for group work and papers.
In general, I’ve been using the virtual IEU Library for the same purposes as the physical ones. The difference is that everything is quicker and easier as it’s all digital. Also, since I’ve had more time on my hands, I’ve been exploring the resources available to me even more. That’s how I started using features like Top Links or online press, which I never touched before the lockdown.