Finding Reliable Resources for your Paper or Project
The following is meant to be used as support material related to a library instruction session conducted by a library instructor and an instructor from a BHCC department.
The Librarians have compiled a list of web based resources for your use.
http://del.icio.us/BHCCLibrary.htm
Do you have a library card? You will need one to check out books from the BHCC library. Your student ID is your library card -- it must have a 14 digit barcode on the back.
When you come to the library there are some basic things you need to know so that you are putting our research tools to work effectively for you. Many of you may already be familiar with the research methods and techniques that you will be using, but now you will be using them to help you accomplish a specific research goal.
STAGES OF A TYPICAL PAPER
- Propose a topic
- Familiarize yourself with the resources available at the BHCC Library
- Search for sources, keeping a working bibliography
- Keep organized notes
- Finalize thesis and outline
- Submit first draft
- Prepare notes and works cited sheet
- Submit final, revised manuscript
Know the assignment guidelines
- ??? words
- Minimum ??? of sources
- Minimum ??? of types of sources
- Due date: ???
Consider where you'll search
- Book catalog
- World Wide Web
- Subscription databases
You'll need to find a combination of books, journals articles, newspapers articles, and reliable Internet sources to complete the scavenger hunt. To find these sources, you will need to use the BHCC Library online catalog as well as online periodical databases such as EBSCOhost and InfoTrac Web.
The BHCC Library home page at http://www.noblenet.org/bhcc/ provides a single place where you can go to get access to the library catalog, online databases, and information about the library itself. You just need a computer with an Internet connection and a Web browser.
USING THE ONLINE CATALOG
The BHCC Library online catalog is the most efficient way to find a book in the BHCC library. If you take some time to master it, your task will be much easier when you need to stop in and borrow a book. Remember, the online catalog can be searched from any computer connected to the Internet with a Web browser.
If you take a look at the online catalog, you'll see that there are many ways to search for a book: author, title, subject, keyword, and more.
- To start, try the keyword search, which is the broadest possible search. When you find ta book that fits your need, look at its subject headings. They will lead you to books on the same topic.
- Subject, author, and title searches are more specific and can be used when you know the exact author, title or subject of the book you are looking for.
Your end goal should always be the book's call number, which is like the book's address and tells you where to find the book in the library. This BHCC Library web page on Finding a Book in the Library is a good place to start for more detailed information on how call numbers work.
USING ONLINE DATABASES TO LOCATE JOURNAL AND NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
The Library currently subscribes to over 200 different periodicals and over 40 online databases, many of which provide periodical articles on virtually any subject you can name. To help you sort through this vast amount of information and find what you need, we will be focusing on two broad-based periodical databases here, EBSCOhost and InfoTrac Web. For a full list of all the databases we have to offer, take a look at our databases page.
Recommended databases: try starting your search with
- FACTS.com -- a great source for current events, contains information, including statistics, about key events, people, and issues of the last 20 years. See particularly the Issues and Controversies section.
- Lexis-Nexis -- includes Legal (look up cases), Business (look up company information and business news) and News sections (thousands of regional, national, and international papers.
- EBSCOhost -- once you're into the general EBSCO database, select sources like Academic Search Premier, which has access to thousands of interdisciplinary scholarly journals, or Newspaper Source, which has selected full text for more than 200 regional (U.S.) newspapers as well as 23 national (U.S.) and international newspapers.
- Massachusetts Newspapers -- provides access to The Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.
- Ethnic Newswatch -- gives access to over 200 titles of the ethnic, minority, and native press.
- Points of View Reference Center -- A collection of topic overviews, and analysis of issues presenting pro/con information, with links to articles from newspapers, magazines and journals.
- CQ Researcher -- Lengthy, original, and comprehensive reports and analysis on current news topics such as health, international affairs, education, the environment, technology and the U.S. economy. Reports include history of issues and analysis of multiple sides of each issue.
USING THE WORLD WIDE WEB TO FIND RELIABLE INFORMATION
Anyone can put in information on the Internet. Unfortunately, not all of this information is reliable. It is very important to make sure that your sources are credible. It is your responsiblility to critically analyze the information you find. Check out a great resource for Evaluating Websites from the Cornell University Library. Wesleyan University has also put together a mini-tutorial on evaluating Web sites, available on the Wesleyan library Web site at Evaluating what you Find. Four criteria to keep in mind while considering websites are:
- Accuracy- Are there spelling errors or incorrect data? Is the information too generalized?
- Authority- Who is the author? What are their credentials? Can they be contacted?
- Currency- When was the material written? Are the links live? Has the site been updated?
- Objectivity- Is more than one view presented? What is the goal of this site?
PRIMARY, SECONDARY, AND TERTIARY RESOURCES
The distinctions between primary, secondary, and tertiary resources can be somewhat fuzzy. In addition, each field of study may place differing importance on each type of resource.
In the study of human history, primary resources are often considered one of the most important ways researchers can find immediate and original information on historical events. Historical documents like diaries and interviews give us a direct look, without interpretation, at what was going on in the minds of people involved in historic events.
For more information on the differences between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources, see this Web file posted by St. Thomas University. This Web page on Finding Primary Sources can help you think about possible ways to locate relevant primary sources.
CITING YOUR INFORMATION SOURCES
After you have completed your research paper, your final step will be to compile a list of the sources you used in writing your paper. Whether you paraphrase, summarize, or quote directly from an information resource you must credit and document the source.
The format you will use for citation is known as the MLA format; to assist you in compiling your list of sources, consult the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, REF LB 2369. G53 1999. This volume is very detailed and even covers citation formats for the different electronic resources you will be using. For a good treatment of the same material available on the World Wide Web, check out the Duke University Libraries' Guide to citing sources.
QUOTING, PARAPHRASING & SUMMARIZING
When quoting information sources, it's important to recognize whether you're summarizing, quoting, or paraphrasing. See the following Hints for Summarizing, Quoting and Paraphrasing from the Purdue Online Writing Lab.
The best source for details about how to summarize an information source for a class assignment is, of course, your instructor. There are some general guidelines, however, that might prove useful if you're having trouble getting started. Take a look at a few of the sites listed below to consider what goes into writing a summary.
- Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing, from the Writing Lab at Purdue University, looks at the difference between the three types of writing.
- Standard summaries is an in-depth look at the parts of a summary from Colorado State.
- Guide to writing an abstract can help you think about what is the same and what is different between an abstract and summary. Many of the newspaper articles you will retrieve online have abstracts -- those abstracts may be different from the summary you need to do as part of your assignment.
DIRECTORY SITES AND SEARCH ENGINES ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB
The following are some reliable directory sites where librarians often start Web research. Remember, though, usually when doing Web research your concern will not be the quantity of sites you get back, but the quality.
- Internet Public Library -- http://www.ipl.org
- Digital Librarian -- http://www.digital-librarian.com
- Librarian's Index to the Internet -- http://www.lii.org
- RefDesk -- http://www.refdesk.com
And these are some of the most frequently used search engines ...
- Google (includes image and news search tabs)
http://www.google.com - AltaVista (includes sound and video search tabs)
http://www.altavista.com