 |
English 155: Norwood
Librarian speaking today is Marcia Henry. Email her at mhenry@csun.edu
Goals of today's Library Research Skills class are:
- learn about the library website at http://library.csun.edu . The url for this webpage is http://library.csun.edu/mhenry/tipseng155norwood.html
- learn how to find books and articles on your topic
- learn how to create a search strategy, distinguish between various sources
- learn how to evaluate websites
- learn about Citing resources
Finding Newspaper, Magazine and Journal Articles: Find Articles & Research Data
There are several databases you may want to search that contain many full-text articles from newspapers, magazines and journals from around the country, and the world. If the full-text is not available for the article you want to see, click the blue and red 
button or the "Find Text" link to see if the full-text is available in another database.
- General Onefile
- Lexis-Nexis
- Academic Search Elite
- ProQuest Newspapers
- CQ Researcher
- Opposing Viewpoints Research Center
Finding Books
Use the Library Catalog (http://suncat.csun.edu) to find books, videos, music and which magazines and newspapers we subscribe to. You can also follow links to WorldCat ( http://worldcat.org ) to identify nearby libraries that also items that Oviatt might not own, or if we own, is checked out to another patron.
Research Strategies
It's a good idea to develop a search strategy for your research topic (http://library.csun.edu/Research_Assistance/search.html).
Learn how to use Boolean operators and truncation in most databases, in order to narrow down or broaden your searches (http://library.csun.edu/Research_Assistance/booleansearching.html).
Evaluate your search results:
Skim the list of article citations: Do your keywords appear in any of them?
Read article abstracts: How well does each article pertain to your topic?
What kind of information does each citation/abstract/article appear to provide about your topic? Is it a research findings report, critical analysis, editorial or commentary, news report, or investigative report?
Consider the currency of each citation--when was the article published? This will be more or less important, depending on your topic.
Scholarly v. popular: What kind of article is it? Many research assignments require you to find articles from scholarly journals (see below).
Scholarly Sources:
- Authors are authorities in their fields.
- Authors cite their sources in endnotes, footnotes, or bibliographies.
- Individual issues have little or no advertising.
- Articles must go through a peer-review or refeered process.
- Articles are usually reports on scholarly research.
- Illustrations usually take the form of charts and graphs.
- Articles use jargon of the discipline.
Popular Magazines and Newspapers:
- Authors are magazine staff members or free lance writers.
- Authors often mention sources, but rarely formally cite them in bibliographies.
- Individual issues contain numerous advertisements.
- There is no peer-review process.
- Articles are meant to inform and entertain.
- Illustrations may be numerous and colorful.
- Language is geared to the general adult audience (no specialized knowledge of jargon needed).
Evaluating Web Sites (should you believe everything you read online?)
What to look for (for a more detailed version go to: http://library.csun.edu/Research_Assistance/eval.html) :
- Authority - Who is the author? What's his/her background, education, experience? Would you trust the organizations they are affiliated with? Can you find contact information? What is the domain name (eg .com, .edu, .org, .gov, .net)?
- Content & Coverage - What does it cover? Is it aimed at experts? Is the information relevant?
- Timeliness - When was it written? When was it last updated? Is the information still current?
- Accuracy - Can you check the information somewhere else? (Especially important for things like Wikipedia!) Has someone else reviewed the content? Does it include a list of works cited or other clues to how the information was found?
- Objectivity - Does the site have a bias? Are there advertisements or links to organizations that might be a clue? What does the domain name tell you about objectivity?
Avoiding Plagiarism (http://library.csun.edu/Research_Assistance/plagiarism.html)
Cite your sources! Learn how to cite in APA or MLA citation style. (http://library.csun.edu/Find_Resources/e-books/estylegd.html)
Additional Contact information
If you have questions as you do research for your project in this class, go to Ask-A- Librarian (http://library.csun.edu/Research_Assistance/askus.html),
Add the Oviatt Library to your Friends list on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/oviatt_library .
Become a fan of the Oviatt Library on Facebook!
18111 Nordhoff St. Northridge CA 91330 (818) 677-2285 |
 |
|
|