AIS 304 Research Strategies

Research process

Getting Started

Assignment

• Nature
• Types of publications (primary/secondary/tertiary; scholarly/popular
• Number of sources
• Citation style

Develop topic – write down specific alternative words – narrow topic
Search for books

Think of different ways to express the same idea:

 

Legal Issue	Group of people	Other terms
Grave goods	Indians of North America	specific tribes
casinos	First peoples
mineral rights	native americans

• Boolean
  • Put your words together to search
  • Boolean "and" puts terms together, both concepts must be in the records retrieved (limits)
• Boolean "or" allows you to search closely related terms -- either can be in the records retrieved
• Truncation: Symbol used at the end of a word to retrieve variant endings of that word.
  • Allows you to search the "root" form of a word with all its different endings.
  • Broadens or increases search results. Truncation = OR
  • Example: teen* retrieves teen OR teens OR teenager OR teenagers
  • However: comp* retrieves computer, computers, but also compromise, compete etc.

• Subject headings
• Call numbers

How call numbers work:

The first letter or letters represent broad subject areas

The first set of numbers represent a more specific subject within that broad subject area

The next set of letters / numbers represent the shelf location in that specific subject area

Ebooks

Map it / send text

Search articles

Types of periodicals: scholarly journals, magazines and newspapers

• Specific databases
• Databases by Subject
• Metasearch

Resources found

• Save/email/print
• Citation style

Google books Google Scholar / VPN
Evaluate

Citing your Sources : Online

MLA handbook. REF LB2369 .G53 2002

Writing research papers : a complete guide / James D. Lester, James Lester, Jr. Reserve Room: LB2369 .L4 2002