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Slide 1: Academic Writing Library Research Fall 2009 Julie Poole Coordinator of Center Library Services
Slide 2: Research Plan • Be prepared. Know your assignment. • Find background information • Identify search terms • Find books • Find articles • Cite your sources
Slide 3: Background Reading & Brainstorming Textbooks Encyclopedias Professors Newspapers
Slide 4: Topics Keywords/Subjects • List possible search terms – Keywords (include related terms) – Names of countries/cultures – Names of organizations – Names of people Think of synonyms and alternative ways of expressing each concept.
Slide 5: Finding Information
Slide 6: Finding Information What’s out there • • • • Books Newspapers/Magazines Journals Websites
Slide 7: “Scholarly” Journal Articles • Periodicals used by researchers to share their findings with one another and the public. • They contain articles describing new research or ideas written in a formal manner that includes background information, methods used, results/interpretation and significance. • Research articles are peer-reviewed • Also called “academic journals”
Slide 8: Scholarly Journals How do I tell? • May contain graphs and charts. • Written by a scholar in the field or by someone who has done research in the field • Always cite their sources in the form of footnotes or bibliographies • No glossy pages or pictures • Little to no advertisements
Slide 9: Examples of Scholarly Journals
Slide 10: “Popular” Magazines • The main purpose of popular periodicals is to entertain the reader, to sell products (their own or their advertisers), and/ or to promote a viewpoint. Articles are fit for, or reflecting the taste and intelligence of, the people at large.
Slide 11: Popular Magazines How do I tell? • Slick, glossy and attractive in appearance. • Lots of graphics (photographs, drawings, etc.). • Articles are usually very short, written in simple language . • Generally little depth to the content of these articles.
Slide 12: Examples of Popular Magazines
Slide 13: Finding Articles To find Articles, use a database or index • • • A database is a collection of citations for articles or similar information Choose an appropriate database (one that fits your subject area) Find full-text articles OR – Find a citation – Check to see if your library has the journal in another database – If not, we can order it for you via InterLibrary Loan (this takes TIME!) • Some databases are subject specific (such as Education or Business) and some cover many subjects (multidisciplinary)
Slide 14: Try Our Education & Multidisciplinary Databases • Academic Search Complete - A comprehensive scholarly, multidisciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. Includes full text Research Library (at ProQuest) - Provides abstracts and indexing for over 2,600, as well as full text for over 1,700 scholarly journals and general magazines. Includes full text ERIC (at EBSCOhost) - Covers all aspects of education and educational research, includes both abstracts of published and unpublished sources on thousands of educational topics. Includes some full text Professional Development Collection - A specialized collection of journal articles and pamphlets especially for professional educators. Includes full text Wilson Education Full Text - This database indexes over 500 article citations, as well as full text from over 250 journals on all aspects of education. Full text available PsycARTICLES - This database, from the American Psychological Association (APA), is a definitive source of full-text, peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific articles in psychology. Full text available PsycINFO - This database contains over 2 million book and journal citations in the field of psychology dating back from the 1800s to the present, including coverage on education and educational psychology. Full text available • • • • • • • We have TONS more databases on a variety of subjects! Take a look.
Slide 15: To find articles, choose a database. This is one way to find a list of available databases.
Slide 16: Passwords • • From off campus you will need your Mercer ID number or GALILEO password to get into our library resources. Go to the Mercer RAC Libraries home page click on “your library account” 17 17
Slide 17: Enter your Name and Mercer University ID number here The GALILEO password will be here 18
Slide 18: Questions? Thank You! Julie Poole: 678-547-6379 or poole_ja@mercer.edu Tarver Library Reference Desk: 478-301-2055 Swilley Library Reference Desk: 678-547-6282
Slide 19: Librarians love questions! If you have any, please ASK US! Julie Poole: 678-547-6379 or poole_ja@mercer.edu Tarver Library Reference Desk: 478-301-2055 Swilley Library Reference Desk: 678-547-6282 http://tarver.mercer.edu/assist/askUs.php We even have an online chat service where you can chat with a librarian - click on the photo below to ASK JACK!