1	Research & Biblio/ English 137 Professor Pamela Watkins Spring 2005
2	Today we will cover the following issues Identifying a research topic Developing a search strategy Selecting information sources Choosing the right format to retrieve the information Achieving a manageable focus
3	Today we will cover the following issues (contd.) Accessing and searching the Online Book Catalog Accessing and searching the Online Electronic Databases Evaluating your sources of information
4	Identifying a Research Topic Choosing a topic What are your interests? Use sources to get ideas such as the CQ Researcher’s Index, The daily newspapers and the “10,000 Ideas for Term Papers, Projects, Reports and Speeches,” by Kathryn Lamm. What do you already know about your topic? State your topic in the form of a question For Example: Why do teenagers smoke cigarettes?
5	Possible Topics for Research Paper Entertainment Industry Motion Picture Industry Theater Music Opera
6	Possible Topics for Research Paper (contd.) Adoption Hate Crimes Gangs Homosexuality Human Cloning Zero Tolerance
7	Developing a Search Strategy Using Boolean Operators to connect terms AND – Narrows a search. A record must have all the terms in the citation Example: “women AND education” OR - Broadens a search. Either term may appear in the citation Example: “homemaker OR housewife” NOT- Narrows a search by excluding articles containing the second search term Example: “women engineering NOT computer engineering”
8	Selecting Information Sources References - include general and specialized encyclopedias, dictionaries, almanacs, yearbooks, biographies and thesauri. The library does not allow the references to circulate Periodicals – includes articles from magazines, journals or newspapers Online databases- retrieves articles from magazine s, journals and newspapers from InfoTrac and Proquest.
9	Choosing the right format to retrieve the information Online Catalog to locate books that LAHC Library owns (http://www.lahc.edu/library) Electronic Databases to retrieve full-text articles from magazines, journals and newspapers from InfoTrac or Proquest Periodicals (print journals or magazines) Printed Indexes (Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature)
10	Choosing the right format to retrieve the information (contd.) Selected Reference Works Searching the Internet such as http://www.google.com/and http://lii.org Library of Congress Subject Headings, LCSH, to trace a subject Printed Indexes (Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature)
11	Achieving a manageable focus How long is your final project? A five minutes speech? A 250 word essay? A two page paper? A 10-12 page research paper? This will determine… How many sources should you cite? Most college instructors expect the majority of sources to be printed, rather than from the Internet. Remember, however, that full-text articles indexed in an online periodical database, such as Infotrac, are considered print…delivered online.
12	Accessing and searching the Online Book Catalog From Campus Connect to the LAHC Library Homepage http://www.lahc.edu/library The Online Book Catalog is available to students, faculty and staff from campus computers without a password From Home Connect to the LAHC Library Homepage http://www.lahc.edu/library You do not need a password to search the Online Book Catalog from home
13	Accessing and searching the Electronic Online Databases Connect to the LAHC Homepage http://www.lahc.edu/library click on databases. For periodicals including magazine and journal articles choose InfoTrac. For periodical including newspaper articles choose ProQuest. Remember to stop by the Reference Desk to get passwords for the Electronic Databases to connect from home. You do not need passwords for either the online catalog or electronic databases when you are logged on from campus.
14	Searching for Books on Marion
15	Searching Search Engines
16	Librarians’ Index to the Internet
17	ProQuest Advanced Search
18	Evaluating Your Sources of Information Are they up-to-date? I.e. date of publication. Is the author credible? Check the author’s credentials. Is the content objective? Is it useful? Is it well written?
19	Bibliography Lamm, Kathryn. 10,000 ideas for term papers, projects, reports and speeches: intriguing, original research topics for every student’s need. New York, NY: Macmillan USA, c1998. Library of Congress Subject Headings. Washington, D.C.: Cataloging Distribution Service, Library of Congress, c1994.
20	Other Sources Harbor College Library Home Page www.lahc.edu/library Librarians Index to the Internet http://lii.org Search Engines http://www.dogpile.com http://www.google.com http://www.yahoo.com