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Research
101 ( in a
Nutshell ) 
Getting Started in Library Research
There are over 12 billion pages posted to the
WWW that are open to search engines, and another 200 billion
pages that
are "hidden" or buried in Deep Web databases as on-demand content. That's an incredible
amount of material to sift through. When you are surfing the Web for
news, sports, weather and entertainment you
may not be aware of how much material is available, and how much poor quality or
irrelevant material is posted online.
Try these seven
steps outlined below for a simple and effective search strategy to find
information for your research paper, project or presentation. Depending
on your topic and your familiarity with the library, you can adapt this
outline for your needs.
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Identify and
Focus Your Topic
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Find Background Information
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Use Catalogs To Find Books and Media
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Find Internet
Resources
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Use Databases to
find Periodical Articles
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Evaluate What You
Find
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Document Your
Sources
Getting started
- 5 page companion guide (PDF)
Need help with research beyond Worcester State? Try
Mass Answers - a
free 24/7 reference and research
service. Chat live, in real time any time of the day or night with a librarian, and then receive a transcript by
e-mail with links to all web sites mentioned in your session. The link
above first takes you to a screen explaining the service before you
connect to a librarian, so don't be afraid to click on the link to learn
more about this fantastic free research service.
Any questions about the Worcester State College Library and its
resources? Don't hesitate to
E-mail
library@worcester.edu
Step 1: Identify and Focus Your Topic
Identify the main concepts or keywords in your question. For example, if
your topic is: What effect does use of alcoholic beverages have on
the health of college students? Then
your keywords or concepts would be: alcohol,
health, and college students.
-
If
you are finding too much information and too many
sources, narrow your topic by using the AND operator. For example:
alcohol
AND health AND college students.
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Finding
too little information may indicate that you
need to broaden your topic. Link similar topics with the
OR operator. For example, look for information on
college OR university students. (alcohol OR beer
OR liquor) AND (college OR university) students.
An excellent source for help in narrowing or expanding your topic is the
search engine
Ask -
It is newly revamped with far more relevant results than other search
engines. Look in the left menu to narrow or
expand your search. ASK will also link you to a definition for most
topics - not that you will want to include a dictionary type definition
in your final paper, but at this stage it will help you clarify exactly
what your focus is that you'll be writing about.
Need help in focusing your topic and starting to write? The Online
Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University has a great page on
starting to write your paper.
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Step 2: Find
Background Information
You might
need to get a
better
sense of what you are looking
for so you will need to do some
background research
first. Start with sources on the
Reference Shelf
for dictionaries, encyclopedias, statistical sources, biographies, maps,
etc.
There are also links to
reputable organizations and associations so that you can verify the
authority of websites that you encounter on the Net.
-
Books are a great way to find
overviews of your topic: whether you know a lot or a little about
your topic, an overview can help you organize complex topics in order to
narrow or expand your specific focus. Books also give historical
perspective, and offer more in-depth information than you will find
on the surface Web.
-
Check
the bibliography in the book for references to more material
on your topic.
Additional background may be found in your lecture notes, textbooks and
reserve readings. Don't hesitate to seek out your professor for his/her
help and suggestions in setting the right context for your research.
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Step 3:
Use Catalogs to
Find Books and Media
Begin
with what we already own by clicking on the
Library Catalog link
located at the top of every library website screen. Search under keyword first - when you find a title you like, open the
holdings screen for that title, scroll down and click on the subject heading
link. This is the more precise terminology, and
it's a way to bring together material related by
concept, not just random keywords. There
is a 2 page
PDF
Quick
Start guide to help you
find what you need in our catalog.
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 All
journal titles owned by WSC are now listed in the online catalog.
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Also use the online catalog to
renew your books
online
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Use
the tab for Course Reserves in the catalog to see a list of what articles,
books and videos your professors have put on reserve in the Library
We use
the
Library of Congress Classification System to organize our books - a
combination of letters and numbers. You can browse the shelves by call
number to get a good picture of what books the library has related to
your topic. Floor Plans:
2nd floor |
3rd floor
If we don't have something you need, check out the links for
Other Libraries. There are links to
individual libraries as well as online catalogs for groups of libraries
across the country. Remember, you can have access to most area college
libraries by getting a Worcester consortium
ARC card at the Circulation Desk in the Library.
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Step 4:
Find Internet Resources
The Web is a great place to
find background material for your research. But information found
on the Web is not a substitute for library resources. You should plan on
using information from the Web to better inform you about your topic,
but your professor probably won't let you cite it in your research.
There are
three ways to make better use of search engines for your research. Don't
just use the simple search box on the home page of any search engine to
find
research - quality material.
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Yahoo!
Click on
"More Yahoo Services" to use the
Yahoo Directory.
Scan the subject tree method of organization to find
selected and evaluated sites instead of single random pages. You can
also choose a button to search only in the broad subject area - this
is like having a subject-specialized search engine for say,
education or science etc.
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Google.
If you want to
use a search engine to find better quality sources, dig deeper with
Google Scholar. Click on "More
Services" on the Google home page to find this search tool. It searches
only dot edu domains and scholarly publisher websites. It also finds
books on your topic as well as research articles. But you'll have to
click on the find in a library link to
see if we own a book, and use our databases for the full text of the
articles.
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Use directories and
subject specialized resources. If you're going to travel the
information superhighway, then go with a guide to find the best
sites on the Internet. The best ones are prepared by experts in the
field or librarians across the country and can be found on our
web directories page. Search in fairly
broad terms as you are searching their smaller index of
selected, quality sites - not the Internet at large.
Remember to always evaluate what you find on the
Surface Web when you are using search engines for research purposes.
Also read Step 6 below.
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Step 5: Use
Databases to Find Periodical Articles
Searching
for scholarly articles is a little like being a detective. You first
have to know where to look. After you have located some background
information in books and on the free surface Web, you are ready to
search the library's
databases.
Why
use databases for research?
Most scholarly information is not freely available on the
Internet. Library Databases index electronic versions of articles from
traditional print magazines and journals – these are the kinds of
sources that your instructors expect you to use. They are the same as
the article printed on paper, only the format has changed.
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Choose the databases
best suited to your particular topic. If you need help figuring out
which database to use, consult our list of subject
guides arranged under broad categories such as criminal justice, art,
psychology, sociology, etc. There is also a guide for General
and multi-disciplinary
coverage which you can use to get started in library research. These guides
link to
selected
and evaluated material worthy of inclusion in your research.
They also link you to specialized
web directories, or subject guides prepared by experts in the field who
guide you to the best online resources.
- The WSC subscription databases are the place to
find primary material, scholarly
peer reviewed
journals that professors demand for your research. These are
resources that can't be found using search engines as they are available
only by subscription to libraries. The databases have advanced search features
such as the capability to combine searches for very precise results.
And, of course, many of these databases also have large collections of full text
articles that you can print out.
Because these indexes
to scholarly material can perform very complex searching, they are not
always easy to use. If you run into problems and have a question about
the use of library databases, don't hesitate to E-mail
library@worcester.edu
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Remember that
there are different types of materials that can be useful to your
research, and each may require different methods of searching to find and
use it effectively. For example, you may need to find publications by
scholarly organizations, or use
newspapers to find current
information and editorial opinions, or
government reports for statistics and other reliable information. Be
able to recognize the different types of published material such as
journals,
magazines and newspapers - and how each type can be useful in your
research.
Articles not available
full text online? Books not owned by Worcester State? Then use the
Interlibrary Loan service which
borrows books or obtains photocopies of articles for you. There are
online forms available for your convenience in submitting requests. This
service is limited to use by the WSC community.
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Step
6: Evaluate What You
Find
When you are
engaged in the research
process, you want to limit
your searching to quality, reliable, credible and accurate sites.
Who can you trust?
There are no filters online like there are for
published books and articles. The Web is a self-publishing medium so anyone can publish anything online
- and they do. Content on the Internet
(Web) ranges from good to awful;
accurate to downright wrong, misleading or dangerous.
When you use search engines, you're only crawling the surface of the
billions of individual web pages posted online.
Always examine websites
with a critical eye, especially those you encounter for the first time.
Using the Internet for research requires different
standards. Search smarter by using our checklist of 5 criteria for
Evaluating
Web Sites.
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Step
7: Document Your Sources
Using a Standard
Format
 As
you progress through the different steps in the research process, you must
remember to copy the correct citation for each source you use - you will
need it again later.
When you
organize your resources into a reference list and bibliography, you must
list them in correct format. Don't be
guilty of
plagiarism,
even if it is by accident, simply because you don't know how to credit your
sources. Even if you don't use exact quotes from material you consult, you must
credit the ideas. This not only avoids plagiarism, but is good scholarly
practice!
See this site's links to online guides for
Citing
Online Sources
with examples of correct format. These are available 24X7 whenever you need them. You can search by the most
popular formats: MLA, APA, Turabian, and Chicago. There are also general
guides that help you set up your paper correctly too.
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