1. Welcome
Hello, my name is yourname. I am a librarian at the UMUC Information and Library Services. I'll be visiting your class date, to answer any questions you may have. For a quick overview of our resources, check out our ONLINE LIBRARY TOUR (audio/visual). To help you with your courses, UMUC Information and Library Services provide:
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For more information about any of these library services, click on the links above
or visit the Information and Library Services'
Website. Web address:
2. Starting
Your Research
When beginning a research project
it may help you to:
Collecting some background information on a topic may help you focus your search. For background information on a topic, consult an encyclopedia (like the Encyclopedia Britannica or Access Science) or try a search using some of your key search terms in a Web search tool such as Google or Yahoo.
Defining Your Topic
You may have been assigned a general topic, or thought of one on your own. Often, assigned topics are broad and you may need to think about how you can narrow the scope of the topic. Narrowing a broad topic will help you conduct more effective and efficient research. Listed below are some tips to get you started with this very important step in the research process. The time you spend on this step can save you hours of frustration when searching for information!
An example of a broad topic is "eating disorders." This topic can be narrowed by considering specific aspects. For example:
To identify specific aspects, ask yourself questions about your topic. You could also try a few quick searches in a library database using broad search terms. However, continued searching with general terms may become overwhelming. For example, a search using eating disorders as a keyword could retrieve over 7,000 results!
Keep in mind that a search that is too narrow may not work well either, and may require that you broaden the focus of your search. See Module 1: Step 4 of the library's Research Skills Tutorial for more tips on how to narrow or broaden a topic.
Creating a Research Question
Once you have decided on a
topic, try to express it as a research question. Your research question should be
more specific and more focused than your initial topic.
The following are some examples of research questions:
Remember that this is all part of a process. As you learn more about your topic, you may need to adjust your research question.
Search
Basics
Once
you have developed a research question and selected a database, you are ready to
search. Consider the key concepts of your research question. In one of the example
research questions above, "Is there a relationship between
media exposure and eating disorders in adolescent girls?",
the main concepts are media, eating
disorders, and adolescent girls.
These terms can be used in to create a search statement: media AND eating
disorders AND adolescent girls
To be sure the database includes all of your terms in a search, use the Boolean connector AND between search terms. You won't know whether your search will work well until you actually are searching in a database. Because there are different sources in different library databases, a particular search may work well in one information source and poorly in another. Therefore, it is important to be flexible. You may need to adjust your search statement depending on the size and relevancy of the results. Also, check your spelling!
Broaden a Search
To broaden your search and increase the number of results, use the Boolean operator
OR to include additional terms or synonyms, or take our one or more keywords. In
the following example, the search has been broadened using these strategies:
media AND (eating
disorders OR anorexia) AND female
A good way to find additional or alternative keywords is to look for subject terms (also called descriptors), keywords in abstracts, and other elements of citations.
Once you have decided on a search strategy, you need to consider an appropriate resource for your topic. An overview of library resources can be found in the next conference topic.
UMUC subscribes to more than 125 databases that provide journal, newspaper, and magazine articles as well as other types of information. Many of the databases contain full-text articles that can be accessed and read online. You can find suggested databases on particular topics by consulting the Information and Library Services' Search by Subject section. For help in searching by subject see Subject Guide Help.
Basic Database Access DirectionsFor a helpful overview of the
steps to finding journal articles, consult the library's guide to Finding
Articles: Using Library Databases. If you have any
questions, you can post inquiries using the Questions topic in this conference
or e-mail your questions to library@umuc.edu.
For more contact options, see our Ask
a Librarian page.
For information about the difference between scholarly, professional, and popular
journals, see the library's guide on Identifying
and Locating Scholarly Journals.
Suggested Databases
If you are not sure where to
start, the following are general/multidisciplinary library databases that will have
articles on a variety of topics:
1. Academic
Search Premier
2. Expanded
Academic ASAP
3. LexisNexis
Academic
4. WilsonSelect
Finding Full-Text Articles
As you search the library databases, you will find articles available in full-text that can be viewed online in HTML or in Adobe Acrobat PDF formats. The PDF format provides a copy of the full article as it appears in a print journal. The HTML format may not have graphs or images, but it generally displays more quickly in a Web browser. To view an article, click on either HTML full-text or PDF full-text links. In the citation example below, you will find examples of such links:
In some cases, full-text links
may not be available. Instead, when you click the linked title of the article, you
may only find a citation and/or abstract. The resources listed below ("find
it", JournalFinder, and DocumentExpress) may help you locate the full-text of
an article when there are no full-text links available.
Using "find it" (or
SFX)
If HTML or PDF full-text links are not available for an article, you may see a 
button
instead. The "find it" button allows you to find out if the article is
available in full-text in another library database. In the example below, full-text
links were not available in Academic Search Premier for the listed article. By using
the "find it" button, the full-text of the article was found in the library
database called ScienceDirect.
Using the
JournalFinder (Citation Linker)
There may be times when you want
to find an article from a specific publication, but you do not know which database
to use. You can use a search feature called JournalFinder to find out which database
indexes the publication for which you are looking.
button.If you need assistance using Journal Finder to find full-text articles, refer to the help at the bottom of the Journal Finder page or ask a librarian for assistance.
Using
Jake
Jake is another tool
for locating full-text availability of journals in databases, but it is not specific
to UMUC. After you identify a particular database from a Jake search, check the Library
Databases and Selected E-journals by Title list to see if UMUC subscribes.
Get it Delivered and DocumentExpress
If you are unable to find the full-text of an article in the library databases, you can submit a DocumentExpress request by clicking on the Request document via DocumentExpress link from a "find it" screen or filling out the DocumentExpress: Request an Article form. Journal articles can be delivered electronically or by mail. You can read more about DocumentExpress please see our DocumentExpress policy and procedures.
UMUC purchases electronic books (e-books) for your use from several sources including netLibrary, a vendor of e-books to libraries. All netLibrary titles owned by UMUC can be accessed by searching the netLibrary database. Some netLibrary titles owned by UMUC are listed in the USMAI library catalog as well. To learn more about finding e-books in the catalog, see our guide to Using the Catalog. To learn more about finding e-books in general, see the guides linked from our E-Books Web page.
To search for an e-book using UMUC e-book resources, from the library home page click on the E-Books link listed under the "Find Articles, Books, More" heading. On the following page, click on, for example, the link for netLibrary. You may be prompted for your login information. If so, enter your last name and either your 14-digit barcode number or your social security number. Next, on the netLibrary basic search page, type in search terms in the keyword search box. You could try, for example, the keyword encyclopedia to find encyclopedias available to you online.
catalogUSMAI is the library catalog for the University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions (USMAI). Most of the materials that you find in the catalogUSMAI are printed materials located in University System of Maryland libraries and libraries at affiliated institutions in Maryland. Besides visiting one of the USMAI libraries in Maryland, there are some different pick-up and delivery options available to you depending on your location.
Location: Maryland: If you are a currently registered UMUC student and are located in Maryland, you can request circulating USMAI materials and have them sent to a USMAI library for pick-up. You can also have materials sent to affiliated educational centers in Waldorf, MD, and Annapolis, MD. For more information, see Using the Library Catalog.
Location: Continental U.S., outside of Maryland: If you are a currently registered UMUC student and you are located in the continental U.S., but not in Maryland, you can request circulating USMAI materials and have them sent to your home address. For more information, see Using the Library Catalog.
Location: Outside of Continental U.S.: If you are a currently registered UMUC student and you are located overseas, you can search and find books in the USMAI catalog. You will not be able to get a book shipped to an overseas location and you will not be able to log in to a USMAI account. However, if you see a book that looks interesting you can use DocumentExpress to request part of the contents (maximum 20%) of a book to be copied and delivered to you electronically. The 20% restriction is due to copyright limitations. Before you make your request, we would be happy to send you an electronic copy of the table of contents or index of the book. For more information, please see our guide to getting items delivered outside the continental United States.
For more information on how to use the catalogUSMAI, please see our Using the Library Catalog tutorial.
Technical Problems
If you have any trouble accessing a library database, you may want to consult the Information and Library Services Technical Help page. You are also welcome to contact us if you have questions about accessing a library resource. Please see our Ask a Librarian page for contact options.
4. Evaluating What You Find
Evaluating the materials you find is an important part of the research process. There is timely and excellent information available on the Internet but evaluating the quality of the sources of information can be challenging. Consult the guide to Evaluating Internet Resources for some criteria to help you evaluate what you find on the Internet. You may also want to consult the library's guide called Using the Web for Research.
Types of Sources Available
By using library databases rather than searching Web pages on the Internet, you increase
your chances of finding quality research sources. UMUC library databases include
scholarly publications evaluated by experts in the field, as well as directories,
encyclopedias, and other kinds of information typically available in an academic
library. As you search the library databases, you will come across articles from
a range of publications, some from newspapers, popular magazines, trade publications,
and scholarly journals. While newspapers (such as The Washington Post and The
New York Times) and popular magazines (such as Science News, Time, and Psychology
Today) might be appropriate sources in some cases or for background information,
you should find scholarly articles, also referred to as refereed or peer-reviewed,
to support your academic research.
What is Scholarly
Literature?
Literature written by researchers, professors, or students and then reviewed by experts
in the field is typically called scholarly. Examples of scholarly journals include American
Journal of Psychology, Modern Fiction Studies, and Sloan Management
Review. The terms peer reviewed or refereed are
also often used to describe scholarly journals. They are sometimes also called research
journals or academic journals. Strictly speaking, not all scholarly journals are
refereed, but the terms are often used interchangeably. You can find a detailed definition
of a refereed article at http://www.unf.edu/library/guides/refereedarticle.html.
Evaluating Articles and
Determining if an Article is Scholarly
For articles found in the
library's databases, below are some general evaluation criteria to consider.1
When you examine the content of the article, things to look for include:
For more guidance on determining the difference between the various types of literature, see the Information and Library Services' guide to Identifying and Locating Scholarly Journals.
If you find a journal article and you are not sure what type of publication it is from, you can check in the periodicals directory called Ulrich's Periodicals Directory (under U on the Articles & More: Library Databases and E-Journals page). Ulrich's does not contain articles. Instead, it lists information about journals. If you know the exact title, enter the title of the journal in the search box, then select "Title (Exact)" in the dropdown menu and click on the Submit button. In the results list, click on the hyperlinked publication title. On the following page, look under the field called "Document Type". You will see the words "academic/scholarly" if the journal is scholarly (remember scholarly is not always synonymous with refereed). You may also see other document types such as consumer, etc. that indicates the publication should be considered as popular press.
Locating Scholarly
Journals
The library databases provided by the UMUC Information and Library Services contain
thousands of scholarly research journals. You may also be able to find some full-text
scholarly journals using a Web search engine. However, Web search engines can produce
many thousands of results that are not scholarly research journals. These results
would need to be carefully evaluated to assess their scholarly research value, and
you may be better off to try a search in the library databases.
Many library databases allow you to limit your search to scholarly journals. These include:
Any of these databases can be accessed from the Articles & More: Library Databases and E-Journals page.
Other databases may not have
a feature that lets you search for scholarly publications only, but they may nonetheless
contain scholarly journals. For example, most of the journals indexed in PsycARTICLES and ScienceDirect are
considered scholarly. Please note that publication in a scholarly or refereed journal
does not necessarily guarantee a particular article has been refereed or peer reviewed.
For example, scholarly journals may publish book reviews or editorial commentary
that do not undergo a peer review or referee process.
1The above criteria are based in part
on Cornell University Library's "Seven Steps to Effective Library Research" (http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/tutorial.html).
5. A Quick Exercise
Try this exercise to practice using some of the resources presented in this conference.
___Post your exercise answers as a response to this conference topic.
___Be sure to post the name of the database you selected and a keyword combination you tried.
Please post any questions or comments related to this exercise as a response to this topic.
6a. Citing Your Sources MLA Style
An important step in any research project is the accurate citing of the sources you consulted. Citing materials can be a challenging step in preparing a research paper but can be made easier by
It is important that you learn how to effectively manage and cite information you collect during your research. Otherwise, you could unintentionally commit plagiarism.
It's a good practice to keep a record of all sources consulted in whatever format works best for you, such as an electronic log of sources consulted or note cards. Many databases allow you to capture a record of your search strategy and the results of the search. Check the help screens of a database to see what features it offers for downloading the results of your searching.
When citing a source, you need to include all of the relevant information the reader of your paper needs to locate the source. Different citation styles have different formatting rules. In this course, you will be using MLA style. To familiarize yourself with MLA style, start with the library tutorial. The tutorial will help you with both citing within your text and creating your works-cited list:
MLA Citation Style links:
For a more comprehensive treatment
of MLA style including examples for print resources, see the print manual:
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers
of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: Modern Language Association, 2003.
6b. Citing Your Sources APA Style
An important step in any research project is the accurate citing of the sources you consulted. Citing materials can be a challenging step in preparing a research paper but can be made easier by
It is important that you learn how to effectively manage and cite information you collect during your research. Otherwise, you could unintentionally commit plagiarism.
It's a good practice to keep a record of all sources consulted in whatever format works best for you, such as an electronic log of sources consulted or note cards. Many databases allow you to capture a record of your search strategy and the results of the search. Check the help screens of a database to see what features it offers for downloading the results of your searching.
When citing a source, you need to include all of the relevant information the reader of your paper needs to locate the source. Different citation styles have different formatting rules, but for this course, you will be using APA citation style. The following UMUC resources will help you get started:
You may also find the following resources useful:
For a more comprehensive treatment of APA style including examples for print resources, see the print manual:
Do you have any questions about library services and resources?
Would you like help with choosing a library database?
Do you need help determining your topic?
Are you not finding what you need?
Please ask your questions here. I'll be visiting your classroom periodically during this week, and I'll be happy to answer your questions.