Library Research

1. Library Research

2. What we’re going to cover • What is research? • Internet research • Looking for books • Here and at Dominguez Hills • Looking for magazine and journal articles • Library Databases

3. Do you have an assignment to write a research paper but you’re not sure where to start? Begin by carefully reading the assignment requirements. This will help you understand the work you need to do. Ask your teacher about anything you’re not clear about before you get started. First, let’s think about what we mean when we say “research.”

4. Research Gathering information from authoritative sources: • pertinent books, • encyclopedias, and • articles in magazines, journals, and magazines.

5. The research process: • Have a topic • Focus on your topic by : • Asking yourself: how much do I know about the topic? • Making a list of terms related to the topic • Making a list of questions related to the topic. • Form your hypothesis or guess answers to the questions you made; • If you are ready to find out whether your guesses are correct, then you are ready to start your research.

6. Approaches to Research • Question: • How does divorce affect children? • Topic: • Effects on violence on TV on children • Hypothesis: • Birth order affects personality

7. Words to use in searching • Children • Children • Teens • Teenagers • Divorce • Broken homes

8. Relationship of the parts of the topic to each other Agriculture or Farm* or Crops or Orchards Use OR to group synonyms together Pesticides or Insecticides Use AND to combine the parts of the topic Using the * will ask the computer to search for farm, farms, farming, farmers… Soil or Groundwater

9. To gather information about your research You have your topic and you know what you do not know In other words you have identified what things you must find out You are ready

10. Resources

11. Information from the Internet –The Internet Provides a Good Place to Begin… But… Are published instantly without anyone checking or validating the correct information; Anybody can write a webpage You yourself must evaluate the authority of the author or the source of information; Information from the Internet is useful only if it matches what you found from a reliable source.

12. Guide to evaluating information from the Internet • Wolfgram Memorial Library at Widener University

13. Best move: Use BOOKS first for research • Works of known experts • The publisher validates the qualification of the writer; • Consultants study the information in the material • Editors to check the material before publication.

14. But which book should I use? How do I really start my research?

15. Use the Library Catalog to find books. TOOLS

16. Things to consider • Make sure the book you use is recent enough to provide reliable information – in politics and some sciences, things change FAST • You don’t have to rely on the Compton Library only for your books • Public libraries are great for some topics • You have borrowing privileges at Long Beach State and Dominguez Hills

17. Databases • Provide information about and sometimes links to: • Newspaper articles – for current events • Magazine articles -- for popular opinion • Scholarly journal articles -- for academic analyses

18. Which databases? • Proquest • SIRS • CQ Researcher

19. Putting them all together journals WEB Your collection of information from various resources needs to be written … books Magazines and newspapers

20. Writing your paper… INTRODUCTION BODY OF THE REPORT CONCLUSIONS Work Cited List

21. Avoiding Plagiarism

22. Ooops…what is • Plagiarism ?

23. Work Cited List • This is a listing of all the materials you used to get the information you have included in your research paper. • Visit : http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_mla.html

24. Writing the final paper EDIT YOUR PAPER The first draft The final draft

25. Good luck!

26. Created by : Eleanor Liwanag Sonidoand Anita Colby Librarians Compton Center library