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Library research begins with a topic on which you want to find books, articles, and authoritative web documents. Library, or "information fluency" skills will help you meet criteria for research and scholarly form used by Averett faculty to evaluate essays and term papers.
The research process for a paper is much like that for an oral presentation:
1. Select a topic and scope it out in books (search the Averett Library Catalog and WorldCat database), articles, and statistical databases (search Academic OneFile or select databases from Subject Research Guides).
Academic OneFile is a good general starting point for articles. It contains many peer reviewed sources. You can restrict searches to retrieve only articles that have been approved for publication by a panel of experts. Librarians recommend however that juniors, seniors, and graduate students who are:
- biology and chemistry majors consider BioOne for environmental science, and the many open source peer reviewed journal services listed on the research guides for Biology and Chemistry,
- business majors find extended coverage in ABI Inform or Business Source Premier,
- education majors also search ERIC,
- English majors consult professors or librarians on use of Literature Resource Center, Literature Online, and the MLA International Bibliography,
- physical education majors also search SportDiscus,
- psychology majors also search PsycInfo,
- religion majors also search ATLA Religion Index ,
- sociology majors also search Sociological Abstracts.
Sources for data and statistics vary by subject area. Ask a reference librarian for sources of data on your topic, or click on "Statistics" links in science and social science subject research guides.
Professors may encourage you to consult primary sources, such as historical documents or unpublished manuscripts. The Averett Library archives contain primary source materials on regional history. Librarians at the reference desk can help you locate reproductions of primary source documents, many of which are available in digital libraries.
Averett librarians recommend that you save time and effort by recording citations and notes for the most helpful sources as you discover them. See annotated bibliography for details.
2. If your professor approves, include authoritative web sources (for example, from Google Scholar@Averett or Google). Cite web sources only if:
- author name and affiliation are displayed
- the information is accurate and conclusions are supported
- the author acknowledges the research and ideas of others
- the information addresses one or more aspects of your topic
- the web site does not indicate political or social bias (unless, of course, you are studying media bias)
- you have gathered a variety of sources (books, articles, data or statistics, and web sites)
For detailed evaluation guidelines see Thinking Critically About World Wide Web Resources, and Thinking Critically about Discipline-Based World Wide Web Resources
3. Focus your topic, create an outline of your narrative, and select from your annotated bibliography, representative sources supporting your thesis: your ideas and perspective on the topic.
Take care to cite all of sources quoted or supporting your narrative. This will allow your readers to consult the same books, articles, and web documents you used. For more information, see Annotated Bibliography, MLA Citation Style, and APA Citation Style.
For additional assistance, contact the Reference Desk, Academic Resource and Writing Centers, or the Online Writing Lab (GPS students). |
