Further questions to ask yourself –
Am I looking for very specific information to support arguments in an essay?
Do I need up-to-the-minute research? Or historical information?
What type of resources do I need to use?
Books, journal articles, government documents?
Now you are ready to consult the library resources
Now that you have your research topic and questions you can begin to look for books in the library catalogue and articles in the library databases
If you need books you will need to use the library catalogue: WorldCat
If you need journal articles you should go to the library databases.
However, you need to think of words that will cover the concepts or questions that you want to answer in your paper.
First – identify key concepts and terms in your research question.
“What are the behavioral effects of television violence on preschool children?
Second – think of related terms for these concepts
Behavioural effects – acting out, conduct
Television – TV, prime time
Violence – aggression, brutality, cruelty
Preschool children – toddlers, tots, infants, kids
AND – narrows and locates items that have ALL your search terms
Television AND violence AND preschool children
OR – broadens and locates items that have ANY of your terms
Violence OR aggression OR brutality
NOT – excludes items that eliminates a concept
Children NOT teenagers
Look for subject headings that can use the same words in the catalogue and in the databases
Keyword: searches the catalogue in your own words
It’s easy to do – but you may find a lot of unrelated items
Subject: looks for words the catalogue uses to describe your topic. You will get a more accurate results with these words – the downside is that you will need to find the terms that will match your topic
Advanced keyword: lets you limit to certain kinds of material, combine words, limit by year, etc. You can be as specific as you want using this, however, if you use too many limits, you may get very few results
Similar to the library catalogue – search for keyword, author, title, subject, year, etc. You can limit your search as well by format, scholarly peer-reviewed articles, date, language
Subject headings may appear as links that you can click on to find more articles, OR, they may be located in a thesaurus
DON”T FORGET TO CHECK with the LIBRARIANS.
Once you get an idea of what your research question will be, make an appointment and start asking pertinent questions to help you get the most relevant resources for your paper.