This document provides an overview of resources and services available from Courtney Fuson, a librarian at Belmont University, to help students identify and locate scholarly resources for research. It discusses how to recognize scholarly sources, search subject databases and the library catalog, evaluate sources, and format citations and bibliographies. Contact information is provided to ask the librarian for research help.

1. Courtney Fuson
615-460-5492
courtney.fuson@belmont.edu

2.  How to recognize scholarly resources
 How to locate subject-specific databases
 How to effectively search the library’s databases
 How to distinguish between different citations
 How to use a bibliography (or works cited) to
identify potential sources

3.  AKA “peer reviewed”, “refereed”, “journal
articles”
 discipline-specific
 peer-reviewed
 written on a higher reading level
 written by a credentialed author
 cite their sources

4.  Internet
 Google?
 Google Scholar?
 Wikipedia? – References list?
 Library
 Catalog?
 Databases?

5.  Library catalog
 Provides access to everything the library owns
 Books
 Journals
 E-books
 Databases
 Media

6.  Collection of newspaper, magazine and journal
articles
 Can include dissertations, reports and other
resources
 http://library.belmont.edu
 Click on Databases
 Scroll down and click on Education to see all of the
education resources

7.  Keyword searching
 Boolean Searching
 AND
 OR
 Subject searching
 Thesaurus

8. Supreme
education
Court
Supreme Court AND education

9. inclusion
special
mainstreaming
education
inclusion OR mainstreaming OR special education

10.  Supreme Court AND education
 inclusion OR special education OR
mainstreaming
 public schools AND (inclusion OR
mainstreaming OR special education)
 “special education”

11.  list of subjects and related terms used to
standardize the descriptions of articles in the
database.
 You can select and search for synonyms,
related, and preferred terms.

12.  Government Documents
 Department of Education (state & federal)
 Statistics
 National Center for Education Statistics
 National Assessment of Educational Progress
 Nation’s Report Card
 Census Bureau
 http://delicious.com/library_chic/belmontedu

13. Great! I found some stuff! Now what?

14.  Is the information reliable?
 How do you know?

15.  Is the author identified?
 What are the author’s credentials?
 Are the credentials relevant to the topic?

16.  Is there a date?
 If it’s older information, is it still accurate?

17.  Why is this information being presented?
 Who is the intended audience?

18.  Is the author or organization biased?
 Does the source represent both sides of the
issue?
 What is the tone of the source?

19.  Is it a…
 Book
 Book chapter
 Article
 Dissertation
 Report

20.  Kember, David. Action Learning and Action
Research: Improving the Quality of Teaching
and Learning. London: Kogan Page. 2000.

21.  CUBCat (the library’s catalog)
 Title search
 Kember, David. Action Learning and Action
Research: Improving the Quality of Teaching
and Learning. London: Kogan Page. 2000.

22.  D’Amato, John. “The Belly of the Beast: On
Cultural Difference, Castelike Statues and the
Politics of School.” Anthropolgy and Education
Quarterly, 18.4 (1987): 357-360

23.  CUBCat (the library’s catalog)
 Journal Title
 D’Amato, John. “The Belly of the Beast: On
Cultural Difference, Castelike Statues and the
Politics of School.” Anthropolgy and Education
Quarterly, 18.4 (1987): 357-360
 .

24.  Getty, Jacob. A School Action Plan with
Stakeholder Involvement: A Case Study of One
Elementary School. Diss. Wilmington University
(Delaware), 2011.

25.  Usually availably only through InterLibrary Loan
 ProQuest lists many dissertations (ProQuest
Dissertations & Abstracts)
 Library catalog of the publishing university
 WorldCat (http://worldcat.org)
 Getty, Jacob. A School Action Plan with
Stakeholder Involvement: A Case Study of One
Elementary School. Diss. Wilmington University
(Delaware), 2011.

26.  King, Martha L., and Rentel, Victor M. How
children learn to write: A longitudinal study.
Report to the National Institute of Education,
Washington, D. C. 1981.

27.  Try the publishing agency’s website
 Try Google or Google Scholar
 Try a subject-specific database
 King, Martha L., and Rentel, Victor M. How
children learn to write: A longitudinal study.
Report to the National Institute of Education,
Washington, D. C. 1981.

29.  Eisenhard, Margaret and Borko, Hilda.
Designing Classroom Research: Themes,
Issues, and Struggles. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
1993.

30.  Saul, Wendy, and J. Carrie Launius. "Making the
Case for ACTION Research." Science
Scope 34.1 (2010): 24-29.

31.  Turner, Susan A. "Teaching research to
teachers: A self-study of course design, student
outcomes, and instructor learning." Journal of
the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning 10.2
(2010): 60-77.

32.  In person – 3rd floor
 Office hours: M-F 8am-4:30pm
(other times available by appointment)
 Via email – courtney.fuson@belmont.edu
 By phone – 615-460-5492
 Online
 AIM: a2003librarychic
 Yahoo!: librarychic2003
 Hotmail: library_chic@hotmail.com
 Gmail/Jabber: librarian.courtney@gmail.com

33.  Library Home page: http://library.belmont.edu
 Education Resources -
http://belmont.libguides.com/education
 Today’s slides: http://slideshare.net/library_chic
 More education resources -
http://delicious.com/library_chic/belmontedu