This document provides an agenda for a library instruction session. It outlines topics to be covered including using the library catalog to find books, understanding subject headings and keywords, advanced database searching techniques, finding full-text articles, interlibrary loans, hand searching references, and using Google more effectively for research. It also provides tips and examples for searching the library catalog and databases, evaluating sources, and citing references.

2. Agenda
•
Learn to use the library catalog to find books from Pace and
other libraries
•
Understand the difference between key words and subject
headings
•
Learn advanced database searching, including using Boolean
operators
•
Learn how to find the full-text of articles
•
Get library barcodes and create InterLibrary loan accounts
•
Gain a basic understanding of hand searching
•
Learn how to use Google more effectively

3. Getting started
0 Who has a library barcode?
0 If you don’t have a barcode (or you don’t have it with
you) place your Pace ID in the basket as it goes around

4. Using the library catalog
0 There are two ways to search the library catalog:
0 From the library home page: www.pace.edu/library
Search Plus
(Encore)
Classic
Catalog

5. Tips for using Search Plus
(Encore) to search the catalog
0 Use the tags on the right to narrow your search
0 When you find a book that looks helpful, look at the Subjects for
similar books
0 If you need books that are immediately available to you, click on
“Birnbaum Stacks” on the left
0 Note E-book options as well
0 Use Request It button to have books sent to NYC from other Pace campuses
0 While you’re browsing, you can click on the “Add to List” link to keep
track of items you were interested in
0 Use the “My List” button at the top right to access your list. You can e-mail the list to yourself.
0 Use the ConnectNY button to find resources from other universities
0 Note: you need your library barcode to request books from ConnectNY
0 Note: Encore will also give you results from a few databases, but it’s
hard to narrow them down using this interface

6. Understanding Subject
Headings
0 Subject headings are:
0 Controlled vocabulary: carefully selected list of words and
phrases, which are used to tag units of information (document
or work) so that they may be more easily retrieved by a search
(Wikipedia)
0 Assigned by a human indexer
0 Can be broad or narrow
0 Entry terms lead to the exact subject heading
0 There are many kinds of subject headings:
0 Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/
0 Medical Subject Headings (MeSH): http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/
0 Database specific subject headings

7. Beyond Pace and ConnectNY
0 If neither Pace nor Connect NY has the book you need
0 Try the public library
0 New York Public Library: nypl.org
0 Brooklyn Public Library: brooklynpubliclibrary.org
0 Queens Public Library: queenslibrary.org
0 WorldCat
0 Access from the library databases page
0 Use Request ILLiad-Complete Form link
0 Note: can take more than 2 weeks
0 Metro Pass
0 If you know the book or article you need is at another
NYC university, ask at the Information desk for a Metro
pass

8. Independent practice
0 10 min: Use Encore and/ or the classic catalog to look
for books on your topic

9. Library Databases
0 General Databases:
0 Academic Search Premier
0 Jstor
0 New York Times Archive
0 Accounting
0 Accounting and Tax Database
0 RIA Tax Information
0 Computer Science
0 ACM Digital Library
0 Note SIGS for Computer Graphics
and Computers and Society
0 Computing
0 IEEE Computer Society Digital Library
0 Criminal Justice
0 Criminal Justice Collection
0 Criminal Justice Periodicals
0 Hein Online (for law journals)
0 Economics
0 ABI Inform
0 OxResearch
0 Marketing
0 AdAge Data Center
0 Adforum (examples of
advertisements)
0 Communication & Mass Media
Complete
0 Psychology:
0 CINAHL
0 Pubmed (prefer to Medline via Ebsco)
0 PsycInfo
0 Theater, Film & Literature
0 International Bibliography of Theater
and Dance
0 International Index to Performing
Arts
0 Literature Resource Center

10. Crafting your search strategy
0 Step 1: Write your basic topic question
0 Step 2: Pull out the main ideas from your topic
0 Eg: Topic:
Human trafficking in relation to the global economy and the
financial crisis
Main ideas:
Human Trafficking
Economy
Financial crisis

11. Crafting your search strategy
0 Step 3: Brainstorm synonyms for your main ideas
Concept A
Concept B
Concept C
“Human trafficking”
Economy
“Financial crisis”
“Forced labor”
Business
“Economic crisis”
Slavery
“Economic aspects”
Recession
0 Note: your search is not static. Try different search
terms and different combinations of search terms and
compare the results

12. Crafting your search strategy
0 Step 4: Combine your search terms with Boolean
operators
Eg:
(“human trafficking” OR “forced labor” OR slavery) AND
(econom* OR business) AND (“financial crisis” OR
“economic crisis” OR recession)
• *: retrieves all alternate endings, eg. economy,
economic
• Place phrases in quotation marks
• Use parentheses to separate OR terms

13. Database Search Strategies
0 If you can, use the limits the database provides to narrow
your search
0 Eg. Publication type, publication date, subject, etc.
0 Limit to Scholarly Articles
0 Jstor- limit to Article and journals in the relevant disciplines
0 NY Times Archive: limit by date and limit to Article

14. To get the full text of an
article
0 Use the
button
Click here for the
full text
Click here to request
the article

15. Independent Practice
0 10 min: Try searching Academic Search Premier for
your topic
0 Let me know if you don’t find anything and I can suggest
a different database

16. Hand Searching
0 Mining a list of references for more sources
0 Watch the video for more information:
0 http://youtu.be/IicVsNIe-K0
0 If it’s a book, search for the book title in the library
catalog
0 If it’s an article search for the journal or publication title
using Journal Title Search
0 If Pace doesn’t have access to the journal you can fill out an
Interlibrary Loan request

17. Hand Searching

18. Google Scholar
scholar.google.com
• Configure your settings to show articles available from
Pace
• Video tutorial: http://youtu.be/MRFYjeNrFPM
• Use Metrics and # of citations to judge influence of a
journal, article or book

19. General Google Searching
0 Get More Out of Google:
http://tinyurl.com/bmhugdj
0 Evaluating websites:
0 Who is the author? What are their credentials?
0 Who publishes the site? What is their agenda/bias?
0 Look for date updated, make sure it’s current
0 Note: .org doesn’t mean there’s no bias
0 Look for “About” link

20. Citation Resources
0 On the library home page, use the How do I? link and then Cite
Resources
0 The Bedford Handbook:
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/
0 Purdue OWL: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
0zotero.org: free citation manager from Mozilla, the
makers of Firefox
0Questions? :
0E-mail Jennifer: jrosenstein@pace.edu

21. Wrapping up
0Please fill out a brief, anonymous
evaluation:
0http://tinyurl.com/n9lgu9x