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FDLS 110
This document provides information and resources for research methods at Mercer University. It introduces Florence Tang as the liaison librarian for the College of Continuing and Professional Studies. It then defines reference librarians and their role in helping students find information. The document outlines steps for background research and developing a topic. It discusses finding books using the library catalog and finding articles using databases. It provides tips for evaluating different sources of information like scholarly journals, popular magazines, and websites. Finally, it discusses interlibrary loan, citing sources, and getting tutoring help.
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FDLS 110
- 1. Research Methods Florence Tang Liaisonto the College of Continuing and Professional Studies for the Atlanta Campus 678-547-6261 tang_fy@mercer.edu
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- 5. Cornell University Librarydefinition of a reference librarian http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/vocab.html Reference Librarian Reference librarians are specialists in the field of information retrieval. Generally they have a Masters degree in library science… They are available at reference desks to help you find the information you are looking for.
- 6. Questions? Ask theReference Desk! (678) 547-6282 (Atlanta) http://libraries.mercer.edu/swilley/ reference/email-reference Reference Hours M - Th F Sat Sun 9AM-10PM 9AM-6PM 10AM-6PM 1PM-9PM Add askmercer as your buddy!
- 9. Remember to startyour research early. Not everything can be found full-text online or at all hours. o Interlibrary Loan o Interlibrary Use o Print copies of books and journals o Databases unavailable from off-campus o Reference Librarian
- 10. • Background Reading& Brainstorming • Develop the topic • Focus the topic Encyclopedias
- 11. “Scholarly” Journals • Periodicalsused by researchers to share their findings with one another and the public. • They contain articles describing new research or ideas written in a formal manner that includes background information, methods used, results/interpretation and significance. • Research articles are peerreviewed
- 12. Scholarly Journals How doI tell? • May contain graphs and charts. • Written by a scholar in the field or by someone who has done research in the field. Degrees attained and institutional affiliations are often included by the authors’ names. • Always cite their sources in the form of footnotes or bibliographies • No glossy pages or pictures • No advertisements
- 13. Examples of ScholarlyJournals
- 14. Popular Magazines How doI tell? • Slick, glossy and attractive in appearance. • Lots of graphics (photographs, drawings, etc.). • Articles are usually very short, written in simple language . • Generally little depth to the content of these articles.
- 15. Examples of PopularMagazines
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- 17. Web Sites The good… Immediate coverage of an event Access to information that is not available in print format Statistics Graphs
- 18. Websites The ugly Selfpublishing medium No filters No standard No organizers
- 19. Finding Books Use aCATALOG to find books The library catalog is called BEARCAT. http://library.mercer.edu When you search BEARCAT, you will find books that are located in the Swilley Library or another Mercer Library.
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- 22. Number of books foundwith this term
- 23. Is this bookhere now?
- 25. Links to otherbooks about your topic.
- 30. Finding Articles To findArticles, use a database or index • A database is a collection of citations for articles or similar information • Some databases will contain full texts of articles • Some databases are specific (such as Education or Business) and some cover many subjects
- 31. Finding Articles • Choosethe appropriate database • Find full-text articles OR – Find a citation – Check to see if your library has the journal in another database – If not, we can order it for you via InterLibrary Loan.
- 32. To find articles,choose a database.
- 33. This shows alist of general databases. These are called multi-disciplinary, which means you can find information about many subjects.
- 34. Sign in toMy Research to save searches, and marked articles.
- 35. Sign in toMy Research to save searches, and marked articles.
- 36. Limit your searchto scholarly journals and/or full text documents or…
- 37. A citation includesinformation to help you identify each article, such as the article’s title, the journal’s title and the article’s page numbers. Full text is available. Click on this link Full text is not available here, but maybe we can get it another way.
- 38. Links to otherarticles about the topic. Full text is not available here, but maybe we can get it another way.
- 39. Sign in toMy EBSCOhost to save searches, and marked articles. Limit your search to scholarly journals and/or a specific date range.
- 43. Do not • Shareyour GALILEO password or MUID with others. • Upload an article to a webpage that others can access. • Copy and paste sections of an article into your paper without using quotations.
- 44. Citing Always show from whereyou got your information.
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