1. HONORS WRITING SEMINAR:
RESEARCH STRATEGIES USING
LIBRARY RESOURCES
Professor Jenny Donley
Cataloging and Knowledge Architect Librarian
Heterick Memorial Library
2. WELCOME TO THE LIBRARY
Professor Jenny Donley, j-donley.1@onu.edu
Reference Email, reference@onu.edu
Reference librarians on duty:
Monday – Friday
8:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Monday – Wednesday
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
One-on-one sessions available by appointment, or
fee free to stop by or send us an email.
4. WHAT THE LIBRARY OFFERS:
~400,000 items in POLAR, the ONU library catalog
~20,000,000 items in OhioLink
260 Databases
400+ print periodicals
Tens of thousands of electronic journal titles
Juvenile, Young Adult, and Graphic Novel
collections
DVDs, CDs, streaming audiovisuals, and streaming
music
5. LIBRARIES AT ONU
Heterick Memorial Library
Undergraduate library and
accessible to all students
Taggart Law Library
Library for law school and
accessible to all students
6. ONU ID CARD = LIBRARY ID CARD
Use the entire 11 digit number
7. LIBRARY ID CARD MY LIBRARY ACCOUNT
Use your full name (as it
appears on the ID) and the
entire 11 digit number
9. WHAT THESE SESSIONS ARE ALL ABOUT
Constructing/developing a research strategy for
finding resources
Finding available resources in the library’s catalog
and databases
Tools for managing the resources that you have
found
12. HOW TO DO RESEARCH:
SEVEN STEPS OF THE RESEARCH PROCESS
Step 1: Identify and develop your topic
Step 2: Find background information
Step 3: Use catalogs to find books and media for a
general understanding of the topic
Step 4: Find internet resources (if appropriate for
the assignment)
Step 5: Use databases to find periodical articles for
a specific approach to the topic
Step 6: Evaluate what you find
Step 7: Cite what you find
Amended with permission by the Librarians at the Olin and Uris Libraries of
Cornell University
13. IDENTIFY AND DEVELOP YOUR TOPIC:
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A TOPIC AND
A THESIS STATEMENT?
Definitions from Google definition searches
14. IDENTIFY AND DEVELOP YOUR TOPIC:
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
An annotated bibliography is a list of sources that
includes a summary and/or evaluation of the source
What an annotated bibliography does:
Allows you to see what is out there
Helps you narrow your topic and discard any irrelevant
materials
Aids in developing the thesis
Makes you a better scholar
15. IDENTIFY AND DEVELOP YOUR TOPIC:
HOW TO START YOUR RESEARCH
State your topic as a question
Identify main concepts or keywords
Test the topic to figure out how others might refer to it –
look for keywords and synonyms and related terms for the
information sought:
Subject headings in catalogs
Built-in thesauri in many databases
Reference sources
Textbooks, lecture notes, readings
Internet
Librarians, instructors
18. FIND BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
BACKGROUND RESEARCH
The library catalog is full of resources that can help.
Background research can include reference books
and encyclopedias as well as general books and
internet resources. (Steps 3 & 4 cover general
books and internet searches.)
Look at the Databases tab in the Honors Writing
Seminar research guide for a list of electronic
reference sources.
19. USE CATALOGS TO FIND BOOKS AND MEDIA:
POLAR CATALOG
POLAR Catalog – Search for physical and electronic items
(ebooks and ejournals) that are available from Heterick
Memorial Library and Taggart Law Library
20. USE CATALOGS TO FIND BOOKS AND MEDIA:
POLAR CATALOG: KEYWORD SEARCH
Looks in several locations
Subject
Article title
Abstracts
Table of contents
Does not require an exact match
Generates comparatively large number of hits
Good if you are not familiar with terminology
Good for a beginning search
21. USE CATALOGS TO FIND BOOKS AND MEDIA:
POLAR CATALOG: SUBJECT SEARCH
Looks at the subject headings in the records
Requires an exact match
Provides a results list with related headings to use
for broader and narrower searches
Generates comparatively smaller number of hits
Good if you are familiar with terminology
Good for a next step after a keyword search
22. USE CATALOGS TO FIND BOOKS AND MEDIA:
POLAR CATALOG: RESULTS
ebook
Law Library
Heterick Library
23. USE CATALOGS TO FIND BOOKS AND MEDIA:
OHIOLINK CATALOG
Materials owned by 90+ other libraries in Ohio:
colleges, universities, public libraries
Can submit request for an item to be delivered to
Heterick Memorial Library
Most requests arrive in 2-3 working days
No charge to request items (unless they become
overdue)
Maximum of 25 requests at a time
Items can usually be renewed
24. USE CATALOGS TO FIND BOOKS AND MEDIA:
OHIOLINK CATALOG
From POLAR results list:
Button will recreate the POLAR search in OhioLINK
From an item record:
Button will go directly to the same item
Use if the copy in POLAR is checked out
Direct link to the OhioLINK catalog:
http://olc1.ohiolink.edu/search
25. USE CATALOGS TO FIND BOOKS AND MEDIA: OHIOLINK
CATALOG
1.
2. Select Ohio
Northern from the
dropdown list.
3. Enter your full name and all 11 digits from
your student ID.
4. Select “Heterick – Circulation Desk for the
pickup location and hit the submit button.
26. USE CATALOGS TO FIND BOOKS AND MEDIA:
SEARCHOHIO CATALOG
1.
SearchOhio:
Your next step if
all of the POLAR
and OhioLINK
copies are
unavailable.
2.
3. Select Ohio Northern
from the dropdown list.
4. Enter your full name and all 11 digits from your
student ID.
5. Select “Heterick – Circulation Desk for the pickup
location and hit the submit button.
27. FINDING INTERNET RESOURCES
(IF APPROPRIATE FOR THE ASSIGNMENT)
Helpful for identifying additional keywords and
subjects for your concept map
Google
Wikipedia
Does the information located satisfy the research
need?
Is the information factual and unbiased?
Refer to the CRAAP Test for critically analyzing web
sources
28. FINDING INTERNET RESOURCES:
CRITICALLY ANALYZING WEB SOURCES USING THE
CRAAP TEST
Currency
Timeliness of the information
Relevance/Coverage
Depth and importance of the information
Authority
Source of the information
Accuracy
Reliability of the information
Purpose/Objectivity
Possible bias present in the information
29. WEB RESEARCH VS. LIBRARY DATABASES
Internet
Material from numerous
sources, individuals,
government, etc.
Search engines must work
with material prepared
without regard for specific
software
Quality of material varies
Generally do not access for-
profit information
Content often anonymous
and undated
Databases
Usually created by a single
publisher
Content pre-arranged for
easy searching
Quality-controlled by editorial
staff
Most are available only to
subscribers
Sources are usually identified
and dated
Databases often focus on a
specific subject or discipline,
but some cover several areas
30. USE DATABASES TO FIND PERIODICAL ARTICLES:
OVERVIEW OF DATABASES
What is the basic definition of a library database?
A library database is an electronic (online) catalog or index
Library databases contain information about published items
Library databases are searchable
The library subscribes to many databases so the ONU community has
access to these resources. When you’re searching a database, you
are not searching “the web.”
What types of items are indexed by library databases?
Articles in Journals/Magazines/Newspapers
Reference Information (i.e. entries from Encyclopedias, Dictionaries,
etc.)
Books & other documents
Source: http://web.calstatela.edu/library/whatisadatabase.htm
32. USE DATABASES TO FIND PERIODICAL ARTICLES:
CHOOSING A DATABASE
Helpful Databases
Academic Search
Complete
Business Source
Complete
JSTOR
Lexis-Nexis
MasterFILE Premier
MEDLINE with Full
Text
Databases by Subject
33. USE DATABASES TO FIND PERIODICAL ARTICLES:
POPULAR VS. SCHOLARLY PERIODICALS
Popular = Magazine
Scholarly = Journal
Magazines are periodicals that contain more popular
content. They tend to have glossy pages, lots of pictures,
and can be read and understood by the general public.
They contain shorter articles written by a staff of
journalists.
Journals are periodicals that contain scholarly and peer-
reviewed articles, written by scholars and researchers,
that are aimed at professionals in the field. The articles
are longer and have extensive bibliographies at the ends
of the articles.
35. USE DATABASES TO FIND PERIODICAL ARTICLES:
FIND IT @ ONU
Find It @ ONU takes you from a database where
you don’t have full text access to a database where
you do have full text access
36. USE DATABASES TO FIND PERIODICAL ARTICLES:
SEARCH DISCOVERY LAYER
What it is:
A discovery layer sits on top of the majority of the library
resources and allows users to access most of the information
available on one topic with one search
Think of it as the roof on a house
What it isn’t:
An index to ALL database content.
While all EBSCO databases are
included, ProQuest databases, among a few others, are not
included in SEARCH.
A “Googlization” of library resources, although it may seem
like it at first.
37. USE DATABASES TO FIND PERIODICAL ARTICLES:
SEARCH DISCOVERY LAYER
What it includes:
POLAR
Article-level searching for all EBSCO databases
Article-level searching for a variety of other databases:
JSTOR, Hoover’s, AccessPharmacy, etc.
Title-level searching for most other databases: IEEE,
CIAO, Proquest Nursing & Allied Health
OhioLINK Central Catalog
38. USE DATABASES TO FIND PERIODICAL ARTICLES:
SEARCHING PRIOR TO SEARCH
Reference
resources
Databases Others…
• Newspapers
• ebooks
• Websites
• Government
publications
Catalog
46. EVALUATE WHAT YOU FIND:
EXPORT TO REFWORKS
Most databases
will have
“export”
If there isn’t an
export, check for
“download”
47. CITE WHAT YOU FIND:
ONLINE ASSISTANCE
Refer to the “Writing & Research Guides” and
“Citations” tabs for tips and resources.
OWL: The Purdue Online Writing Lab
http://owl.english.purdue.edu
RefWorks
48. AND FINALLY…DON’T FORGET THAT THE
LIBRARIANS ARE HERE TO HELP!
Librarians on reference duty:
Monday – Friday
8:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Monday – Wednesday
6:00 PM – 9:00 PM
