The document provides guidance and information for students conducting research, including definitions of reference librarians and different types of sources like scholarly journals, popular magazines, books, and websites. It discusses strategies for finding books and articles, evaluating source suitability and reliability, using research tools from the library, and basic research skills and planning.

1. LBST 280
Florence Tang
Liaison to the Penfield
College for the Atlanta
Campus
678-547-6261
tang_fy@mercer.edu

2. Cornell University Library definition
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.

3. Florence’s office
10:00 AM -7:00 PM
May be working weekends or nights.

4. Questions? Ask Reference!
(678) 547-6282 (Atlanta)
swilley_ref@mercer.edu
Reference Hours
M - Th 9AM-9PM
F 9AM-6PM
Sat 10AM-6PM
Sun 1PM-9PM
Add askmercer as your buddy!

6. Remember to start your 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

7. Research Plan
•

8. Encyclopedias
• Background Reading & Brainstorming
• Develop the topic
• Focus the topic

9. Finding Information
What’s out there
• Books
• Newspapers/Magazines
• Journals
• Websites

10. Information Timeline
Books Reference Books Scholarly Journals Popular Magazine Newspapers Web
Years Months Week Day Present

11. Books
 Good for background
 Comprehensive
Information may not be as
current as what you would
find in journal articles or
web sites.
That might or might not be
important.

12. “Scholarly” Journals
• Periodicals used 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 peer-
reviewed

13. Scholarly Journals
How do I 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

14. Examples of Scholarly Journals

15. Popular Magazines
How do I 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.

16. Examples of Popular Magazines

17. Both are
considered
scholarly

18. Web vs. Libraries
• When you use a research
or academic library, the
books, journals and other
resources have already
been evaluated by
scholars, publishers and
librarians.
• When you are using the
freely available World
Wide Web, none of this
applies.

19. Finding Books
Use the CATALOG to find
books
http://library.mercer.edu
When you search the
catalog, you will find books
that are located in the Swilley
Library or another Mercer
Library.

21. Number of books (or government
documents) found with this keyword

22. Is this book here now?

24. Links to other books
about your topic.

31. Finding Articles
To find Articles, 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

32. Finding Articles
• 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.

33. To find articles, choose a database.

34. This shows a list of general databases.
These are called multi-disciplinary, which means you can find
information about many subjects.

39. Sign in to My Research to save
searches, and marked articles.

40. Limit your search to
scholarly journals and…

42. Limit the date range by
sliding this tab.

43. Full text is available.
Click on this link
Full text is not
available here, but
maybe we can get it
another way.

48. Full text is available.
Click on this link.

50. Sign in to My EBSCOhost to save
searches, and marked articles.
Limit your search to scholarly journals
and/or a specific date range.

51. Limit the date range by
sliding this tab.

52. SUITABILITY
• Scope.
Is this a general work that provides an overview
of the topic or is it specifically focused on only
one aspect of your topic? Is it relevant?
Does the resource cover the right time period
that you are interested in?
• Audience. Who is the intended audience for
this source? Is the material too technical or
too clinical?
• Timeliness. When was the source published?

53. Objectivity
• What point of view does
the author represent?
• Is the article an editorial
that is trying to argue a
position?
• Is the article published in a
magazine that has a
particular editorial
position?

54. Do not
• Share your MUID and
password 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.

62. END