This document provides an overview of research strategies and library resources at Ohio Northern University. It discusses the seven steps of the research process, including identifying topics, finding background information, using catalogs to find books and media, finding internet resources, using databases to find periodical articles, evaluating sources, and citing sources. It also provides details on specific library resources like the POLAR and OhioLINK catalogs and databases available through the library.

1. WRITING SEMINAR:
RESEARCH STRATEGIES USING
LIBRARY RESOURCES
Professor Kelly Kobiela
Systems Librarian
Heterick Memorial Library

2. WELCOME TO THE LIBRARY
 Professor Kelly Kobiela, k-kobiela@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.

3. HETERICK
LIBRARIANS
KathleenB
aril
Jenny
Donley
Kelly
Kobiela

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

8. WHAT THESE SESSIONS ARE ALL ABOUT
 Constructing/developing a research strategy for
finding resources
 Finding available resources in the library’s catalog
and databases

9. UH…I’M NOT GOING TO REMEMBER ALL OF
THIS…

10. UH…I’M NOT GOING TO REMEMBER ALL OF
THIS…

11. 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

12. IDENTIFY AND DEVELOP YOUR TOPIC:
WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A TOPIC AND
A THESIS STATEMENT?
Definitions from Google definition searches

13. 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

14. 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

15. IDENTIFY AND DEVELOP YOUR TOPIC:
EXAMPLE OF A CONCEPT MAP

16. IDENTIFY AND DEVELOP YOUR TOPIC:
CONCEPT MAPPING

17. 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 Writing Seminar
research guide for a list of electronic reference
sources.

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. USE CATALOGS TO FIND BOOKS AND MEDIA:
POLAR CATALOG: RESULTS
ebook
Law Library
Heterick Library

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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.

25. 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.

26. 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

27. 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

28. BUT I FOUND THIS GREAT WEBSITE…
Critically analyzing web sources
 What? is the page/site about
 Who? created and maintains this site
 Where? is the information coming from
 Why? is the information presented on the web
 When? was the page created or last updated
 How? accurate or credible is the page
From the University of Wisconsin Library, worksheet for evaluating web
sites

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

31. USE DATABASES TO FIND PERIODICAL ARTICLES:
FINDING DATABASES

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.

34. USE DATABASES TO FIND PERIODICAL ARTICLES:
FULL TEXT 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

39. USE DATABASES TO FIND PERIODICAL ARTICLES:
SEARCH

40. USE DATABASES TO FIND PERIODICAL ARTICLES:
SEARCH RESULTS FOR FULL TEXT & POLAR

41. USE DATABASES TO FIND PERIODICAL ARTICLES:
SEARCH RESULTS FOR OHIOLINK

42. USE DATABASES TO FIND PERIODICAL ARTICLES:
SEARCH RESULTS FOR FIND IT @ ONU

43. USE DATABASES TO FIND PERIODICAL ARTICLES:
SEARCH RESULTS FOR ILL
 When in doubt, email: ill@onu.edu

44. USE DATABASES TO FIND PERIODICAL ARTICLES:
FACETS: LIMIT YOUR RESULTS

45. 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

46. 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