WR95 Instructional Session
What are we talking about today?
- How to search using library resources.
- Where to search on the library page.
- And then we'll actually search!
Before we start, what are you thinking about for your topic?
To share some topic ideas, click this link and add your thoughts for this assignment.
Let's talk about searching using library resources.
When you search in a database you want to search only the most important words--I call it Hulkspeak, but you can call it whatever you want! The good news is, you already know how to search in a database if you've used a database like Netflix or Hulu before!
If I type in "I want to watch cooking shows" into Hulu, I get a bunch of stuff--but none of it is relevant to what I want to watch!
If I type in "I want to watch cooking shows" into Hulu, I get a bunch of stuff--but none of it is relevant to what I want to watch!
But if I just type in the most important word, "cooking," I get stuff that's a lot more relevant to what I want to watch!
Based on the topic you identified above, what are the most essential words you need to describe your topic? Click here and type in these essential words.
These are your keywords! Now that you've typed in your words and searched, you can start working with a results page. Sometimes you get too many results, or results that aren't relevant to your search. If you did a search in Amazon, to the left below, to find a phone cover, you might start by typing in phone cover. From you results, you might then filter your results to only show phone covers for a certain brand, or in a certain price range or color. This allows you to take your results from a lot to a more relevant little. Same principle in library databases. This may look different depending on where you search, but you will always have filter options by date, source type, language, etc.
Let's talk about where to search on the library website.
There's a lot of information on the library homepage. What's the first thing you notice on this page?
When you forget where to go, just look for resources that are for students (because that's what you are!) When I look for the Students header, I can see the first link is for Resources, and that's what I want!
For this assignment, you're searching for argumentative social justice issues, which tend to be focused around News and Current Events. From the Resources link, I click Resources by Subject, News & Current Events, and then Current Events and Controversial Issues. On that page, I'll find several databases that will give me the type of information useful for this assignment.
Don't forget to use what we've learned about coming up with keywords and filtering our results! Once you find a source that looks useful, you can click on the title of the source and locate a toolbar. That toolbar looks different depending on where you're searching, but all library databases have one and offer similar options like email and citations!
For this assignment, you're searching for argumentative social justice issues, which tend to be focused around News and Current Events. From the Resources link, I click Resources by Subject, News & Current Events, and then Current Events and Controversial Issues. On that page, I'll find several databases that will give me the type of information useful for this assignment.
Don't forget to use what we've learned about coming up with keywords and filtering our results! Once you find a source that looks useful, you can click on the title of the source and locate a toolbar. That toolbar looks different depending on where you're searching, but all library databases have one and offer similar options like email and citations!
You might also find that some sources only have a summary (or an abstract) and you can't immediately read the full text! Fear not! There is a way to request these sources that's entirely free and usually only takes about 24 hours for delivery. Click here for instructions on how to request items.
Let's start searching!
When you search, you might find yourself getting stumped. That's totally normal, there's a lot to this whole research thing! To help you, the library offers a wide range of services. We'll help even if you're not using library resources, you just have to ask!