Sarah Schwab - ENGL190 - Section 19 - Fall 2010

Hi everyone! Here are my responses to the questions you submitted after our library research class on October 28. I'll do my best to explain things, but if you still have questions, please email me and/or post a comment below. -- Jamie Schmid (Your ENGL-190 Librarian)

"What kind of material is in the Locust Street Facility"

The Locust Street Library Facility houses lesser-used materials from Pius Library, the Medical Center Library, and the Law Library. These materials include bound journals/periodicals published before the year 2000, bound journals/periodicals that we don't have current subscriptions to, government documents, archival materials, legal treatises, and SLU theses and dissertations.

I'm still unclear on "which databases work best for the different types of searches."

Keyword searches can be used in any library database and subject searches can be used in the vast majority of them. I'm wondering though, do you really want to know which databases work best for research in different subject areas? If so, please see my response to the following question.

"How do you know which database to use?"
AND
I'm unclear on "how to pick a general topic to start my search in ---> is it healthcare, medicine, etc.?" (I'm assuming that you are wondering which database to use to start your research. If this isn't the case, please email me and let me know.)

Multidisciplinary databases like Academic Search Premier can be helpful when looking for articles on almost any topic. Otherwise, you need to think about what academic discipline would be interested in your research topic. Once you've identified a discipline, you can then find a database that indexes the literature of that discipline. I've included a list of some recommended databases by subject on the Freshman Writing Program Research Guide (under the Articles tab). You can look at all of our library databases by subject on this page. Finally, if you need a recommendation for a database to search, please email me and let me know. I'm happy to help.

I'm still unclear on how to "generalize a topic."

If you aren't getting very many results when searching the SLU Libraries Catalog or library databases, you may need to broaden your search. For example, instead of doing a search for "videogames and violence and teenagers", you could simply search for "videogames." You'll also want to remove any limits that you've placed on your search (like date, publication type, etc.) You may also need to try to think of your topic more broadly. For example, instead of looking for articles about Lady Gaga, you could look for articles about our country's obsession with celebrity, the cult of celebrity, etc.

"How does MOBIUS contact you?"

When a book that you've ordered via MOBIUS comes in, staff at Pius Library will notify you at your SLU email address.

"I still am a little unclear on how to locate periodicals in the library."

Here are instructions for finding a specific article in a print periodical (or journal) in the library.

1. Search by journal title in the SLU Libraries Catalog.
2. If you find a print journal record (it won't say "online" after the title), check to see which library has the journal, what dates are available, what the call number is, and which floor it's located on. (Click on the link under "Location", not the call number link.)
3. Go find the journal on the shelf. Find the volume you need, then the issue, then the right page number.
4. Photocopy the article, because journals can't be checked out of the library.

If you're using a database to find articles on a topic and an online version is not readily available, you can click on the FIND IT AT SLU button. It will bring up an Article Linker page, which will tell you if the article is available online in any SLU database. If it's not available online, go down to Step 2 on this page and click on the Journal Title link. It will do a journal title search in the catalog for you, and you can follow the same process detailed above.

I'm still unclear on "viewing journals online."

Many databases will include a link to a pdf and/or html full text for most articles. If the pdf or html full text is not readily available, you can use the FIND IT @ SLU button to see if an article is available in another database or in print in the library. If it's available online, you can click on the "article" link that's listed under Step 1.

"How can you find out the different ratings and credibility on an article."

There aren't any ratings available for articles in library databases. As for credibility, you'll need to consider the source that the article was published in. Is it in a scholarly journal (as opposed to a popular magazine)? See this video for information about differentiating between these two types of sources. Articles in scholarly journals are more credible. If you're looking at newspaper articles, you'll want to select articles from well known, major, established papers such as the New York Time and Washington post (as opposed to small, regional papers or more popular newspapers such as USA Today).

I hope this blog post helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions. I'm happy to help you! -- Jamie