Foundations of Inquiry

FOUNDATIONS OF INQUIRY & INFORMATION LITERACY

The following YouTube video was produced in the Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.

“New Spice: Study Like a Scholar, Scholar”

(Begin video on next slide!)

Click:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ArIj236UHs

Study like a scholar, scholar

What do you do next?

You’re required to select a research topic. You’re considering:

Immigration

Start on the Library website’s home page: www.nyit.edu/library

A public library contains mostly popular books.

An academic library contains mostly scholarly books.

What’s the difference?What makes a source scholarly?

Consult SCHOLARLY Sources!

Criteria to Apply

Suggests POPULAR Indicates SCHOLARLY

Celebrity author with few or no subject credentials

Author has clearly-stated credentials demonstrating expertise

Publisher issues popular books, e.g., Dell Paperbacks or Bantam Books

A university press or eminent academic publisher, e.g., McGraw-Hill

No footnotes, no bibliography, no appendices, no index.

Most or all of these: footnotes, bibliography, appendices, index.

Content tone is chatty, sensational, humorous, fun, satirical, etc.

Content is factual, well-researched, intended to inform

Text is breezy, written for popular consumption

Text contains challenging terms and concepts

To find books on IMMIGRATION, carefully select search terms (keywords)

Besides “immigration,” how can you find other search terms or phrases to use?

Search the Library Catalog

keywords

Natural language words describing a topic

A good way to start your search

They add flexibility

You can combine terms in many ways

Keywordsimmigration

Database search engines can look for keywords anywhere in a record

In title, author, subject FIELDS, etc.

Often too many or too few results

Often many irrelevant results

More on Keywords

Definition: Pre-defined "controlled vocabulary" words assigned to describe the content of each item in a database or catalog

Example: The Library of Congress Subject Headings used in the online catalog

Subject Headings

Drawback: Less flexible. You must know exact controlled vocabulary term or phrase 

Process: Databases look for subjects only in subject heading or descriptor field, where the most relevant words appear

Advantage: Results usually highly relevant to topic

More on Subject Headings

To Find Controlled Vocabulary for IMMIGRATION

Search the Online Catalog

Enter Keywords in Query Box

On search results page, click on the title. to view the full information.

Click on “Catalog Record” to view the detailed record.

List of Subject Terms for a Particular Title

Immigrants Assimilation Emigration and immigration Illegal aliens Minorities – United States Racism Ethnicity Cultural pluralism

Look at a number of records to create a list of possible search terms

Use controlled vocabulary/subject terms to search for books

The LC Call Number indicates location of book on shelf. Also: a note identifies

the holding library.

To find reference resources, use “Advanced Search”

An Advanced Search for Reference Resources With a Limit to Reference books

Search results: Reference books with information on IMMIGRATION

Britannica Online

Credo Reference

Gale Virtual Reference Library

Oxford Reference

Find them by clicking “Databases A-Z” on Library home page

The Library also has many electronic reference books:

Databases A-Z: An alphabetical listing of NYIT Library databases

Note hereTitle links to:

Britannica Online Credo Reference Gale Virtual

Reference Library

How do you do that?

First, understand how to combine search terms using logical connectors called

Boolean operators:

and…or…not

Want to find journal articles?

Want info on cats and dogs? Use the Boolean OR operator to find sources discussing cats, dogs, and both cats and dogs.

Use OR to broaden a search. Example: Adolescents 97 hits, Teenagers 75

hits, Adolescents OR Teenagers 172 hits.

Boolean Search Logic: OR

If you want only information that discusses both cats and dogs, use the AND operator.

AND is used to narrow a search. Example: Television 999 hits, Violence 876

hits, Television AND Violence 123 hits.

Boolean Search Logic: AND

You want information about cats, but not information about dogs.

Example: High school 423 hits, Elementary 652 hits, High school NOT Elementary 275 hits.

Boolean Search Logic: NOT

Select “ProQuest Central” from the “Databases A-Z” list

Use Advanced Search to enter your search query

Limit by full-text articles and by scholarly journals

Let’s say you want scholarly journal articles about assimilation of people from Asia in the United States…

Use the Advanced Search screen & limit search to full text & scholarly

263 scholarly, full text journal articles are

retrieved

Example: How does the process of assimilation for Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans compare?

Now that you have done some preliminary research, state your topic in the form of a question…

Citing Your Sources

Your research paper will incorporate ideas, concepts, quotes, etc., taken from your SOURCES.

In other words, you’ll use the thoughts of OTHERS in YOUR paper.

To avoid PLAGIARISM, you must CITE these sources. That is, you must credit them with in-text footnotes and list them at the end of your paper on a References page.

Your in-text footnotes will likely take the form of parenthetical references.

More on Citations Each References page source listing must be properly

formatted according to MLA style.

EXAMPLE (assume you quoted this source, a book, in your paper):

King, Samuel P., and Randall W. Roth. Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement, and Political Manipulation at America‘s Largest Charitable Trust. Honolulu: U of Hawaii P, 2006. Print.

On your References page, list your sources (works cited) alphabetically, usually by author’s last name.

Help with Citations

The NYIT Library provides and/or links to these BIBLIOGRAPHY GENERATOR tools. These are fill-in-the-blank solutions:

RefWorks (Very robust! Link provided on Library home page.)

KnightCite (“Citing Sources” link, Library home page)

Landmarks Citation Machine (“Citing Sources” link, Library home page)

Find many more helpful citation tools by clicking the “Citing Sources” link on the Library home page.

Apt QuoteThe longest journey begins with a single step. – Lao Tzu