Library OrientationEnglish 1A, Prof. Correa

Laney College Ann Buchalter, MLIS

What LIBRARY Information Sources Should I Use?

Ideally, you should be using a combination of:

• Books

• Reports (Issues and Controversies, CQ, etc.)

• Journal Articles

• Magazine Articles

Feeling Overwhelmed?

1.How to search for books in the Laney Library online catalog.

2.How to search for journal and magazine articles in Laney Library’s online databases.

3.How to evaluate a website to determine if it’s academically acceptable.

Today we are going to cover:

1) Keyword search2) Title search3) Author search

You can search the catalog in many different ways, but we are going to keep it simple:You can search the catalog in many different ways, but we are going to keep it simple:

Before searching we need a “strategy” or words to enter into the search box:

Let’s say your Topic Question is:How does the media affect one’s

body image?

How does the media affect one’s

body image?

I did NOT select How does the OR affect

one’s ---Why do you think I didn’t include

those words?

• Because these words don’t describe my topic –

• To find the BEST results, you want to use ONLY the essential concepts.

We will type media and body image into the search box in the catalog…

Laney Library

Selecting a book before you even see it:

Contents: lists the chapters in the book

If you decide you want to look a the book, you will need to get the copy information

Check availabilityCall Number and Floor

Use the “Subjects” category to find more books on your topic:

If you see an interesting Subject, click on it and it will take you to other books that are on similar topics

Periodical/Journal Articles?Where do I begin?

Laney College LibraryFull-Text Journal/Magazine Online and Report Databases

•CQ Researcher•Opposing Viewpoints•Issues & Controversies

Academic OneFile

A1file

Let’s explore Academic OneFile

Need some keywords? Start with BROWSE SUBJECTS

ORYou can right to the Search box and enter your keywords

A1file

To look at magazines click on

the tab

To make your search more specific use the Refine

Results box

college

A1file

Title of Article

# of pages

A1file

Title of journal

Abstract (summary)

To look at the article, click on the title

A1file

Here are your keywords for this

searchSubjects are useful—click on them to see

other articles that are similar to the one you

are viewing

To Email or Save to flash drive

•Searching databases can be tricky. Sometimes you enter keyword that you think should work, but you just don’t get anywhere. •If this happens to you, you can use the Browse Subjects tab to figure out what words the database is using to talk about your topic.•To do this, click on the Browse Subjects tab:

•Searching databases can be tricky. Sometimes you enter keyword that you think should work, but you just don’t get anywhere. •If this happens to you, you can use the Browse Subjects tab to figure out what words the database is using to talk about your topic.•To do this, click on the Browse Subjects tab:

A1file

• Sometimes you enter keyword that you think should work, but you just don’t get anywhere.

• If this happens to you, you can use the Browse Subjects tab to figure out what words the database is using to talk about your topic.

A1file

Click on the BROWSE SUBJECTS tab

A1file

Type keywords in

A1file

Click on RELATED SUBJECTS to see

more keywords (or subject terms

A1file

Clicking on RELATED SUBJECTS to see even more keywords

OR

Click on a term which takes you to

the articles that have this word associated with

them

Now let’s look at a database that has Reports

•CQ Researcher•Opposing Viewpoints•Issues & Controversies

A1file

These are All good sources for you to try but start with:

I&C

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