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This short video will provide a refresher on developing a research strategy
and how to use the library catalog and article databases.
You'll also receive some tips on knowing the difference between the Surface Web and the Deep Web,
how to critically think about websites,
and, lastly, where to find help on properly citing your sources.
Once you've determined a topic you'd like to use for your assignment,
develop your thesis statement; that question you'll explore in your paper.
For example, here's my initial research thesis:
Now I'll start thinking of keywords to use in order to find relevant sources.
These keywords can be taken directly from my thesis.
To find books in the library, start at the library homepage, library.csun.edu.
Enter in your keywords in the OneSearch box.
Let's use the keywords we determined earlierusing the term 'and' to connect the keywords.
To see how many books we own in the collection,
click on the 'Books & Media' tab to view your results.
Information regarding where a resource is located, and if it's available to check out is provided here.
You can also determine the type of resource; is it a print book, an e-book,
or even a video.
For more information about a book, click on the title
and look at the subject headings or table of contents, if available.
Then jot down the pertinent information to find the book
or it's an e-book, click on the link to access it.
To find research articles on your topic, return to the library homepage. Then choose 'Find Articles by Subject'.
As you can see, the databases have been grouped together by their discipline focus.
Since your topic focuses on leadership you might consider using -
General/Multi-Subject, Education
Educational Psychology or even Political Science.
Let's go to General/Multi-Subject databases
and choose 'Academic Search Premier'.
We'll enter in our keywords {winston churchill AND lead*}
and let's truncate 'leadership' in order to retrieve options such as 'leader', 'leadership' and so on.
We can further narrow down our results
by indicating that we want only scholarly articles and/or limit publication dates.
Then hit 'update'.
Depending on how many results remain after setting your limits,
as well as the quality of those results,
look at the subject terms listed under the title.
These might be better terms to use in your search.
To learn about a particular article,
you can either click on a title or hover your mouse over the magnifying glass icon.
This will let you quickly view the abstract.
Once you've determined that you want to use this article for your project,
take a look at the type of access available;
is the .pdf readily available?
Or would you have to do a 'Find Text' search?
If it's a .pdf, several options exist. You can send the article as an attachment in an email and,
a the same time, choose a citation format to be included in the body of the email.
Other options include opening the document and saving it to your desktop or flash drive.
And here's a helpful hint, look at the resources at the end of an article to find additional articles or books that might be useful.
In the event an article is not available via the database, the library offers a 'Find Text' option.
By clicking on this icon, it will search through all the databases to which we subscribe
in order to find another way to access the article in question.
From here, click on one of the links provided.
And then find the issue number you need, if you're not directly taken to the article.
If for some reason, the article is not available electronically, an option will appear to search the Oviatt Library catalog.
If there is no access whatsoever, contact the Education librarians for help in learning about Interlibrary Loan.
If you're conducting your research from home, you can always access the library catalog and various databases.
Just start at the library homepage.
As you attempt to connect to any resource that takes you away from the library homepage, whether it's a database or accessing an e-book;
you will get a prompt asking you to verify that you're a CSUN student.
Just use the username and password that you currently use to log-in to Moodle.
Now let's talk briefly about the difference between using Google for research versus
an article database such as 'Academic Search Premier'.
Google is considered the 'Surface' web, meaning that most of the results are free for everyone to access on the World Wide Web.
And, yes, some wonderful resources can be found here.
But what if you wanted to find an in-depth research article;
say a study on cancer treatment in the New England Journal of Medicine?
Searching through Google will get you there,
however, you would need to pay for access to the articles published in their journal.
This 'Deep' web is available to you through the library homepage;
it's those databases we visited earlier in this video. And it's a tremendous resource available to you.
Now that you've gathered your research, here are several factors to consider when evaluating a book, an article, and even a website.
The first factor to consider is 'Authority of the Resource'.
Who created the information? What is the author's education or the organization's experience?
The second factor is 'Content & Coverage'.
Who is the target audience for this article or site? Is it considered scholarly or for general consumption?
The third factor is 'Timeliness'. When was the article published?
How current does the information need to be for your topic or assignment?
And if the resource is a website, when was it last updated?
The fourth factor is 'Accuracy'. Are you able to find the same information in another source?
The fifth, and last, factor is 'Objectivity'.
Is the information presented fact, opinion or propaganda?
Are there references, or links, to show the source of the various facts or quotes noted in the resource?
And if the resource is a website, it's important to pay attention to the domain of the site. {.org; .gov; .com; .edu; .net}
These factors will always be an important tool to use in your continued research.
If you ever have a quick question about how to properly cite a book or article,
just go to the library homepage and click on 'Cite Your Sources'.
Then click on the APA Style Guide.
You'll have a plethora of examples to choose from on how to cite the resources you used in your paper.
This was a quick overview on how to use the library's resources. Should you have further questions about what was covered
please contact us. Either or us can help you via email, phone or set up an appointment to meet with you.
Thanks so much for viewing the video and we look forward to hearing from you all.