Research using databases
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Transcript of Research using databases
B Y C R I S T Y M O R A N E M A I L C M O R A N 1 @ M D C . E D U
RESEARCH YOUR TOPIC
RESEARCH—GETTING STARTED
1. Come up with a topic or research question
2. Identify the key words of your topic or question
3. Find background information on your topic –
reference books
4. Search library databases for information on your
topic – start broad and then narrow down
5. Advanced Search tips
6. Evaluate results
7. Read your articles and make notes of things you
want to include in your writing
WHAT ARE LIBRARY DATABASES?
• Where you find and locate articles: scholarly, popular, newspaper, trade magazine, etc.
• Massive collections of research sources
• General and subject-specific collections
• Also include encyclopedias
and dictionaries, e-books,
magazines, scholarly journals, and videos.
• You can access them online
remotely and on-campus.
• You can send them to
yourself via email or save
them to your USB drive or
browse them online.
Borrower ID is MDC Student ID #
Password: Last 4 Digits of Borrower
ID
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
• First, you want to learn about your topic – get the facts!
• Use encyclopedias, dictionaries, and reference sources
• Be able to:• Define your topic and
relevant terms
• Understand why it’s worth writing about
SUPPORTING INFORMATION
Once you are familiar with the facts, look up information about:
• Opposing viewpoints
• Current scholarship and research
• Emerging theories
• Statistics and data
Search Tips
• Always use Advanced Search
• Start broad—not too specific
• Add terms if results are too numerous or general
• Results usually organized by date not relevance
USING ADVANCED SEARCH
• Separate topics in different search rows
• Start broad—see what’s out there first, then add terms to refine or limit your search
• Learn your Boolean operators• AND
• OR
• NOT
• Quotation marks• Wild card (asterisk) *
SEARCHING WITH BOOLEAN OPERATORS
• AND – links up your search terms and tells the database to find only articles that contain all the terms you’ve linked • Example: Hemingway AND Wilde will return articles that are each about both Hemingway
and Wilde
• OR – tells the database to find articles that contain any of the terms you’ve lined with OR, not just ones that contain all your terms • Example: Hemingway OR Wilde will return articles about Hemingway and articles about
Wilde though each article will not necessarily be about both
• NOT – excludes articles that contain whichever term you do NOT want • Example: Hemingway NOT movie might help you limit your search so the results that come
back are not those about movie versions of Hemingway’s books
• Quotation marks – search exact phrases rather than individual words in a search row • Example: “English patient” will return results only where the words English and patient appear
together as a phrase
• Wildcard – opens your search to words that share a root or common element without you typing every word out • Example: child* searches for child OR child’s OR children OR childhood
MAXIMIZE YOUR EFFORTS
• Preview your articles – read the abstracts, skim the
indexing for subject headings
• Determine if it is likely to contain information
relevant to your topic
• Read through your articles with a highlighter or note
pad handy
• Check the reference list/ bibliography for interesting
materials
LIBRARY @ NORTH CAMPUS
Days Open Close
Monday-
Thursday
7:30
a.m.
9:00
p.m.
Friday 7:30 a.m.
5:00 p.m.
Saturday 8:00 a.m.
1:00p.m.
Sunday CLOSED
Online—Access on-campus
and off-campus
http://www.mdc.edu/main/
library
Call us (305) 237-1183
Research Guide:
http://libraryguides.mdc.edu/
resources
Building Hours
HELP • Visit the Reference Desk
• Call us at (305) 237-
1183
• Chat with us using Ask a
Librarian—from your
mobile phone or
computer at home, in
the library, or elsewhere
• Sunday to Thursday:
10 a.m. to midnight
• Friday and Saturday:
10 a.m. to 5 p.m.