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Embedded LibGuides by Jenny

Library Resources

 

Greetings! I am happy to be your librarian for this course. I can help you find information and research your topic!

I share office hours with an awesome team of librarians, so if you'd like some one-on-one help click here to book an appointment or let me know a time that works for you.  We're here for you!

Jenny Castel |  jcastel@jwu.edu  |  401-598-1887

Did you know you can also chat or text with one of our on-duty librarians?  It's anonymous, free, and super fast!

Need help searching the databases? Check out our Library Help Docs for step-by-step information.

Or, check out this quick information about MRI+ and SRDS.

PRIZM Segment Narratives

Search all EBSCO databases

List of Industry Research, Market Research, and academic research databases

Search any of the EBSCO databases:

  • Enter in your basic search terms, such as "Texting while Driving"
  • Limit to Full Text, so you can read articles online
  • Check News, Magazines or Scholarly/Peer Reviewed for academic articles
  • Scroll down the first page of articles, and click on the most interesting one
  • Click on one of the Subject Terms (they're hyperlinked) and see where it takes you!

Statista

Looking for statistics to quote, FAST?  Check out this awesome database!  Just toss in your search term, and you're good to go. 

There are a few ways to limit your Google search to make your results more effective. Of course, a Google Scholar search will bring you lots of academic results, and it is a great place to start. The problem is that accessing the full text of those resources may require a subscription - if you run into this problem, please email me so I can help you locate the article in our subscriptions.

Here are some tips for making your Google search a better one

1. Domain limiting

If you don't know the difference between .org, .edu., .com, .gov, read this first.

Google allows you to limit your results to those articles appearing only on websites with certain domains. For example, to return results only from government sites, you would type your search string followed by "site: .gov"

In fact, you can search any website using this technique - just enter the entire address after "site:"

 

2. Explicit phrase

If you are searching for content about higher education, consider that this is actually a phrase (consisting of more than one word), and search for it explicitly using quotation marks. As in "higher education."

 

3. Related search

If you find a website that has really great content, and you want to find something else that is similar, perform a related search by typing - related: yourwonderfulwebsite.com

Anyone can post anything they want online. I'm not an expert in astrophysics, but I could build a pretty nice looking web page with bogus information about the topic, and some people might take it seriously. While your "gut" feeling about information is important and you should pay attention to it, there are a few criteria you should consider every time you think about using an online source in your academic work. I borrowed these items from the MLA Handbook.

Who is the author of the source? Is the author qualified to address the subject? Does the author draw on appropriate research and make a logical argument? Do you perceive bias or the possibility of it in the author's relation to the subject matter?

What is the source? Does it have a title, and does that title tell you anything about it? If it lacks a title, how would you describe it? Is it a primary source, such as an original document, creative work, or artifact, or a secondary source,w hich reports on or analyzes primary sources? If it is an edition, is it authoritative? Does the source document its own sources in a trustworthy manner?

How was the source produced? Does it have a recognized publisher or sponsoring organizations? Was it subjected to a process of vetting, such as peer review, through which authorities in the field assess its quality?

Where did you find the source? Was it cited in an authoritative work? Was it among the results of a search you conducted through a scholarly database or your library's resources? Did you discover it through a commercial search engine that may weight results by popularity or even payment?

When was the source published? Could its information have been supplemented or replaced by more recent work?

 

source: MLA Handbook. 8th ed, Modern Language Association of America, 2016.

 

Additional thoughts on evaluation

 

It is common for articles posted on sites, especially those published by a news organization, to reference the release of a "study." As an academic researcher, you should realize that the article you are reading is a secondary source, and consider the fact that the reporter writing about a study may not represent its findings correctly. It is in your best interest to locate the primary source, the study itself. In many cases, the content of the study is linked in the article. Just click on it!

 

image source: Rizov, Vadim. "New Study Puts Numbers to the Lackof Minority Representation in Film." The Dissolve, 5 Nov 2013, thedissolve.com

If you use the library's databases for your research, you can copy and paste pre-generated citations - look out for the option as it may appear differently in each interface but is generally represented by an icon of quotation marks.

 

If you need to cite a resource not located in a database, I recommend using the OWL as a reference. Alternatively, reach out to me for help with citations!

MLA Sample Paper

MLA Format Template

Find Your Target Audience by Geographic Location 

Which Reports Do I Use?

Help Docs to help you understand some of the reports in Claritas 360 and what they mean: