1. LIBR 250
Week 3

2. Week 3
 How to conduct research generally
 How to use the research process to narrow your
topic
 How libraries are organized
 How to use general resources like encyclopedias
 How to search key word databases
 How to evaluate information critically—crap
detection

3. Research process
 Beginning and and end
 Starts broadly and ends narrowly based upon
what you’ve uncovered
 Different sources used along the way

4. Effective researchers…
 Begin with broadest sources and move to more
narrow ones
 Choose among information sources depending
upon how deeply they need to cover their topic
and for what kind of audience
 Use a variety of sources

5. Reference sources
 Encyclopedias
 Handbooks
 Dictionaries
 Directories
 The broadest information sources; treat topics in
a surface way

6. Books
 Monographs
 Treatises
 Treat topics in a deeper way depending upon
the audience and purpose

7. Serials or Periodicals
 Treat in the narrowest way
 Scholarly/academic journal articles represent
deepest, narrowest treatment of topics
 Popular periodicals
(newspapers, magazines, industry publications)
have narrow treatment of topics but not in as
deep a way

8. How is all of this information
organized?
 Print or digital
 Print: Via catalog to discover relevant materials
and call numbers to find; Our library uses library
of congress subject headings and call numbers
for organizing all of the printer materials
 Electronic materials are accessed/discovered via
keywords/search

9. Understanding Boolean
logic is key!
 Not difficult…
 Requires you to formulate searches with words
and join them with connectors
 Different from Google which is
relevance/statistical

10. Evaluating information
 Crap detection!
 How do you determine if something is useful or
not?
 Credible?
 Authoritative?
 Relevant?
 Current?