Library

Basic Library Research

Throughout your research, please feel free to ask for assistance; reference librarians will be glad to help you.

Step 1.

Select a topic

Consider:

Scope of assignment.

Has the instructor assigned a topic? How specific or general is it?

Are there any specific conditions on types of materials to include or exclude, e.g. scholarly journals, current news, primary sources, internet sources, law cases, etc.?

Time limits.

When is the paper due?

How many sources will you need and how soon will you need them?

Always start your research early to allow time to request items from other libraries.

Step 2.

Evaluate What You Already Know

What issues have you been reading and talking about in class? Do any of these things interest you enough to warrant further investigation?
What issues haven't been covered in the course, but seem related and are of interest to you?

Step 3.

Background check:

Determine issues, themes, questions to be investigated.
Look at overview sources (such as subject encyclopedias, yearbooks or review publications) that provide background information, facts and bibliographies. The subject oriented Library Guides are a useful starting point for these kinds of resources.
Test the waters to see if there is enough material to pursue your topic. Try the library catalog and one or two indexes. Are the number of relevant articles and/or books sufficient to continue with your topic? If not, refine your topic; consider broadening the scope of it.

Step 4.: Gather books, articles, and other material. Return to the Getting Started page and proceed to the Searching for Source Material section. Be sure to use a variety of general and in-depth research tools, i.e., book catalogs, articles indexes, encyclopedias.

Step 5.

Once you have read articles and books consider:

Point of view
Bias
Authority, accuracy
Level of scholarship
Quantity of information it is likely to contain
Timeliness

Step 6.: Synthesize the ideas and concepts from the information sources you have collected. That is, read, evaluate, think. See the Writing Assistance section of the Getting Started Page.

Step 7.: Repeat steps as necessary. You may find leads to new facets of your topic in the information you've already gathered.

Step 8.: Organize and present material. See the Presenting Your Research section of the Getting Started page.

This page maintained by Library Web Team. Last update: August 17, 2004.