Identify and develop your topic
Identify the main concepts or keywords in your question. Break your
topic into concepts. Use a thesaurus to retrieve synonyms and to
be sure you are using the established terminology for your subject.
Avoid an overly broad topic. "Special education" or "World
War II" are far too broad to be searched effectively. Talk with
your instructor on how to limit your topic.
Find background information
Look up your keywords in the encyclopedia. Use both a general encyclopedia
as well as any specific subject encyclopedias. Read articles in these
encyclopedias to get background information for your research. Look
at the bibliographies at the end of the encyclopedia articles. Make
sure you have a good idea of the scope of your topic.
Chicago State University's library.is part of a statewide network I-Share
ONLINE. You can search for books here at Chicago State as
well as 55 other colleges and universities throughout the state.
Write down the call number and make sure the status of the book
reads available. The majority of books found will be located on
the 3rd floor of the library. Books on similar topics are shelved
together. Scan the shelves for additional good books once you
are in the right area. When you find a good book, scan the bibliography
for additional sources.
Use indices to find periodical articles
Use periodical indexes and abstracts to find citations to articles.
The Douglas Library has over 100 electronic databases in all disciplines.
If you are unsure what the best index is for your particular topic,
ask at the reference desk.
Find Internet resources
Use search engines such as http://www.google.com/or http://www.alltheweb.com/ to
locate materials on the Web. Check to see if the librarians have
prepared a guide for
your field of study. Use Internet sources cautiously. Be sure you
know and trust the source of any information found on the open Internet.
Find audio and video resources
All audio and video resources can be found in the I-Share cataog.
Search by author, title of subject just as you would for a book.
Evaluate what you find
The material you have gathered may have come from a variety of sources.
Find out from your instructor what types of material are acceptable
for your assignment. Often instructors will want material from scholarly
journals as opposed to material from popular magazines. If you have
gathered any information from a web site, be sure it is from a reputable
source. Examples of reputable sources are government sources, college
or university sources or professional associations in a particular
field, such as the American Medical Association.
Cite what you find using a standard
format
Give credit where credit is due; cite your sources. Knowingly representing
the work of others as your own is plagiarism. There are many different
citation format styles. Ask your instructor what style format to
use. The two major styles are Modern
Language Association (MLA) and American
Psychological Association (APA). The MLA link is courtesy of
the Writers' Workshop, part of the Center
for Writing Studies at the University of Illinois. The APA page
is used through the courtesy of the Purdue University Online
Writing Lab.
