Locating Books:

• Use ToroFind Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) to look for books on your topic.
  * Leave out dashes and commas when you type a search into the catalog.
  * Library catalog searches are not case sensitive.
  
  Search with your own keywords and try to determine Subject Headings for your topic.
  Academic libraries use Library of Congress Subject Headings to describe the contents  of books and other materials list in the library catalog. For instance:
    
     * Reparations
     * African Americans - Reparations
     * Drug legalization
     * Marijuana - Law and legislation - United States
     * Illegal aliens - United States
     * Amnesty - United States

Ask Library Reference staff if you're not sure what to look under for books on your topic!

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Locating Journal Articles:

·  To find journal articles on a particular topic, use a special index called
    an electronic database.

•  Terms you should know before you search in electronic databases:  

DATABASE: an organized collection of information, especially electronic information such as a periodical index.

JOURNAL (also called SCHOLARLY JOURNAL): scholarly publication published for an academic audience; narrow focus, deeply researched, all articles approved before publication by a group of experts working in the same field as the author (this approval process is called peer review)

MAGAZINE: publication with popular interest articles and broad subject coverage

CITATION: the basic information you need to find or cite the full text of an article; includes article title, author's name, name of publication, date, volume & issue no. and page numbers.

ABSTRACT: a brief summary of the main content of an article.

FULL TEXT: the complete article.

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      Recommended Electronic Databases for Essay Research:

• Academic Search Premier: indexing, abstracts and high percentage of full text articles from
  journals in social sciences, humanities,  education, arts & literature, and ethnic studies.
  
  
•  Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature: indexing, abstracts and high percentage of full text
  articles from popular publications (Time Magazine, National Geographic) as well as several scholarly
  ones such as Science.
  
  
• ProQuest Newspapers : searches the full-text of over 500 national and international
  newspapers written in English, including Los Angeles Times and New York Times.
  
  
• CQ Researcher Online: objective and balanced treatment of current issues and hot topics; each
  12,000-word report by an experienced journalist examines all sides of an issue and includes
  charts, graphs, sidebar articles as well as a chronology, extensive bibliography and a list of
  contacts.
  
  

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    HOW TO FIND & LOG IN TO CSUDH LIBRARY ELECTRONIC JOURNAL INDEXES:

• go to the Library Home Page at http://library.csudh.edu/.
  
• under Find Library Materials click Journal Articles & Electronic Resources.
  
• if you already know which index you want, click the "Alphabetical List" button
      (Academic Search Premier is a good database to search first).
  
• if you need suggestions about which database to search, click "Subject List."
  
• when you click on the title of an index to log in to, you'll see this screen:

Now do a keyword search or a subject search in the database you logged into.

•  Once you are successfully logged in to a journal index, read the instructions   (Help screen) to figure out how the database works.

•  To develop an effective search, look at your topic or research question and    pick out the key words that describe what you want to find. Then think of    possible synonyms for each of the key words.    For example :
   Do video games contribute to violent behavior in children?    

    

	KEYWORDS	video games	violence	children
	SYNONYMS	gaming	aggression	youth

Your search becomes: video games and violence and children

•  When doing a keyword search, try to find one article    that is exactly what you need.
   Look at its subject terms and re-do search with those    index (subject/controlled vocabulary) terms

•  If the journal article index has a Thesaurus or    Subject Guide, look there to find correct search    terms for your topic.

 

•  Did you find too many articles?

•  Use more specific search terms

•  Limit by language, publication, date, full text, peer reviewed.

•  Use controlled vocabulary (look in the database subject guide or thesaurus)

•  Narrow your search with AND

 

•  Did you find too few articles? None? Out-of-context?

•  Use different search terms, synonyms, alternate terms and phrases

•  Check your spelling

•  Use truncation (child* = child, child's, children and other words that begin     with child. )

•  Broaden your search by joining synonyms with OR

•  Search a different journal index

•  Ask for help!!!

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Internet Resources:

Google is an outstanding search engine, but unless you know exactly what you are
doing, it will lead you to millions of web pages on and hundreds of subtopics.

Three tips:

• Google Scholar lets you search some scholarly literature, including many peer reviewed articles,  but note that you may not be able to freely access the
  full text of articles.
  For scholarly literature, the Library databases listed above are usually a better
  option for beginning your research.
• Try Google's Advanced Search page to refine your search.
• Be sure to evaluate any websites you plan to use in your paper.
  
  What to look for:
  1. Credibility (Who said this? Will the author stand behind this information?)
  2. Accuracy (Where did this come from? Does it seem correct?)
  3. Reasonableness (What kind of page is this?)
  4. Support (Who else says this?)

For a more detailed version of these guidelines, visit the CSUDH Library
"Evaluating Information You Find on the Web" page at http://library.csudh.edu/Evaluatinginfo.htm.
For more detailed evaluation criteria, try Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Pages
(Cornell University Library) and
Evaluating Information on the Web (Pasadena City College Library).

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