Books

• If you will be borrowing books from the CSUDH Library, take a close look at
  the regulations on the Circulation /Borrowing Books page.
  To borrow books, take your CSUDH photo identification card (it will also serve as your library card)
  and
  one other photo identification (such as your driver's licence) to the Circulation Desk
  on the Library 2nd floor.
  
• Use the Library's ToroFind catalog to search for books by author, title or subject.
  In addition to finding materials available in the CSUDH Library, you will find links that allow you to
  directly request books from other libraries (LINK+ and "All CSUs Catalog" buttons).
  
  Links are provided below for other local libraries and libraries worldwide.
  
  • ToroFind: CSUDH Online Catalog
  • Southern California Libraries (includes links to academic, public and special libraries)
  • Library of Congress Online Catalog
  • LIBWEB (includes links to libraries in over 125 countries)
  
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Journal Articles

To find journal articles when you don't already have a specific citation or reference to an article,
try one of the article indexes (you'll also hear us call them databases).

Two things you need to use CSUDH databases off campus: 

1. You must be a current CSUDH student, faculty member or staff member.

2. You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader software (v. 7.0 or later) installed.
Many articles are available only in .pdf (portable document format) format,
and you absolutely must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to read and/or print them.
Get Adobe Acrobat Reader free at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html

Click on a link below to access the database of your choice or use our comprehensive list of
Journal Article Indexes to see all available CSUDH databases.

For a detailed review of how to use the databases to find journal articles, click here.

To limit your results to peer reviewed articles, look for the words "scholarly" and/or "peer reviewed"
and place a check in the box beside these words (check any journal title in Ulrich's Periodical Directory
to see whether it observes the peer review process).

• ProQuest Newsstand: full text links to 300+ U.S. & international newspaper as well as
  articles from 1500 worldwide business periodicals.
  
  
• Academic Search Premier: multi-disciplinary database with full text for more than 4,650 publications, many of which are peer-reviewed journals; often used as a starting point since it covers a wide range of subject areas.
  
  
• ERIC: comprehensive database covering a wide range of education topics; includes both
  journal articles and miscellaneous educational materials.
  
  
• Education Full Text: covers varying runs of almost 600 education publications.
  
  
  
• Ethnic NewsWatch : newspaper, magazine and journal and journal articles from the ethnic, minority and native press.
  
  
• JSTOR : long back runs of almost 50 education journal titles.
  

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Finding a Specific Journal Title

If you have a reference or citation to a specific journal article, find out if the Library subscribes to the journal you need by using the CSUDH Journals List. This list includes both print and online journals.

For more detailed help finding a known article, visit the Find a Specific Article tutorial.

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Interlibrary Loan

    If the CSUDH Library does NOT own in any form a specific journal, magazine or book that you need:

      - use the online ILL form at http://library.csudh.edu/ill.htm  to submit an electronic request.

               A print or electronic copy of that article will be obtained from another
               library, but may take as long as 7 to 14 days or longer to arrive.
               Note: books requested through LINK+ usually arrive within 2 to 4 days!

              OR

   - go to the Library Online Catalogs and Information page at 
         http://library.csudh.edu/cyberlib/libraries.htm to check for holdings at other academic libraries
         you can visit in person (such as other CSU libraries).      
    
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The Internet

Google is still an outstanding search engine, but unless you know exactly what you are doing, it will lead you to thousands of web pages on your topic and its many subtopics.

Three tips:

• Try Google's Advanced Search page to refine your search.
  
• When using information from the web for projects and research papers, remember to evaluate the
  quality and reliability of the information.
  For evaluation criteria, try Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Pages (Cornell University Library)
  and Evaluating Information on the Web (Pasadena City College Library).
  
• 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 the article.
  For scholarly literature, the Library databases listed above are usually a better option for beginning your research.
  
  

  •  Librarian-selected Internet Resources:
  
     Major Newspaper and Broadcast Presidential Election 2008 sites:
  
         Los Angeles Times
  
           New York Times
  
           Washington Post
  
           CNN Election Center 2008 (look under Issues for Education)
  
           msnbc Politics Front Page
           

   University-sponsored websites:

          George Washington University

          University of South Florida

          FactCheck.org (Annenberg Political Fact Check is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy
          Center of the University of Pennsylvania)

    Miscellaneous organizations, think tanks, etc.

           Brookings Institute--Brown Center on Education Policy

           OnTheIssues.org

           Open Secrets

           My Election Choices


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Citing Your Sources

When writing a paper or completing a project for a class, you will usually be asked to provide a bibliography of the materials that you used.
Take a look at the Library's Citation Guide in advance so you'll know what information about each information source to write down before you begin your research.
It is much more difficult (sometimes impossible!) to retrace your steps than to make note cards as you are working to keep track of sources of information you use while doing your research.

Citing Your Sources

Our web page, How to Cite Your Sources in a Research Paper, has two links.
The first link takes you to a download page for the Adobe Acrobat Reader, which you will need
to access the actual web page.
The second link leads to a document that shows you how to cite books, articles, and web resources in
APA, MLA, and Turabian formats.

Always check with your professor to find out which citation format to use for papers in that class.

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