Self-GuidedTutorial

WR121Research Workshop

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Missed your library session? Need a refresher on what was covered? This is the tutorial for you!

Ask yourself…

What is the hardest part of doing research?

Top Responses•#1: Getting Started•#2: Picking a Topic•#3: Finding Resources

What will you learn today?

Image Credit: http://englishcollective.org/

Here’s what we hope you will take away from this tutorial today:

Identify the kind of information you need

Image Credit: Iwasaki Library

There is so much information out there. You’ve probably all heard of information overload, right? Well it’s not an exaggeration. We’re going to talk about how you can recognize different kinds of information—formats, contents, styles, etc.—and how you can identify the most relevant sources of information for your research.

Design Search Strategies

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We’ll talk about designing and implementing effective search strategies in order to get the most out of library resources and make your research time more efficient.

Locate Awesome Resources

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And hopefully, you’ll be able to locate some awesome resources relevant to your research question, during this very workshop!

Fun anecdote: This image of Fort Awesome was actually taken in Harvard Square a few winters ago, when we had snow.

Recognize what

librarians can do for

you!We’re here to help. It’s what we love to do!

Let’s get started…What do these letters mean to

you?

Image credit: http://www.mtv.com

On The Jersey Shore, it stands for Gym, Tanning, Laundry.Today, it stands for Gym, Tanning, Library.

We’re going to take a look at how to do research at the library through the lens of the Jersey Shore. Yes, you can research the Jersey Shore!

You have a research assignment…

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We will refer to this as…

“The Situation”

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Pictured here are a variety of sources of information…

Are any of these familiar? Have you used them before? How do you use them?

Let’s say I want to do some research on Snooki.

What kind of information on Snooki would you expect to find in the New York Times? What about on Perez Hilton’s blog? How are these sources different? Which do you trust more?

So which is the best source for information about Snooki?

It all depends on the purpose of your research.

Let’s start with an old friend: Google! But, we’re not going to look at regular old Google. Let’s take a look at Google Scholar. It’s a great place to start researching, and has some neat features that work with our library databases.

Have you used Google Scholar before? What makes Scholar different from regular Google?

THE SITUATION: The influx of summer visitors to the Jersey Shore causes tension with the local year-round residents.  How does

this annual migration affect the culture or identity of the region?  Are these migrants part of the culture?

Try doing a search in Google Scholar for our Situation…

http://scholar.google.com/

Look at your result list: where is the information coming from? Is everything here scholarly? How can you tell?

Notice that the results show books and articles and have Cited by information which leads to other articles.

Look for Emerson Holdings AND/OR Emerson Full-Text. If you can’t get the entire article, you can try to find it in the library or request it via interlibrary loan.

When you’re at home, set your Scholar Preferences to Emerson College so you’ll see what resources are available to you.

Find articles onyour topic

Searching something like Google Scholar is a fine place to begin—you certainly get to see what kinds of information are out there—but remember when we talked about sources of information and how to choose which one is the BEST for your research?

Let’s check out a scholarly resource now. This is Academic Search Premier, and it lives on the library’s website under Databases.

Start at the Library’s homepage: www.emerson.edu/library

We have over 100 databases here at the Iwasaki Library, and each one of these has information specific to different disciplines.

ASP (Academic Search Premier) is a great general database—it has TONS of information from all kinds of sources. Everything from Entertainment Weekly to the Journal of Biomedicine.

You can print, save, email, or export articles. You can also get the citation here:

You can narrow your search by date, full-text availability, scholarliness, type of resource, and subject.

Find a book at Emerson about migratory

populations in the U.S.Our next research tool features the core of the library’s resources: Books! Our catalog is called the FLO catalog which stands for Fenway Libraries Online.

We are part of a group of schools that share a catalog and share borrowing privileges. So you can borrow books from Lesley with your Emerson ID.

Limit your search to book at the Iwasaki Library by selecting Emerson here.

If you forget, you can also limit it after you search.

Start at the Library’s homepage: www.emerson.edu/library

You can sort your results by date or relevance.

Look at the Subject Headings for links to more books on similar topics.

Call NumbersOnce you’ve found a book you want, how do you find it in the Library? By using the Call Number!

First make sure the book is at Emerson, then write down the call number and head to the book stacks.

According to the Library Map, our book is in this part of the Library, Books A-PK.

How to Read a Call Number:Books are shelved alphabetically by the first letter or letters.

Then books are arranged numerically by the number following the letter(s).

Finally, books are shelved alphabetically by the next letter and decimally by the following number.

Find the shelf range where your book is located…our book will be in the range on the left because E184 .I8 comes before the last number in that range (E184 .J4).

Find the shelf with your book’s call number and then find the book!

guides.library.emerson.edu/wr121

Here’s another place to find information: Research Guides.

Librarians create these to help you to get started quickly and easily. These guides are intended to give you starting points if you’ve never done research in a given area of academic study.

We have guides for things like Film, History, Marketing, and even one specifically for your class, WR121.

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But, let’s say, you’re having some trouble with your Situation. You’ve explored library resources, you’ve looked in the databases, you’ve tried to find books and you’re stuck.

In fact, you’ve hit a brick wall on your research journey. You are stuck!

Does this sound familiar? Has it ever happened to you? What do you do??

Reference Hours

Monday - Thursday:  9:30a.m.-

11p.m.

Friday:  9:30a.m.-5p.m.

Saturday:  noon - 6p.m.

Sunday: noon - 9p.m.

You can talk to a Reference Librarian! All of these folks pictured here want to help you. Please come and see us! You can also call us, email us, text us, or IM us.

Call us, email us, text us, or IM us – all from the Library’s homepage.

http://www.emerson.edu/library

Image Credits• “Let’s Fly!” by Hamed Saber:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hamed/2302808818/sizes/m/in/photostream/ • “What will you learn today?’: http://englishcollective.org• “Fort Awesome”: http://www.flickr.com/photos/drgandy/22373340• “Design Search Strategies”:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/computerguy_wiki/3686972731• GTL: http://www.mtv.com• The Situation : http://www.flickr.com/photos/22409393@N03/5530809591• Brick Wall: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theartguy/4721135346