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Upward Bound--Summer 2022: Research Process

Introduction to Research sources for Upward Bound '22

Putting the Search in Re-Search

We all know that doing research requires you to go find information, evaluate if for your research goals, and cite it correctly in your paper or project, doing the searching for a research project can be a process that does not have defined limits or boundaries. That can be confusing.

So where do I look and when do I know I have done enough research? 

Places to Look: 

Google (don't forget about Google Scholar, ok? It's in the dotted square by the word 'gmail' when you're on the Google Search homepage)

The UNO Library Homepage! (our catalog of books and e-books, plus databases with tons of magazine and newspapers articles AND journals!)

I know that's only two places to start, but between them it's only over 500 million items to look at. That should get you started :)

 

Signs That You Have Enough to Stop Searching and Start Analyzing: 

You have found enough material ( websites, articles, tables, graphs, etc) that provide multiple high quality answers to the following: 

--your main topic (also called a thesis statement) 

--at least two pieces of evidence that support  each  claim  you want to make in your research. Each claim is most likely to be a separate paragraph in support of your main topic. 

--you can justify using the sources you choose because of their reliability (high quality) and because they help  make your claims support the main topic/thesis very strongly

Tools You Can Use to Search

UNO Library Catalog (best for print books, e-books, and location of printed journals)

Recommended Databases:

On Our Library Website, You Will See This..Start Your Search Here

Go to the ONLINE CATALOG

Simple Keyword Search 

Advanced Search 

Go to the RESERVES search page

Faculty members place textbooks and other materials in the Library for student use. Students may search the database by instructor name, course abbreviation, or course number to check for available course materials.

Example searches

Course Name is the first two to four letters of the course abbreviation. 

ENGL will retrieve English followed by courses that follow in alphabetical order.

Course ID is both the abbreviation and course number

Searching ENGL 1158 will retrieve this course at the top of the results list

Instructor Name

Searching Blankenship will retrieve this name at the top of the results list.

Search our Research Databases for full text articles and citations.

A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X Y Z

Browse the list of UNO Library databases by title or subject.

Go to Publications Finder Main Page

 
Search: Library Publications
Limit Your Results

Database Search Strategy

Database searching is a repetitive learning exercise; the more you practice, the better you get. Many databases function similarly: a basic search engine plus a set of relatively sophisticated limiting functions. 

Search interfaces have common features: the ability to search for topics by a keyword (like using Google), an author, the title of an article, a review, or a specific subject. The search parameters can sometimes be specialized according to subject matter indexed by a particular database.  One of the most important things you can do to learn about a database is to check the section (often in upper right-hand corner) labelled 'Help'. It will often define the terms you see listed in a database, and once you learn them you will find they are common to many databases.

Common limits you will see include ways to restrict your search to a specific time period, i.e. 2002- to the present, to filter out peer-reviewed from popular materials, to a certain journal, to a specific author, or publisher. All of these can be profitably used to narrow your search to retrieve high-quality citations and articles for your research. For help in database searching, please contact me (contact information on the right)   or contact the library's reference service via email or chat

Evaluating and re-evaluating search results gives you ideas for refining your search and retrieving more targeted results. Scan the titles of the articles in your search result list. Note any subjects included in the description. For an article that has a promising title, click on it and check the abstract--that will give you a good idea of the scope of the article. Is it entirely appropriate or partially appropriate to your research topic? You can profit from both varieties, but at the beginning of your search process, it is best to focus on articles that you can use in its entirety.

Connecting to full text is your next task. Many databases will offer you a link to the full text, but it isn't always available in every database. There are several options, in that case. The first is to check our catalog and find the journal in print. Using the citation from the database (you can often email yourself the full citation, sometimes in your preferred citation style), you can search the catalog and locate the item in the 2nd floor Periodical stacks. Copiers are located on the 1st and 2nd floors.

For help in searching, finding and using complete citations and questions about how to obtain materials, chat with a librarian online  or contact me, Hannah White at 504-280-6548 and jwhite15@uno.edu.