George Shuffelton -- Spring 2009

In this guide:

• Getting Started
• Finding Articles
• Finding Books
• Evaluating what you find online
• Have a citation but need the full text?
  • Do we have that book?
  • Do we have that article?

Getting Help:

• Email Iris
• Chat with Iris
• See Iris' Schedule

Getting Started

Before launching off into your research, stop and consider these questions:

• Who would have studied/published this?
• In what format might it have been published (website, report, article, book)?
• How might we have access to it?
• What terms would describe it?

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Finding Articles

Remember to try keyword searches, examine the information for relevant looking articles, and make notes about the subject terms that you find there. Then you can do a combination of subject and keyword searching. If you should find an article that looks good but does not have the full text attached, click the "Find It" button to see if we have that article elsewhere at Carleton. Remember that you can instantly limit most searches so that you get only scholarly articles.

• Academic Search Premier
  A multi-disciplinary database of scholarly articles, newspaper articles, and magazine articles. "Globalization" is a subject term, but remember that many useful articles may not explicitly say that they're about globalization, so try several searches using different words.
• ProQuest
  Another multi-disciplinary database of scholarly, newspaper, and magazine articles. This database has many more newspaper sources than Academic Search Premier does. It also does not show the subject headings associated with a record unless you begin with a subject search. You can search the "Topics" section to find these subjects, if you like. "Globalization" is a subject term, but try other words, too.
  
• LexisNexis Academic
  Searches thousands of news sources from around the world. Since the focus of this database is news and magazine sources, don't try to find scholarly articles here. (You can, however, use news sources to point you toward articles or to help you build your vocabulary of search terms.)
  Tips: The default "Major U.S. and World Publications" is probably a good place to start, and you can also explore the "News" button up under the red "Search" tab. This News area allows more flexible source selection under (you guessed it) "Select Sources." But remember to tell it that you want "Natural Language" rather than "Terms and Connectors" unless you want to build complicated searches. Also remember that after you do a search, you can use the drop-down box near the top-left side of the result list and the links along the left sidebar to refine your results.
• ProQuest Newsstand Complete
  Even more newspaper sources! If you click "More Search Options" you'll be able to choose a "Document type" such as an editorial, cartoon, or cover story.

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Finding Books

Use Bridge to find books and materials owned by the Carleton and St. Olaf Libraries. You can search Bridge in many ways, such as author, keyword, subject, or title. Subject searches can be useful for finding books and materials on your topic, but you need to explore for a bit and find the the specific "Subject" terms that exist in the system. One strategy for finding Subject terms is to do a keyword search for words that describe your topic. Scan the results and look at those records that are relevant to your topic. Examine the Subject terms assigned to those items. Revise your search using these new terms. Often, the most useful searches combine keyword and subject searches. You can accomplish this by using the Advanced Search page.

Some subject headings to try:

• Globalization
• Globalization -- Economic Aspects
• Globalization -- Environmental Aspects
• Globalization -- Political Aspects
• Globalization -- Religious Aspects
• Globalization -- Social Aspects

But remember, many topics that are important to globalization will not be labeled "globalization." Try lots of different searches using lots of different words for your topic.

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Evaluating What You Find Online

For great information on evaluating web sites, check out Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply and Questions to Ask from the U.C. Berkeley. Make sure that the information you find is trustworthy.

• See who created or published the book, article, or web page. This is probably the most important technique to test a work's credibility. Can you figure out who is responsible for the content? (If there is no author or publisher listed on a web page, check the URL or a parent cite to see who hosts the material.) If you cannot find the responsible person or group, you may not want to rely on the work. If so, is that person or group qualified to speak with authority about the content?
• Make sure the content fits your needs. Is the content accurate (try seeing if other people have cited the content or if other works support it)? Does the author cite his or her sources so that you can follow his or her research trail? If the topic is time-sensitive, is the content of your source up-to-date?
• Wondering the thing you found counts as a "print" source? Does it look like a journal article or a newspaper article? Look up the information in Ulrich's. This will tell you if it's a recognized publication and whether or not it is a peer reviewed publication. If it's in Ulrich's, it's a "print" source.

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Have a Citation but Need the Full Text?

Do We Have That Book?

Book citations generally have an author's name, a book title (in italics), and a place and year of publication. Citations to chapters in books will include all of these things with the addition of a chapter title (before the book title, and in quotations marks) and an editor's name (after the book title). In both cases, look up the book title to see if we have what you're looking for. If we don't you can order the book via Interlibrary Loan and we'll get it to you from another library as quickly as possible (generally about a week).

1. Bridge
2. Interlibrary Loan

Do We Have That Article?

Article citations generally have an author's name, an article title (in quotation marks), a journal title (in italics), volume and issue numbers, a year of publication, and page numbers. Use the Journals, Magazines, & Newspapers List below to see if we have access to the Journal (the name in italics) you need, and that we have access to the year you need. If we don't, order the article (using the "request a photocopy" form) via Interlibrary Loan and we'll get it to you from another library as quickly as possible (generally a few days to a week).

1. Journals, Magazines, & Newspapers List
2. Interlibrary Loan

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