Come talk to your research librarian (profile on homepage) or a student Library Research Consultant at the Reference Desk to walk through any questions you have! You have plenty of options to get help in person or online:
Make sure you cite your sources in all your research projects and papers, using the citation style your professor has assigned.
Citation can get pretty complicated, but we have a few resources you can use for help:
You can ask a librarian or visit the Rhetoric Center to walk through citations with personal help!
Library resources and the research process sometimes involves some unfamiliar terminology. Here are a few common terms and some brief definitions to refresh your understanding:
Reference sources - compile lots of information to give a general overview of a topic (examples: encyclopedias, dictionaries, statistics, etc.)
Encyclopedias - have many short articles to explain all the important terms, people, events, places, techniques, and issues of a specific subject
Call number - unique letter/number code found on the spine of every item and in the its catalog record, to help locate everything on the shelf
Subject heading - library version of tags, labeling a book/article by its subjects, giving you another way to search in the catalog and databases
Peer-reviewed - specifically judged and reviewed by experts in the field to verify that the information is legitimate
Research databases - search online collections academic journals for articles focused on specific subjects (example: CINAHL)
Research guides - what you're using now! lists recommended resources and tips for doing research in a particular subject or class
Full text - complete article, not just a summary or citation, to view online or download (FullText@Hekman tells you if we have access)
Citation - shorthand to record important information about where information is found, formatted according to different citation styles
References - list of citations, all the sources used in a study or presentation, found at the end (sometimes called "works cited" or "bibliography")
Catalog - database showing everything in the library's collection (print books, DVDs, journals, links to other databases and ebooks, etc.)
Research librarian - (also called "liaison librarian") librarian assigned to a particular department or subject to help students do research