Ohlone College Library Orientation
English 151B - Carmen Madden

Introduction to Library Research Tools
Sample Topic: Homelessness

Step One: Get a little context and build a vocabulary for your specific topic

The reference section is often the best place to start your research. Brief, background articles in a reference source can help you understand important terms and concepts and narrow and define the scope of your research. For example:

Encyclopedia of Psychology

Location: Reference BF 31 .E52 2000 (8 volumes)

Articles are signed and include extensive bibliographies.  Edited by Alan Kazdin, this encyclopedia is a highly regarded work of scholarship and is an excellent source of background information on a wide variety of topics including homelessness and some of the mental health issues confronting the homeless.

Step Two: Search HANS to find books and ebooks in the Ohlone College Library

• Try a keyword search on homelessness, then select one relevant title and take a look at the subject headings to get more results like it.
• Some of our books are available to read online - limit your search to electronic books to find them.

Step Three: Use the concepts and terminology you found in step one to determine search terms to help you search for magazine, journal and newspaper articles.

To find magazine and newspaper articles use a periodical database. We subscribe to a number of these, each with slightly different strengths, weaknesses, and rules for searching. Your topic will determine which are the best databases to use for your search. Examples:

CQ Researcher

• What is it?
  • Database of good in-depth but introductory articles about topical issues.
• Search directly by keyword, e.g.: homelessness

SIRS

• Good, selective coverage on Social Issues.
• Homelessness is topic of "Leading Issues" Report.

Newsbank America's Newspapers

• Find newspaper articles from accross the country
• Compare coverage of this issue in different parts of the country.
• Narrow down with additional keywords; e.g.: mental illness.

Ethnic NewsWatch

• Good for perspectives from ethnic, minority and native presses.
• Select Ethnic NewsWatch database to avoid New York Times, other mainstream publications.

Ebscohost Academic Search Elite

• What is it?
  • Database containing both full-text and citation/abstract only articles
  • Scholarly, peer-reviewed, academic journal articles AND popular magazine articles
• Can narrow down results by suggested subject headings (left-margin)
• Can limit search results to just full-text, to peer-reviewed.

All in one! Central Search

	Title Author Full Text Keyword Subject ISSN Any
	More Central Search Options

• New Tool! We are still fine-tuning; you can help us with feedback.
• Find Books, Journal Articles, Web sites, all with a single search across multiple databases.
• Nice Features: "One-Stop Shopping," Discover new resources, Full-text filter, subject clustering.
• Discovery Tool: Best to use as a first step, to identify good databases and quickly see scope of results.
• By default, search is looking for words in the title (you can change this).
• More detailed and focused searching will be available from individual database interfaces. See examples below.
• Access selected resources from Library home page ("Quick Search" is limited to our online catalog, HANS, and our periodical databases)
• Access all resources and fine-tune search from main Central Search interface.

Step Four: Internet Sources

Lii.org - Librarians' Internet Index