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RESEARCHING YOUR PASSION A USC LIBRARIES GUIDE FOR MCNAIR SCHOLARS SUMMER 2011 LEA & TOMPSON

Researching your passion-mcnair_handoutsummer2011-final

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Page 1: Researching your passion-mcnair_handoutsummer2011-final

RESEARCHING YOUR PASSIONA USC LIBRARIES GUIDEFOR MCNAIR SCHOLARS SUMMER 2011

LEA & TOMPSON

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THE RESEARCH PROCESS

For McNair

Literacy = Foundation for Thinking/ResearchOur aim in the USC Libraries is to help you become “information literate” which will aid you in critical thinking and research throughout your life! An info literate person is able to:• “Determine the extent of information

needed• Access the needed information effectively

and efficiently• Evaluate information and its sources

critically• Incorporate selected information into one’s

knowledge base• Use information effectively to accomplish a

specific purpose• Understand the economic, legal, and social

issues surrounding the use of information, and access and use information ethically and legally”

[from the Assoc. of College & Research Libraries, Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education]

Some literacy/research tools for you (more details next pages):

North Carolina State University Libraries scholarly vs. popular journals tutorial: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/tutorials/pr/

Also on YouTube

Do not plagiarize; DO cite it right

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LIBRARIES HOMEPAGE HIGHLIGHTS

For McNair

Searches multiple databases including HOMER (catalog of campus holdings); great place to start if you don’t know which subject database to use (see following pages)

Research Guides listed here – try accessing it with a QR code reader! (We have suggestions.)Note the subject librarians page links to the Guides too.= resources you will want to check out

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LIBRARIES E-RESOURCES

For McNair

E(lectronic) Resources include: 1) online journals, 2) e-books, and 3) subject and multidisciplinary databases that link to journal and newspaper articles.For this class, we will use the article citation, linking and tracing Web of Knowledge database.

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WEB OF KNOWLEDGE

For McNair

Web of Science is the core of this product but NOT just for science! It (and the weekly Current Contents) cover: “the world’s leading scholarly literature in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities and examine proceedings of international conferences, symposia, seminars, colloquia, workshops, and conventions.” It is also USC’s most robust citation-tracing resource.

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MORE RESOURCES (WHEN YOUR RESEARCH TOPIC NOT SO EASY)

For McNair

It’s All About the NumbersA well-structured search for an undergraduate paper should find you 20-80 results. <(Less then) 20 results, and you’re either missing some stuff or your topic is too narrow.>(Greater than) 80 results, and you just don’t have time to weed through all of those.Numbers = one practical reason to use the Libraries’ article databases – preselected sources, unlike Google.

Follow the CitationsAn article that makes an impact on the field, like this one by USC President Nikias (“Signal processing with higher-order spectra” IEEE Signal Processing Magazine1993, vol.10 pp. 10-37), typically has an excellent bibliography (citation image to the left) and is, over time, cited by many others (image to the right). Following citation trails of known authors in a field can help you find or refine a research topic.

ASK a Librarian! http://www.usc.edu/libraries/ services/ask_a_librarian/

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PLEASE ASK US FOR ASSISTANCE!

For McNair

Research Guides on all sorts of subjects by all librarians are listed here – try accessing it with a QR code reader! (We have suggestions)

http://www.usc.edu/libraries/services/ ask_a_librarian/

Ben Lea, Science & Engineering Librarian, SSL [email protected]

Sara Tompson, Head of Instruction & Orientation, LVY 113C, [email protected]