April 28, 2014 Marie Varelas, MLIs ENGLISH 165 – Clay April 28, 2014 Marie Varelas, MLIs

OVERVIEW Your Assignment Topic to Keyword to Searching Library Databases Finding Two Quality Sources

ASSIGNMENT Union of Concerned Scientists (web source) Topics : clean energy, food and agriculture issues, nuclear power etc. Locate articles that support your topic Must be from Library databases (or not?)

Topic to Keyword to Searching Select your topic: My Topic is: global warming

Topic to Keyword to Searching Narrow your topic: Effects of global warming on gray whales Causes of global warming in the United States Implications of global warming for agriculture Response to global warming by environmental interest groups, such as Greenpeace Which specific angle of your topic will you decide to research?

Topic to Keyword to Searching Identify Keywords: Think of synonyms, related terms, variations of your main concepts alternate spellings, abbreviations etc. The first step in creating an effective search strategy is to identify the words or phrases relevant to your topic. These words or phrases will be your search terms, and they are sometimes referred to as the keywords or key concepts of your topic. For example: global warming,, greenhouse gases, carbon emissions, fossil fuels, carbon dioxide, air pollution, etc. To begin to search successfully you must use a variety of words that relate to your topic

Sample search TOPIC: Causes of global warming The main concepts, or keywords, are: causes global warming Think of synonyms and variations reasons factors greenhouse gases air pollution carbon dioxide

Causes of Global Warming Reasons Factors Air Pollution Fossil Fuels Greenhouse gases Carbon dioxide

Choosing a Database Article Databases help you find journal, magazine and newspaper articles that are often not freely available on the internet. Science and Environment Databases: Academic Search Premier- GreenFILE - Information covering all aspects of human impact to the environment such as global warming, green building, sustainable agriculture, and more. Includes academic, government and general-interest articles. CQ Researcher- In-depth reports on current social issues and problems from Congressional Quarterly Science in Context - detailed coverage of popular subjects from earth science and life science, to space, technology, mathematics and science history ProQuest Science- For effective search results use keywords or phrases to search the periodical databases

Source Types Newspapers Popular Magazines Scholarly, Academic Journals Different types of articles give you different flavors of the information you need

Search Strategies

Enter search words for your topic Adding more search words to each box helps narrow your results Option: Click to limit results to full text articles Option: Click to limit results to scholarly journal articles

QUESTIONS? Ask A Librarian Reference: (650) 306-3480 or Make a Research appointment

CREDITS NASA/Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio and adapted for NASA’s Global Climate Change website http://climate.nasa.gov/ (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA14385) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.