Education Majors Thank you for teaching my children because I’d make a horrible homeschool parent.

Getting Your Research Right Databases Getting Your Research Right Because I’ve already had a group of students correct my slides, and it stings a bit.

Stepping Up The Scholarly Work What Databases Are What Databases Are Not Databases are a collection of snippets of data that make more sense in context. They grow and evolve overtime They require decent construction and searching skills Magic Wish Granting A portended giver of answers through a Magic 8 Ball But seriously, they’re not going to give you want you want without the skill to wield it. They are the Mjölnir of the library.

Out With The Old Using Google to find everything Using .org, .edu, .gov as exclusive sources Directly quoting all of your sources No in text citations Only reading the abstract Messing with the point or margins to make the length

In With The New Using databases Searching through scholarly peer reviewed journals Using full text downloads Paraphrasing Proper citations Proper length proportions

Databases Are Only Scary Until You Know How To Bend Them To Your Will

How To Approach the Databases Do not start with a database Start with Wikipedia Read the article about the general nature of your topic Write down a list of some of the jargon you find. Use this jargon when you search in the database Use quotation marks to help narrow your search Use Boolean Logic “Kindergarten discipline” AND “Time outs” Still can’t find anything? Call a librarian.

This Is A Lot of Extra Work… Why in the world am I asking you to do some extra work? I’m a grad student, and this is my life Assignments will only get to be more complex, and learning the basics can only help But why don’t I show you…

EBSCO Discover Search—Saving Books

Book Preservation

Manuscript Preservation

Old Manuscript Preservation

Illuminated Manuscript Preservation

How Much Time Do You Think I Wasted? Five Slides of Searches…

Proper Illumination Page

EBSCO Discover—Illuminated Manuscripts XRF

Citations and Other Scary Things… There’s no need to quote everything exactly. It’s better for you to put the concept in your own words and add an in text citation. This is what it looks like, parentheses included: (author’s last name, year, page) Failing to give in text citations or end text citations is plagiarism.

End Text Citations This is your “Reference List” Your database articles will likely fall under the “journal article” format. Use Purdue Owl to help format your citations (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/) Do not use pre-formatted citations. There’s always something wrong with them. If you need help citing your sources, never fear. The librarians are here! Contact the library for help with finding content and framing citations.

The Writing Lab Because I don’t need a turf war with the English Department

However, Emergencies Happen If you can’t work something out with the writing lab or tutors, then contact me for help with content.