College Research

Agenda Research process Evaluating sources Scholarly, peer-reviewed articles Search tips

What Steps Do You Follow?

What Difficulties Have you Encountered in the Past?

What Did/Should You Do to Overcome That Difficulty?

Ask a Librarian for Help

Librarian Stereotype

Research Coach

Librarians Develop a search strategy Find resources Refine your research question Develop a search strategy Find resources Identify tips or tricks for searching Troubleshoot problems in searching Check your citations

Questions? Do you see any problems with this study?

Information Creation Cycle Informal commun-ication Social media TV Online news sources Newspapers Magazines Journal Articles Books Reference Books Information Creation Cycle Hand out worksheet

Source Evaluation

What is the Purpose/Motive for Sharing the Information?

Purpose Entertain Persuade Advocate Inform/Educate Analyze Entertain – youtube, flickr, social media, etc. Persuade – political websites, product websites incite/scare – biased websites, doomsday websites Educate/inform – health websites, organizational websites, educational websites, government websites, and scholarly journal articles Advocate – similar to persuade, they are informing you about a cause and calling you to action. Analysis – scholarly journal articles and lit reviews and books. Many sources may fall into multiple purposes (e.g. books)

Purpose Entertain Persuade Advocate Inform/Educate Analyze Entertain – youtube, flickr, social media, etc. Persuade – political websites, product websites incite/scare – biased websites, doomsday websites Educate/inform – health websites, organizational websites, educational websites, government websites, and scholarly journal articles Advocate – similar to persuade, they are informing you about a cause and calling you to action. Analysis – scholarly journal articles and lit reviews and books. Many sources may fall into multiple purposes (e.g. books)

Who is the Intended Audience?

What is your Information Need? Informal commun-ication Social media TV Online news sources Newspapers Magazines Journal Articles Books Reference Books What is your Information Need?

Scholarly vs. Popular

Reading a Scholarly Journal Article

Questions? Do you see any problems with this study?

Library Website

Questions? Do you see any problems with this study?

Ask a Librarian Call us at 610-409-3607 Email us at library@ursinus.edu Schedule an appointment Go to the Library’s main desk and ask for a librarian