Question 1: Where is the best place to search for high quality research? A. Google B. Wikipedia C. The library’s webpage at Victory University D. About.com E. Encyclopedia Britannica online

Question 2: What can you tell about the following web site just from the address? A. It is a site for a business. B. It is unbiased. C. It is a site for a non-profit organization. D. It is a site that contains scholarly journal articles.

Question 3: Where is the best place to find “scholarly” articles that your professor would require for a paper? A. Google Books B. Academic Search Elite C. The New York Times Online D. The library catalog

Why is it important to know different terms to describe the same thing when you are researching? A. The computer may not recognize the term you use to initially describe the object. B. Some topics appear in multiple categories. C. You want to be able to expand or narrow your search. D. All of the Above E. None of the Above

If your history teacher assigned you to write an essay on the role of female soldiers in the Vietnam War, what search terms would you enter into a library database search engine to yield the best results? A. Americans and Vietnam B. Females and soldiers C. Women in combat D. Women and “Vietnam War”

Some basic information

To reach the library site, Click the “Academics” tab on the University website Click “Library Services” on the Academics menu

Once you reach the Library’s web page, click on the blue link labeled “Online Resources”

To access the Catalog, Once you reach the “Online Resources” page, click the Blue link labeled “Online Card Catalog System.” You will be directed to the Online Card Catalog System. The screen should look like the image on the right.

The library’s Card Catalog interface is not like Google. You will need to search using synonyms and the term “And” in order to access the information you are researching. Work through this tutorial to better understand how to use synonyms and the search term “And.” University of Chicago Tutorial ww.uic.edu/depts/lib/reference/services/tutorials/Doin gResearch.shtml#

The Library catalog allows you to do the following kinds of searches: Title Author Keyword Subject Call Number

Keyword searches will probably be the most helpful since the keyword search is the most like traditional web browsing. For example, if you are researching William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 130,” you can search any of the following: Shakespeare Elizabethan Sonnets “Sonnet 130” Shakespeare and sonnet Shakespeare and “Sonnet 130”

Click on the link below and go to the online card catalog. After you have accessed the card catalog system, minimize the window (do not close it). You can go back and forth between the tutorial and the webpage.

Type the words “Harry Potter” in the white box. Click on the balloon labeled “Keyword”

This list of results gives you quite a lot of information: Type of book (online or paper) Title Author Publication year Call number

Click on the first link in your list of books: The Ivory Tower and Harry Potter The next page you see is the full book citation. What information would you find helpful?  If it’s an electronic book, you will find a link to read the book online.  You will also see a list of the chapter titles in the “Notes” section.  The subject headings can give you more search terms if you need to find additional sources.

Click on the link next to the heading “Electronic Access.” (You will find this link directly under the “Notes” and before the “Subject” headings.

You can read the entire book just by clicking here.

If you wish to access Net Library from off-campus, you will need to create an account from an on- campus computer.

There are several different kinds of articles you can find through the library. Newspaper Magazine Journals (Scholarly) Other

An academic journal is a composed of articles written by experts in the field. Typically the author of a journal article has a Ph.D. and/or extensive research experiences. In your classes teachers often ask you to find this kind of source. Just doing a Google search will not give you the best results.

The library has several online databases available for Victory students. The databases have a variety of articles and other materials that you can view online. These materials are not really part of the WWW although you can access them through the web. The library has both general and subject-specific databases that you can search.

Academic Search Elite  General Database  Has articles from magazines, academic journals, trade publications, newspapers, and reviews  This is a good place to begin looking for articles. (Many times you can find everything you need right here.)

From the Library Online Resources Page, click the blue link labeled “Academic Search Elite.”

How many titles did you get? 3418 How can we make this number more manageable? On the left side of the screen you can “limit” your search using the following categories:  Scholarly  Full-Text  Publication year  Publication type  Using additional search terms

Select the limiters and see what happens: 1.Subject (using the and function, type “masculinity”) 2.Full-text 3.Scholarly 4.Year (adjust to )

Now that you have familiarized yourself with Academic Search Elite, try accessing other databases from the Online Resources menu on the library website. Look at the list for subject-specific databases. These databases have information relating only to a specific field like Business, Education, or Psychology. These types of databases generally offer greater access to scholarly articles and a wider selection of research on a specific topic in a given discipline

We can find out some information just by looking at the web address itself. The ending letters of a web address can reveal to us what type of institution has created the cite. Look at some common endings. What does each ending stand for?.com.biz.net.org.edu.gov

Sites ending in.com, comprise the biggest portion of sites on the internet, and the widest variety of sources. These sites may be authored by any of the following: Businesses advertising a product or service Entertainment sites (games, movies, tv, etc…) News media Private individuals Social network sites Search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc…)

Because.com sites encompass such a wide variety of sources, you must observe extreme caution in how you use the information you obtain from these sites.

Businesses typically use.biz sites for advertising their products. Therefore, students should be careful in how they use information obtained from these sites since the business has an obvious interest in selling its product.

Like the.com sites, these sites are authored by a variety of sources. However, most of these sites are created by individual people or businesses. As such, the information found on these sites should be held to close scrutiny.

These sites are typically reliable, but students should be aware of the following: Political activist groups are non- profit organization and often betray bias in how they represent information. Some non-profit groups do not routinely update the information on their websites, so the information you find may be out of date. Some non-profits (for example credit consolidation companies) operate much like for profit businesses and may misrepresent information.

Cautions: Larger universities often allow students and staff to create and post personal websites Religious and/or political affiliations of certain universities might taint information you find. Characteristics: End in.edu Often post educational resources Post publications and findings from studies conducted by faculty Sometimes house helpful field-specific databases

Government websites end in.gov and, in the U.S. are generally considered very reliable.

Centers for Disease Control ( a good source for public health infowww.cdc.edu National Public Radio ( a good source for general news and human interest storieswww.npr.org Bartleby.com: Dictionary, encyclopedia, and a variety of literary texts in full-text versions The Institute of American Popular Culture ( Provides articles (through both a scholarly journal and a magazine) on a variety of pop culture topics including film, television, and gamingwww.americanpopularculture.com