Saint Mary's College of California Library

For:

Use:

Background Information

These types of resources can help you:

   Build a context for your topic

   Build a vocabulary to use when searching

   Understand how to organize your topic

   Narrow and broaden your topic concept

Books (Albert /Link+  & Illiad):

Subject Encyclopedias, Handbooks, Subject specific dictionaries, books published by academic press.

E-book collections.

Get started with our online reference sources:

(Begin with Blackwell Reference Online, Gale Virtual Reference, Sage E-Reference & Reference Universe)

Articles

Journal articles are where current research is reported. Research articles will help you identify key researchers in your topic area.

Library Databases

   (see Indexes and Databases)

Google Scholar  

Do you know how to evaluate the quality of the articles you find?

Check out Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals for a short tutorial.

Check out tips for using Boolean Operators.

Dissertations

Dissertations are where the most current research on your topic is reported. They can be useful in many ways:

Use as a primary resource in your research

Observe how someone else has organized your topic

Read an example of a literature review

Review the bibliography to find additional research

Locate samples of surveys or assessment instruments (See Appendices)

Dissertations and Theses (Proquest)  

Albert  (online catalog) (for SMC thesis & dissertations)

Internet

To locate centers for research on your topic

To locate researcher’s web sites

To locate other professionals networking sites (listservs)

To identify journal articles, books or other documents of interest

To see who has cited a specific research article

Google

Google Scholar  

Tips on how to use Google more effectively, check out Using Google for Research

Tips on how to evaluate web resources, check out one of the following:

Evaluating Internet Research Sources – the CARS checklist

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - NMSU

Evaluating Web Pages - UC Berkeley

Citation tools

APA Exposed (Guttman Libary)

Son of citation machine

Zotero (via Sandisk flash drive)

Starting your literature review?

Conducting a Literature Review (Adelphi)