Contents:
Many ideas and concepts for which you will want to find information, like "environment" or "great lakes", have multiple meanings, and will have different meanings in different databases or books, depending on the subject.
"Environment" may mean the place in which you work if you are searching a business database; the relationship among political candidates in a social sciences database or, simply, the situation in which you currently find yourself enjoying life, like the college environment.
Your task is to choose specific, less vague terms during your reading and initial research as well as to discover the best resources that include information on the particular aspect of the environment which you choose. To get a sense of its many meanings, look up environment in the Oxford English Dictionary
Read the library Research Process guide.
Read the Bookmarks text, chapters 1 - 5 to help you focus your ideas. Take the time to identify and list key words and terms you wish to research. Try creating a concept map for your research topic. As you read, remember:
Working ideas are organic. Connections exist between and among environmental issues.
Developing an argument requires finding opposing viewpoints. Very few issues have wide public agreement or consensus--especially those which concern the environment.
Your research focus and thesis may change as you learn more about your topic.
Develop and refine your thesis for your proposal:
beginning: The Great Lakes are being polluted by too much lakeshore development.
improving: Lake shore property development is degrading and polluting the environment, and should be strictly regulated by Great Lakes states.
still better: In order to limit environmental degradation, Great Lakes state governments must work together to enact an immediate coastal property development moratorium and cooperate to strengthen and enforce stricter building codes and lakeshore development regulations.
What are the searchable terms in the last statement above? What are some related terms? Using the still better statement above, or using your own research topic, fill out this Building a Research Question guide
As you research and read, expect to refine your working thesis statement.
Have you considered exploring the web sites worth knowing links in Bookmarks?
Chapter 4 Focusing Your Project includes strategies for focusing your research and choosing appropriate research techniques.
Chapters 5 - 8 Gathering Indeas and Information Chapter 6 Conducting Electronic Searches is a *must read*. It discusses keyword searching, applicable to both the library catalog and library databases as well as web search engines. You should be able to answer questions 1 - 4 on pages 89 prior to writing your final proposal.
Research Basics
- Read through the steps on the Research Map Set this page as a web "favorite" or "bookmark" so you may return to it frequently in the course of your library research as you work through each step.
- Gather background and in-depth information from reference sources: encyclopedias, handbooks and standard statistical sources. For a well researched topic overview examine an article in the CQ Researcher
[ Reference H 35 .E 35 1990 - current Internet last several years]- Locate library books, government documents and media using the library catalog. Learn how the search system works
Be aware that library catalogs and databases sometimes require you to use specialized vocabulary such as subject headings or thesaurus terms, and your choice of search terms will affect your search results!
- Refine your topic, review your notes and working bibliography, Revisit useful resources, consult with Reference staff, begin to write your first draft.
Library Databases and Internet Resources
