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To get started today, log into a classroom computer or your own personal laptop, tablet, etc. and open the MRU Library website https://library.mtroyal.ca/
How to find the ANTH 1103 course guide:
Let's Get Started:
Agenda:
Selected Assignment Details
Encyclopedias
Strengths: short, contains background information on a topic, normally a great starting point when you are just learning about a topic
Weaknesses: too short, print encyclopedias are out of date quickly, Wikipedia has reliability issues
Books and Book Chapters
Strengths: Provides an in-depth investigation into a topic
Weaknesses: too long, sometimes hard to tell whether it is scholarly
Scholarly Journal Articles
Strengths: often based on research findings or extensive review, written by experts, reviewed by experts, provides evidence
Weaknesses: Sometimes written using discipline-specific language or terminology, hard to understand,
Media Sources (news, online magazine articles)
Strengths: Good for current information
Weaknesses: Sometimes biased, sometimes written to entertain, often not written by experts, often not reviewed by experts
Websites & Social Media
Strengths: Highly accessible, includes government info
Weaknesses: It is hard to assess credibility and reliability...anyone can post online or create a website
Lectures, Ted Talks, Interviews, Recordings, Testimony
Strengths: Primary, first-hand accounts
Weaknesses: It is hard to assess credibility and reliability...single perspective relying on the accuracy of memory.
Activity: Differences between scholarly and non-scholarly sources.
Sort the characteristics into either scholarly or non-scholarly. If unsure, leave it in the middle.
Scholarly Articles
What is peer-review?
When a source has been peer-reviewed it has undergone the review and scrutiny of a review board of colleagues in the author's field. They evaluate this source as part of the body of research for a particular discipline and make recommendations regarding its publication in a journal, revisions prior to publication, or, in some cases, reject its publication.
General Characteristics
Quality
Quality refers to how trustworthy credible, and reputable your source is.
Visual for Quality and Relevence
What are the best tools for the information that I need?
Multidisciplinary Search Tools
Subject Specific Search Tools
Background / Reference Search Tools (Use the subject guides to help identify these)
Type of Source Tools (Use the subject guides to help identify these)
General Searching Tips:
Less is More: Start with one or two words and then add one additional term at a time
Phrase searching: Use "quotation marks" around key ideas made up of multiple words
Use limits: These refine (narrow) your search using different restrictions
Boolean: OR / AND / NOT
Truncation: Use an asterisk * to find different endings to your keywords
Using LibrarySearch
Things to remember when using LibrarySearch:
Sign in to save searches, items, and to request materials.
Use the pin icon to save books and articles.
Use the filters on the right. Common filters are Availability, Resource Type, Peer-Review and Date.
Some items won't be available. You can request unavailable items using interlibrary loan.
When viewing an item record, scroll down to the Get It or Full-Text section to get the item.
Additional LibrarySearch Features
Finding Non-Academic Sources
Chicago Manual of Style Sources