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LibrarySearch Activity

Open this form: 

https://bit.ly/GNED1401

 
Answer the Questions using LibrarySearch and this guide.

LibrarySearch Tips

🔎 Things to remember when using LibrarySearch:

  1. Sign in to save searches, items, and to request materials.

  2. Use the pin icon 📌to save books and articles to your Favorites for future reference.

  3. Use the filters on the right side of the results screen. You will use Availability, Resource Type, and Date filters most often. Filter settings can be "locked in" 🔒 so that you don't have to reapply them to every search that you make.

  4. When viewing an item record, scroll down to the Get it (for hardcopy/physical items) or Access options (for electronic items) section to get access to the item.


Helpful Search Operators to Use in LibrarySearch

You can use what are called search operators to search in a way to combine or omit different terms by telling the search engine exactly what you want and this can help you save some time (and frustration!)

  • Use quotation marks to keep specific phrases together:

    • "climate crisis"

    • "surveillance capitalism"

  • Use AND to combine search terms (LibrarySearch automatically creates an AND when you write terms one after another, but it can be good practice to use an AND to help you understand the searches that you build) (AND narrows your search):

    • "social media" AND privacy

  • Use OR to connect two or more similar terms (OR broadens your search):

    • "social media" OR "social networking"

  • Use an asterisk to find different variations on a root word:

    • health* (in this example, the term health* will find items that contain the words health, healthy, and healthcare)

Information Sources for Academic Research

Sources can make or break your academic writing assignments.

💪Good quality academic and professional sources should provide relevant, credible evidence or informed opinion.

Questions to Ask:

What does high quality evidence look like for this particular topic? 

Who has the authority, experience or expertise to be writing about this topic? What are the qualifications or the creator?

Where, why, and with whom would these creators be sharing their ideas (e.g. with the general public, special interest group, other subject experts)?

 

What are the features of Scholarly (Academic) Sources?

Author / Creator Subject matter expert; often with advanced education (e.g., PhD) or working at a university
Verification / Quality Control Reviewed by an editorial board or other subject matter experts (peer review)
Audience & Language Researchers, scholars, students; language is academic or technical. Not aimed at the general public
Content Reports original research or analysis AND builds on previous knowledge. Not just opinion
Use of Evidence Arguments based largely on existing evidence. Long reference lists and many in-text citations
Access Usually through the Library or Google Scholar; usually paid access

 

Librarian

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Sara Sharun
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