Research Guides: EDUC 3013 (Garcia): School and Society

Library Research Session

Questions for Today

1. How can you make connections with life experiences or really different interests and your reading groups?

2. How can you know the best place to look for information on a given topic?

3. How do you know when a topic is too broad/narrow? How can you determine what’s the right scope?

4. What words do you choose to search? What other tips will help?

5. How do you know you’ve found the “good” stuff-- credible, reliable, current, etc?

ERIC (Proquest)
The U.S. Department of Education sponsors this comprehensive database of education literature.
Social Sciences Full Text (EBSCO)
Scholarly articles in the fields of addition studies, anthropology, criminology, economics, family studies, gerontology, minority studies, political science, psychology, social work, and urban studies. Includes the following collections: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson), Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective: 1907-1984 (H.W. Wilson)
Criminal Justice Abstracts (EBSCO)
Comprehensive coverage of crime and criminology research from all over the world.
PsycINFO (ProQuest)
Useful for human computer interaction. Covers psychology and psychological aspects of medicine, psychiatry, anthropology, business, law, and similar disciplines.

National Education Policy Center
The National Education Policy Center is based out of CU's School of Education. They produce reports, white papers, and showcase policy conversations on education topics.

Education Week
The Education Week subscription includes current and historical access to Education Week, digital directions, Edweek Market Brief, Teacher magazine, TopSchoolJobs, and special reports.

Academic Search Premier (EBSCO)
Multidisciplinary index to thousands of popular and scholarly journals, including engineering trade journals, from 1975 to current.
ProQuest Central
Contains full-text dissertations, market reports from 40 countries, and newspapers from the United States, Canada, and other countries. Includes the following collections:

Film & Television Literature Index (EBSCO)
Bibliographic database that provides cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for more than 380 publications.
Communication & Mass Media Complete (EBSCO)
Comprehensive research resource for communication and related disciplines.
Music Periodicals Database (ProQuest)
Provides indexing and abstracts for several hundred international music periodicals from over 20 countries, plus full text for more than 140 of the indexed journals.

Center for American Women and Politics
Scholarly research and current data about American women's political participation.
Women's Studies International (EBSCO)
Includes latest scholarship in feminist research.
Family & Society Studies Worldwide (EBSCO)
Resource for materials about marriage, family, and society.
Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 (Alexander Street)
Documents organized into projects pertaining to women and social movements in the United States.

America: History & Life with Full Text (EBSCO)
Most important for secondary sources on the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present.
Black Thought and Culture (Alexander Street)
Includes the works of black American leaders in a wide range of disciplines.
Hispanic-American Periodicals Index (HAPI)
Spanish-language journal articles from and about Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latinos in the United States.
Bibliography of Native North Americans (EBSCO)
Index of works about American Indians from 1500 to the present.
Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS) (EBSCO)
The most comprehensive index of Asian studies in the humanities and social sciences, with coverage from 1971-present.

Many library databases have advanced search screens like this:

Boolean Operator	Example	What it does
AND	Halo AND language ideology	Narrows your search
OR	teens OR adolescents OR "young adults"	Broadens your search
NOT	"music education" NOT "music teachers"	Weeds out unhelpful stuff
"" (Quotation marks)	"multiple personality disorder"	Searches an exact phrase, those words in that order
* (Asterisk)	communic* (will include possibilities like communication, communicators, communicating, etc)	Includes all possible word ending variations

What’s the title of the publication? __________________________________________________
(Hint: different from the article title. Often Journal, Review, or Quarterly will be part of the journal title)
Are the Authors experts (PhDs, MDs, etc)? ___________________
Does the article follow a format like this?
- Abstract / Summary
  Introduction or Literature Review
  Methods: Did they conduct an experiment? What did they do?
  Results
  Discussion
  Conclusion
Is there a References section or footnotes/endnotes?
Uh oh: does the article heading say “Perspectives,” “Opinion,” “Editorial,” or indicate anything other than a research article?
How long is the article? (Hint: Usually between 5-30 pages)
Are there charts, graphs, and tables of numbers?
Was the article reviewed by other scholars/experts to see if the research is of high quality? (Hint: Do a Google search. Look for categories like, “Instructions for Authors” or “About the Journal” on publisher’s webpage, which often mention "peer review" or "refereed" articles)
What type of study is this? Case study, research experiment, review article, etc?