SD 110 /PQ Success in College

February 14, 2012 3-3:40 P.M. AC-3G09 IL Classroom

Library Resources

Practical issues

- Library Homepage: http://www.york.cuny.edu/library

- ID card barcode - 1. borrow books. 2. order non-York books from other CUNY libraries

including using CLICS service. 3. request Interlibrary Loan items from non-

CUNY libraries. 4. remote access to York databases.

- An alternative method of remote access: VPN (your York network account)

- Be patient when searching online. Internet speed may vary from time to time.

- Ask reference librarian at Reference Desk for assistance

- Distinguish between popular and scholarly sources, e.g. academic journals vs. popular

magazines. (See handout)

Search

- CUNY+ Online Catalog: find books

- Reference databases: find journal articles

• A single, comprehensive database, e.g. Academic Search Complete/EBSCO

• A subject-specific database, e.g. PsycINFO

• EBSCO Multiple database: search through all EBSCO products

• EBSCO Integrated Search: search multiple databases including different vendors

• Using “Find it” (SFX) to retrieve full-text articles from other databases

• Keywords: significant and important terms that reflect your research topic.

• Boolean Logic Operators. And: narrows a search, e.g. women and army.

Or: increases the number of search results, e.g. women or female; army or

Military; computer or pc; adolescence or teenage. Not: filters out terms

that you do not want included in your search, e.g. computer not programming.

• Truncation/wildcard. child* to retrieve “child”, “children”, “childhood”, and

“childish”; wom*n to retrieve “women” and “woman”

• Nesting in Boolean searching. Use (…) and (…) to group words by concept and

to indicate the order of execution. Similar to math operation: 1+1×2=3

(1+1)×2=4,

e.g. (women or female) and (army or military); children and

violence and ((television or media) not cartoon*)

• Serials Solutions: find full-text e-Journals by title or subject. Search or Browse.

- Google Scholar. Linked to York holdings

- Compiling citations (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.)

• Manuals and handbooks are on Library Reserve.

• Built-in citing function in databases, e.g. EBSCO Cite

• Online citation tools, e.g. RefWorks (Group code [case sensitive]: RWYorkC)

Created: 2/14/12 Updated: 2/14/12