Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Research Skills: A Blog Series from your ELI Library staff

Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest http://quest.eb.com/images/132_1306928
Bringing It All Together

Over the past several weeks, your ELI Library staff has given you some key information you’ll need when doing research for your classes. If you’ve missed any of the topics, scroll down through the older blog posts to find them. Topics have included Scholarly vs. Popular Resources, Peer Review, Using Google and Wikipedia, Searching Library Databases, Evaluating Websites, and Citations.
Remember, your access point to all NOVA Library resources is the library homepage at www.nvcc.edu/library/.  You can search for books, e-Books, audio, videos, and articles. You’ll find research guides for many subjects as well as guides to help you cite your work. 
Check out the ELI Webinars schedule at http://eli.nvcc.edu/webinars.htm . Throughout the semester, ELI Library staff offer library orientation webinars as well as citation webinars. 

You can find videos on many of the topics this blog covered on our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/NOVALibraries.
And we want to hear from you! Are there any topics that we haven’t covered that you’re curious about? Would you like something demonstrated in a video? We love suggestions or any questions that you may have about research or library resources. Email us at ELI-Library@nvcc.edu.
Finally, a few quick tips on organizing your research:

·         Keep a research log. Write down your sources, and keep track of what information you found in them and on what page.

·         Do your citations FIRST, not last. Who wants to track down that article again because you forgot to write down the volume number or date?

·         Remember that research is NOT a linear process. After some initial research, you’ll probably need to refine your topic (narrow it, broaden it, or change it all together) based on what you find. As you’re writing, you’ll probably need to go back and fill in gaps of information as well.

·         You’re not alone. We can help you wherever you are in the research process. Just email us at the address above.

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