Research Guides: CMP-120 (Farr, Fall 2020): Locate information

Locate

Next, find information about your topic.

What types of sources will be good for your topic, books, audio, journals, magazines, websites?

What search tools can help you locate them, the library library catalog, journal databases, web search engines?

Depending on what you find, you might need to revise your topic or search strategy.

If you are having trouble finding information on your topic, always feel free to ask a librarian.

Information Cycle refers to when an event happened,,how is information produced and distributed, and how it changes over time.
What do you need for your research: books, magazine, journals or newspapers? Check out this research guide The Best Source Types.
How do you know if an article is scholarly? Check this research guide Scholarly vs. Popular.
or watch the short video.

Search Tips - A Tutorial

Capitalize your connectors AND/OR

1. Phrase Search-keep a phrase together so it will not get separated and lose intended meaning

Example

"yellowstone park"

"sandy hook"

2. Truncations - to search words of various endings

Example

comput* -computer, computers, computerize computerized, computerinzing, computational, computation

wom?n - woman or women

girl*-girl, girls, girlish

3. Boolean Operators - use AND/ OR/ NOT to connect your keywords - Boolean Machine.

Example- AND

california AND parks

"yellowstone park" AND "wild life"

Example- OR

women OR girl* OR female*

research OR survey or case stud*

Example- NOT (AND NOT)

yellowstone NOT park

clinton AND NOT hillary

4. Use parenthesis and quotation marks for logical execution of search terms

"sexual harassment" AND ("work place" OR office)

Databases
Find all the databases of Rider Libraries by subject or by the names of the databases.
One Search
Search for Rider University libraries' books, Search for Rider University libraries' books, CDs, DVDs and articles from multiple databases including Newspaper Source Plus. Capitalize Boolean connectors OR/AND as you connect keywords.
CQ Researcher
Non-biased coverage of today's most controversial issues.
Points of View Reference Center
Provide students with a series of essays that present multiple sides of a current issue.
Access World News
Include domestic and international newspapers and newswires.

Find a perfect article but how do you know if you have access to the full text? This Finding the Full Text of Articles Research Guide can help you.
What if there is no link to the full text of the article? We might have access through another database. We might have access through another database. Use the Journals link to check. Enter the name of the journal, magazine or newspaper in the search box.
Still have trouble finding text? Ask a librarian .

Library Catalog

Advanced Search

Tutorial on How to Search Online Catalog

Sample book search

1. At the Advanced Search box, enter cell* phone OR mobile phone, Limit to Subject

2. Under Location > Moore Stacks (shelves)

3. Use the book call number to find books on the shelves.

Library One Search Search tips:

1. Use Advanced search interface

2. Limit search in Abstract or Subject field or a combination to narrow down the results with fewer items

3. Limit to Online Access to find the Library's full-text journals, magazines, newspapers and ebooks on your topics.

4. Limit to more current date range, depending on your topics.

5. Capitalize connectors AND (for words of different concepts) /OR (for synonyms) to search with keywords

Your Topics

police reform, politicizing masks; women balance career and family, gay right movement, LGBTQIA; child poverty, hunger, immigration;racism, white privilege, bigotry

1. Is voting by mail troublesome for election?

vot* AND mail* AND election

2. President Trump's management of COVID-19?
trump AND covid-19

3. Discrimination of LBTQIA in the workplace

LGBT* AND (workplace OR office)

4. Child poverty prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic
"child* poverty" AND covid-19 pandemic

5. Is police prejudice against the blacks?
police AND black*

6. Are immigrants burden or merit to the US?
immigrant* AND (burden OR merit)

7. How women balance career and family?

women OR career AND (home OR family)