Stewart Library
owns or has access to a large number of resources to help in
your research.
Connecting from
home: For library databses, you 'll need your student
ID #, beginning with W. Don't know it? Directions are
available on our Connecting from Home
Guide.
Getting Started:
if you're not sure of a topic or need some background information,
reference books can be very helpful. Some good ones to start
with are:
| AccessScience
- science encyclopedia |
requires WSU ID |
| Xreferplus
- dictionaries & encyclopedias covering many topics |
requires WSU ID |
| Oxford
Reference Online - dictionaries & encyclopedias covering
many topics |
requires WSU ID |
| Dictionary of the History of Ideas
(old, but useful for earlier history.) |
REF CB 5 .D52 9973 |
| Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology,
and Medicine in Non-Nestern Cultures |
REF Q124.8.E53 1997 |
| The Wilson Chronology of Science and Technology |
REF Q125.O26 1997 |
| African American Firsts in Science & Technology |
REF Q141.W43 1999 |
| Science in Dispute |
REF Q175.S364 2002 |
| Encyclopedia of Ethics in Science and Technology |
REF Q175.35.B37 2002 |
| Encyclopedia of Computers and Computer History |
REF QA76.15.E53 2001 |
| The Cutting Edge : an Encyclopedia of Advanced
Technologies |
REF T9.C96 2000 |
| The New Way Things Work |
REF T47.M18 1998 |
Finding Books:
Use the WSU
online catalog to find what books and other materials,
such as videos, the Library owns.
Good searches
to try:
- technology and social aspects
- computers and social aspects
- information technology and social aspects
- cyberspace and social aspects
- internet and social aspects
- your subject and social aspects
- computers and civilization
- your subject and culture
Finding Articles:
The best way to find articles
is to use one of the Library's article databases. These
databases provide references to articles in journals, magazines
& newspapers. In many cases, the actual article is available
on the computer.
Our databases are
available from home or work. Just click on the link and enter your
W# ID number when asked. Don't know your ID? Directions for finding
them are available on our Connecting
from Home page.
- Academic Search
Premier is a general database that allows you to search
important journals in many fields, including all areas of history.
It has many full-text articles and is a good place to begin your
research.
- CQ
Researcher - this is a very good place to find a general
overview. Articles will give background, history, statistics,
etc.
- Reader's
Guide Retrospective - Reader's Guide from 1890
- 1982. Search general and news magazines using current
or original subject headings. This is a good place to find
old articles in Popular Mechanics, Popular Science or Scientific
American. For information after 1982, use Academic
Search Premier
- Lexis/Nexis
Universe Full-text coverage of
many news, legal, and business resources. Dates of coverage vary,
many update daily.
- Ethnic NewsWatch
Full text articles from minority and ethnic newspapers,
magazines, and journals in English and Spanish.
- GenderWatch
Full text Newspaper, magazine, and journal articles addressing
the impact of gender in society.
Doing research
on the use of technology in a specific field?
- to research medical technology, look in a
medical database
- to research theater technology look in a performing
arts database
- to research technology in art, look in an art database.
Ask a librarian to help
determine which database is best for your topic.
Finding Journals
Ejournals
is a database of all the full-text and print journals, magazines
and newspapers that are available to WSU library patrons.
You can search the name of the journal by title or title keyword
to get a link to the resource.
Interlibrary Loan:
If we do not own a particular
book or article you need, we will borrow it for you from another
library through Interlibrary
Loan.
There's a
lot of good information out on the web. Unfortunately, some
it's not so good, so be sure to evaluate, evaluate, evaluate!
Evaluation
How do you
evaluate websites? Try our Evaluating
Information guide for tips and techniques. (This works
for print sources too!)
Gotten an
email about the draft, banking scams, etc. and want to know if it's
true?
try:
Snopes.com - and pay
attention to how they check rumors out
Practice
evaluating. These sites are fun, but are they reliable?
Can you tell why or why not? (Ask your instructor or a librarian
if you're not sure.)
You can't
find everything on the web, but you can find a lot. Make it
easy on yourself and learn how to use a search engine properly -
always check out the advanced search features. I recommend
www.google.com. Other
good search engines to try are: alltheweb.com
and teoma.com. As a general
rule, avoid metasearch engines such as Dogpile.
The results are usually so general that you waste a lot of
time.
Learn
how to Google like a pro:
A Scholarly Guide to Google from Widener Library, Harvard.
"The Hidden Web"
consists of sites that search engines can't find, usually due to
the type of files they contain, such as database files. Many
of these sites are very useful. The best way to find them
is to use directory listings. Good general directories include:
Librarian's Index to the Internet
,
and The Internet Public Library,
as well as the directory features of Google
and Yahoo.
Useful
Guide
- Making
Sense of Evidence from History Matters - excellent guides
to how use use and evaluate different types of historical evidence
- Clearly identify your information need
- Identify key words and search
terms to match your topic
- Develop search statements using
advanced search techniques such as Boolean logic, adjacency
searching and truncation.
- Use the Online
catalog to find books, videos and other materials
- Use an appropriate article database
to find journal articles, ask a librarian for help if you're
not sure what's best
- Use Interlibrary loan
to get materials that are not in Stewart Library
- Use search
engines to find Web information
- Carefully
evaluate the information you find for usefulness and quality
- Revise your search terms and strategy to expand or narrow your
results, be creative, look in other areas
- Use appropriate style to document
and cite research. Remember if you don't document properly
you could be guilty of cheating. See our plagiarism
guide for more information.
- Ask for HELP
at Reference ,
via phone or email