Andrea Baruzzi (Sciences)
Sarah Elichko (Social Sciences)
• Recognition
knowing when a student you're advising might benefit
from working with the libraries
• Familiarity
with using a few key services & resources
{subscriptions, books, collections, tools}
{ library staff, research librarians }
{Article Delivery, EZBorrow}
• Asking “has anyone studied this before?”
• Verifying a claim or argument
• Overwhelmed by the amount of information you're finding
• Unsure about the quality and reliability of sources
{some situations when the libraries may be useful}
• Writing a research paper
• Needing a specific book
Think about your research and information-finding experiences at Swarthmore so far.
What do you wish you'd known sooner?
Interest in climate change
How do you turn a broad area of interest like this into a research question?
Open-ended keyword search
• Who is in a position to know?
• Who cares about this topic?
Who = academic disciplines, professions
Two possibilities:
Knowledge-based
approach
Handbooks & Companions
Exploring research interests
What / Focus more on providing overviews than making arguments
Why / Understand the central questions in an academic discipline, and how scholars have approached particular topics of interest
Handbooks & Companions
Exploring research interests
How / Use Tripod to find
"climate change" AND (handbook OR companion)
"exact phrase"
( remember PEMDAS? )
use OR to
search for
synonyms
Handbooks & Companions // Exploring research interests
Try it: Looking for a topic of interest in Tripod, find a relevant scholarly handbook or companion.
Example:
"climate change" AND (handbook OR companion)
• Relevance: may be the whole book, or just one chapter
• Too few results:
- Try broader search terms
• Too many results:
- Change search from keyword --> title
- Filter your search results by date
Review Articles
Navigating academic disciplines
What / Generally narrower in scope than handbooks and companions, review articles explore how different scholars in a discipline have approached a particular question
Why / Roadmap for understanding how scholars in a discipline have approached a certain topic
How / Find using article databases (e.g. Web of Science) or specialized resources (e.g. Annual Reviews website)
Review Articles
Navigating academic disciplines
How / Find using article databases
Handbooks & Companions
• Look in: Tripod (Books & More)
• Search: "climate change" AND ("handbook" OR "companion")
Review Articles
• Web of Science: On results page, ☑ Reviews
• Annual Reviews
Exploring research interests
Try it: Work in pairs, one student and one mentor
Discuss ways to focus student's research interest
Use handbooks, companions, and review articles to identify relevant disciplines and possible approaches
Other tools for exploring research interests and academic disciplines: