WRIT 100-07:

Library Research

Mackenzie Brooks

Assistant Professor & Digital Humanities Librarian

English Department Liaison

brooksm@wlu.edu // Leyburn 218

October 31, 2016

By the end of this session, you will...

1. Understand how a library works.

2. Be able to "search everything."

3. Have resources for your assignment

How the Library Works

How the Library Works

Collections + People

https://www.flickr.com/photos/8601342@N03/4549779936/

Libraries Before the Internet

Libraries After the Internet

Search Everything is:

• a discovery tool/system/service
• something we pay for
• potentially biased
• one of the best of its kind
• still not perfect
• constantly changing

Everything =

• 384,267 e-books
• 94,735 e-journals
• 513,255,675 records
• 975,050 catalog items (mostly print)
• 1.5 billion citations
• 90 content types

Remember

You have to tell Search Everything that you know what you're looking for.

Also

If Search Everything is too much, try a discipline-specific database.

A-Z Database > limit by subject

A word on Google Scholar...

Research!?!

words of wisdom

1. Research is iterative.

2. Information overload = filter failure.

3. There is no perfect source. There is no perfect database.

4. Have fun!

Zotero is your friend.

library.wlu.edu/zotero

Research Workshop

1. Identify your search terms by picking out the nouns in your research question.
2. Make a list of synonyms
3. Test them out in Search Everything. Browse the results, should you add more keywords to your list?
4. When you find a relevant article/book, check the bibliography for other useful sources.