RESEARCH

INTRODUCTION

TO

PROFESSOR SARAH COHN

REFERENCE & INSTRUCTION LIBRARIAN

September 30, 2021

Hello!

I'm Sarah, your friendly librarian

My pronouns are she/her/hers and you can reach me at scohn@ccny.cuny.edu

Esperanza

AGENDA

How do you start your research?

Evaluating information

Keywords & search strategies

Navigating library databases

Getting help

TODAY'S

padlet.com/scohn3/ENG110

How do you start your research?

Answer the first 3 questions at

Then pause & wait for instructions before moving on to the next section of the worksheet

INFORMATION

EVALUATING

Scholarly

  • Original research
  • Eyewitness accounts
  • Letters, diaries, tweets, works of art

Popular

Primary

  • Newspapers and magazines
  • Written by journalists
  • For everyone
  • Academic, Scholarly, Peer Reviewed journal articles
  • Written by academics/researchers
  • For other academics/researchers
  • Original research, theories, findings
  • Deep knowledge of the topic

TERMS

SEARCH

AKA KEYWORDS

what is your main topic?

what are the specifics?

combining different terms = different results

what are different ways to describe your ideas?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jgonzac/6306928175

STRATEGIES

SEARCH

use AND to connect terms

athletes AND activism

athletes AND activism AND race

use OR to connect synonyms

professional OR elite AND athletes AND activism

use "..." for phrases or names

"Black Lives Matter"

"Naomi Osaka"

"Colin Kaepernick"

DATABASES

LIBRARY

library.ccny.cuny.edu

OneSearch box

Databases link

  • Access to all 300+ databases at CCNY
  • Alphabetical or sort by subject
  • Log in with your CityMail info
  • Simple search bar option
  • Meta-search
    • Searches multiple databases at once
  • Log in with your CUNY single login info

but not all of them!

OneSearch

Academic Search Complete

JSTOR

Opposing Viewpoints in Context

Multi-

Disciplinary

HELP

GETTING

Professor Sarah Cohn

Reference & Instruction Librarian

scohn@ccny.cuny.edu

Virtual Reference Desk

Monday-Friday 11am-5pm

Saturday 10am-2pm

library.ccny.cuny.edu/askus

In-Person Reference Desk

Monday-Thursday 10am-4pm

library.ccny.cuny.edu/researchtoolkit

Research Toolkit