Knowledge, Search,
and Research

S3P Mentors

Andrea Baruzzi (Sciences)

Sarah Elichko (Social Sciences)

Visitors, residents, and mentors

Recognition
         
knowing when a student you're advising might benefit

          from working with the libraries

Familiarity

          with using a few key services & resources

Goals for today

Resources

Advice

Services

Spaces

{subscriptions, collections, tools}

  {subject librarians}

{Article Delivery, EZBorrow}

The Libraries

• 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?

How can you help someone clarify their research interests?

Interest in animal cognition

 

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

"animal cognition" 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: 

"animal cognition" 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

Review Articles
Navigating academic disciplines

How /   Find using article databases


Handbooks & Companions
   • Look in:  Tripod (Books & More)
   • Search: "animal cognition" AND ("handbook" OR "companion")

 

Review Articles
   • Web of Science:  On results page, Reviews
   • Google Scholar:  Published in: "Annual Review"

Exploring research interests


Try it:  Work in pairs, one student and one mentor

Discuss ways to focus student's research interest (climate change)

Use handbooks, companions, and review articles to identify relevant disciplines and possible approaches

Other tools for exploring research interests and academic disciplines:

Andrea Baruzzi  (Cornell)
abaruzz1@swarthmore.edu

Sarah Elichko  (McCabe)
selichk1@swarthmore.edu


librarian@swarthmore.edu

S3P Mentors 2017

By Swarthmore Reference