FRS 180 - Academic Self Management

Contact Information

Timothy Lynch Research and Instructional Services Librarian tlynch@usm.maine.edu (207) 780-5156/ 780-5344

Introduction

This library course guide is to be used with FRS 180 Academic Self Management class. Resources and Databases will lead students to information about finding topics for research and the research process.

Services

Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad)
How to get books, journal articles and other materials from off campus.

Reserve Items
Items that are required for class and are set aside by the instructor in either print or electronic form.

Reference Books

CQ Researcher ( Also available in print)
GOR Reference H 35 .C67 1991-2003

Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics
GOR Reference BJ 63 .A66 1998 [4 vols]

Databases

URSUS (University of Maine System Catalog)

Academic Search Premier ===== INFO

CQ Researcher =====INFO

Research Tips

Finding Books

URSUS is our catalog. Use the AND, OR, NOT operators to perform your search. The previous link is from the University of Utah. Note also the example below:

Basic Search Strategy:

Searching Using AND and OR:

1. State your topic in one sentence. (Ex. I'm looking for information about study skills in college)
2. Separate important terms. (Ex. study and skills and college)
3. Did you find enough information? If not continue. . . .
4. Add IMPORTANT synonyms and related terms that you would find in the professional literature. (study or homework or test) and (skills or technique) and (college or university)
5. Truncate terms to get plural as well as singular form.
   Ex. (study or study skills or homework or test*) and (skill* or technique*) and (college* or universit*)

Note graphic below: There are usually two methods to entering information in a database BASIC and ADVANCED.
The basic search usually has one box to enter information, while the advanced has multiple boxes. Note how the same search can be executed in either basic or advanced search boxes:

Note these Keywords are an excellent start but they may not encompass all the possible combinations or terms you need to find your research. Always allow for changes, substitutions and other tweaking--and remember to ask the librarian for help if you need it.

Finding Journal Articles

Journal articles from the databases above are researched the same way. But once you find a citation what do you do next?? Note the Finding Articles at USM link for information about obtaining journal articles.

Another feature of finding articles at USM is Article Linker . This button allows access to a number of access possibilities from finding out about electronic access of an article to whether an item is in URSUS to direct connections to Interlibrary Loan. Check out the demo on Article Linker!

Created by: Tim Lynch
Created on: 11.02.2006
Last Updated: 11.13.2006