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York College of Pennsylvania, Schmidt Library

Schmidt Library: Tutorials

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Faculty: Request Tutorial Results

Are you using our tutorials in one of your courses? Have you asked your students to complete any of our tutorials? You can request the results, including a list of students who completed these tutorials by submitting the form below.

Feel free to request that a report be emailed to you at a future date or ask for immediate results.

Narrowing a Topic

Narrowing a Topic

One of the most important steps in the research process is narrowing your topic and figuring out how to communicate with websites, databases, and search engines to find what you're looking for.

In this tutorial you will learn to:

  • Create Research Questions
  • Create Keywords using Research Questions
  • Narrow a Topic using Background Sources

Creating a Research Plan

Creating a Research Plan

Research is about more than just finding information. It's about knowing what kind of information you need, when you need it in your research process, and where to locate it. So, we need to make a plan for our research journey.

In this tutorial you will learn to:

  • Create a research plan

  • Understand the role of various kinds of sources in research

  • Locate articles on controversial topics

  • Locate sources in Summon

Popular, Scholarly, and Trade Sources

Popular, Scholarly, and Trade Sources

There is a lot of information out there. Even in Summon a simple search can return millions of results. However if we know the kinds of sources we're looking for, we can use that to narrow down our search and find the kinds of sources we really need for our projects.

In this tutorial you will learn to:

  • Identify popular, scholarly, and trade sources
  • Locate popular, scholarly, and trade sources in Summon

Find Articles, Ebooks, and More

Find Articles, Ebooks, and More

Summon is a tool for searching multiple library databases at once to help you locate the articles and information you need for research.

Databases usually are more trustworthy than articles from a regular Google search because articles on databases have been specifically chosen by librarians and experts (researchers and other professionals in their fields).

In this tutorial you will learn to:

  • Use Summon to find ebooks and articles for research

Reading & Locating Scholarly Articles

Reading/Locating Scholarly Articles

Scholarly articles will make up most of the sources you use in your assignment. This tutorial walks you through the process of finding them and provides strategies for making them easier to read.

In this tutorial you will learn to:

  • Locate scholarly articles in Summon
  • Read a scholarly article

Locating Primary Research Articles

Locating Primary Research Articles (Empirical Studies)

When doing research, especially in the sciences, sometimes your research something is something testable. However, it’s not always possible to conduct an experiment yourself. So, finding empirical studies is a good way to see how other experts have used surveys, observations, and experiments to study a topic.

In this tutorial you will learn to:

  • Use Summon to locate research-based articles (empirical studies)

If you're researching for a behavioral sciences topic such as in psychology, you have even more options in our subject databases to locate empirical studies.

In this tutorial you will learn to:

  • Use Summon to locate empirical studies
  • Use PsycARTICLES to locate empirical studies for behavioral sciences

Find Current Research in a Field

Find Current Research

Sometimes you need to explore current research in your field to see what other experts are currently discussion. Other times, you may simply be looking for ideas on a potential topic for your own research. For both these options, finding recent issues of peer-reviewed journals is a great way to get started.

In this tutorial you will learn to:

  • Locate recent articles in peer-reviewed journals

Nursing Research

Nursing Research

Researching for the field of nursing comes with its own challenges. In this tutorial, we'll learn to to use nursing databases like CINHAL filter our search results, and save citation information.

In this tutorial you will learn to:

  • Create PICO Questions

  • Refine PICO keywords with medical terminology

  • Locate sources in CINHAL

Education Research

Education Research

Education can be a very interdisciplinary field to research, which makes knowing how to describe our topics especially important. In these tutorials, we'll learn to to use education databases like ERIC and the Professional Development Collection to filter our search results, and save citation information.

In this tutorial you will learn to:

  • Navigate the Education Research Guide

  • Refine searches with education terminology

  • Locate sources in ERIC and the Professional Development Collection

Evaluating Websites

Evaluating Websites

Websites should always be the last place you go for research. Always begin with books and articles from the Library databases because they are easier to trust. However, when you do need to use websites in your research, we want to make sure that we're using sites that we can trust. Fortunately we can use the CRAAP test to evaluate websites to find ones that are more trustworthy to use.

In this tutorial you will learn to:

  • Evaluate websites for reliability using the CRAAP test.

Citation Tutorials

Creating Citations

Citations give credit to the sources you used in order to create your research. Not only does this help avoid plagiarism, but it also helps your audience check your sources and allows them to trust what you have to say more easily.

There are a lot of different citation styles. Choose the one you need to use from the list below.

In this tutorial you will learn to:

  • Create and use citations

Find Print Books/DVDs

Using the Catalog to Find Print Books, DVDs, and Print Magazines

Books are a great way to start your research and get background information on a topic. To find a print book, movie, or print magazine about your topic, you’ll want to check the library Catalog.

In this tutorial you will learn to:

  • Use the Schmidt Library catalog to find physical books, DVDs, and magazines
  • Place holds to request materials that are currently checked out

 

 

InterLibrary Loans

InterLibrary Loans

One of the biggest misconceptions about the library is thinking that the only sources you have access to are the ones on our shelves or in our databases. Our library is a part of a much larger network of libraries working together to share resources so that everyone is more likely to find what they need.

In this tutorial you will learn to:

  • Borrow items Schmidt Library doesn't own from other libraries
  • Use E-ZBorrow and ILLiad to place interlibrary loan requests

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