Finding Resources
Once you have identified and framed your research topic, you will want to explore different aspects of the topic by looking at library resources that can provide insight, information, and critical analysis. It is important for you to familiarize yourself with the various types of sources you will need and to learn how to use those sources effectively. In this point of the Compass you will gain a better understanding of:
- Different types of resources -- encyclopedias, journal articles, books, news sources, videos, and full-text databases -- available at Columbia University Libraries.
- Effective guidelines and strategies for searching CLIO and library databases.
Different Types of Resources
Because we receive information from so many different outlets, including television, Internet, journals, books, newspapers, and email, it can be difficult to know how to begin (or how to limit) your search. But if you follow a rational plan, you can find a manageable amount of useful, reliable material in a reasonable amount of time. The first step is to find appropriate materials and assess them quickly. Remember that you already have valuable information to get you started: your course syllabus and readings.
Reference Resources
General reference sources like encyclopedias, dictionaries, or bibliographies, are good places to find background information, get an overview of a research topic, and identify possible sources of specific information about your research questions.
Whether in print or electronic format, they include a variety of possible sources.
Articles
Articles usually give you a more focused approach to a topic than a complete book. They also provide access to the latest research findings and debates in a given subject area.
Types of articles
There are two different types of articles that you can use in your research: scholarly journal articles and popular press magazine articles. These two types of articles are aimed at different audiences and serve different purposes.
Where and how to find articles
If you already have a specific citation to an article in a journal or magazine, search CLIO by journal title to see if Columbia Libraries owns the journal and in which format. In your title search remember to drop initial articles such as "the," "a," or "an." A journal may be available in a variety of formats:
- Current print issues
- Bound volumes (a year's worth of a journal run bound together as a hardcover book)
- Microfilm
- Electronic (full-text online edition)
If you are looking for an article by topic and don't know the exact journal it might be in, remember that you never use CLIO to find journal articles. Instead, look in print periodical indexes or in Databases in Electronic Resources on LibraryWeb.
There are two kinds of article databases listed in our Electronic Resources/Databases
Books
Books discuss a topic in more depth than a journal article and lead you to other valuable sources in the field.
There are 7.5 million volumes in the Columbia University Libraries so there will be hundreds - if not thousands - of books on a broad topic such as New York City History. But you can quickly assess a book's relevance to your topic by following some basic guidelines.
How to evaluate books
- Skim the Table of Contents, Introduction or Preface to see how often your topic is mentioned and from what point of view. This is a good indicator of whether or not this book addresses your topic and may be relevant even if it presents information you disagree with.
- Look at the Bibliography or Works Cited to see what kinds of journals or books this author used to bolster his/her argument. How current are the references? Are they only from one kind of resource? Does it seem to be a comprehensive list that includes books, articles, and websites? The bibliography included in scholarly works is often an excellent source for further resources, primary sources, and to see the key publications in the field. See the Toolkit for an explanation of primary and secondary sources.
- Who is the author or editor? What are his/her credentials? Is he/she an academic well known in the field?
- Who is the publisher? A university press will be more discriminating in the kinds of scholarly books it accepts for publication than a publisher aimed at a more general audience. This is a good indicator of the book's authority.
Where and how to find books
Find books in the Columbia Libraries by searching CLIO, Columbia's online catalog, by title, author, keyword, or subject. See the next section in this Compass Point for guidelines to searching, and refer to the CLIO HELP pages for a detailed explanation of all CLIO features.
Remember that while more than 90 percent of Columbia's library collections are available through CLIO, there are still some older items that can only be found in the card catalog. Ask a librarian for assistance if you need help using the card catalog.
Visual Materials
These include videos and DVDs of classic, documentary, and performing arts films. They are used to support your research by depicting real or fictionalized versions of events. Search for visual material by title or use Quick Limits in CLIO.
Digital images of maps, photographs, and unique archival materials are available on LibraryWeb in E-Images.
Academic Websites
These can include unpublished proceedings, working papers, and locally published electronic journals of the most current research currently taking place in universities. At Columbia, Earthscape and CIAO are good examples of this type of resource. Use these resources to find information on the latest issues and concerns in a specific field.
Search Engine Websites
Valuable research exists on the Internet, available to all. Search for material using keywords or titles, but be sure to evaluate the credibility of public web resources more carefully than the Databases on LibraryWeb. One tip is to look for websites ending in .edu or .gov for reliable educational or government sites. See Compass Point 3 - Evaluating Resources for specific strategies to evaluate Internet sources.
There's more to research than Google. Although Google can be a useful tool, do not rely on it as your sole resource. The quality of material you will find through Google varies considerably and, as a result, you will need to be extremely discriminating. Many of the most valuable databases - especially the ones available through LibraryWeb - are not freely available on the Internet and so you will not find them through Google. Columbia Libraries subscribes to specific databases based on reliability, currency, and the credibility of information - take advantage of Columbia Libraries' evaluation process to streamline your search.
Special Collections and Archives
Several libraries at Columbia have unique collections of rare books, papers of famous individuals, architectural drawings, oral history transcripts, ancient artifacts, and manuscripts. Some of these items are listed in CLIO and can be searched using the Quick Limit "Archival Collections." Look for finding aids on Library home pages or consult a librarian if you would like to access this material.
Search Strategies
Knowing where to look for resources is one important step in the research process. However, knowing how to search effectively will help you find the most relevant material about your topic. Use the guidelines below when searching CLIO. The same basic principles hold true for database searching as well, but refer to the Toolkit for a more complete explanation of database search strategies. In the Toolkit you will also find specific advice for database searching provided by Bob Scott, reference librarian at Butler Library.
Search Guidelines for Known Resources in CLIO
Title
If you know the title or journal title of a work, search in the appropriate field in the Basic Search screen. The default search is a title search. When searching by title, drop initial articles such as "the," "a," or "an." For example, if you're looking for the play The Comedy of Errors, search for: < comedy of errors > in the title field. CLIO uses implicit truncation, which means you don't need to type the full title of a work, just the first few words.
Author
Use a last name, first name format to search for authors. For an author with a multi-word last name CLIO will offer a cross-reference to the standard format of the name. For example, if you are searching for works by Vincent van Gogh, search in the author field for: van Gogh, Vincent. The results list offers a More Info box that refers you to the standard format used (Gogh, Vincent van).
For a detailed explanation of all the CLIO search features see CLIO HELP.
Search Guidelines for Unknown Resources in CLIO
Keyword
Use a keyword search when you don't have a specific title in mind but want to find books about a topic. A keyword search looks for words in every field of the bibliographic record. When you search by keyword in the CLIO Basic Search, you MUST combine multiple words using AND, OR, NOT, or Quotation Marks. Otherwise, you will get a message that the search cannot be interpreted. For example, if you want to search for works on global warming, use quotation marks to indicate the phrase: "global warming." If you want to search for works about global warming and pollution use <"global warming" and pollution> in the keyword field. Click on Guided Keyword Search to combine terms and concepts. In the Guided Keyword search you don't need to use quotation marks to indicate a phrase. Instead, use the drop down list and choose "as a phrase."
Subject Heading
A subject heading search is more precise than a keyword search. Only use subject heading searches for people (Shakespeare) or if you know the exact subject terms assigned by the Library of Congress (LC). For example, "motion pictures" is the correct subject heading for movies. If you don't know the exact subject heading first try a keyword search. Look at the relevant results and note the LC Subject Heading field in the bibliographic record. You can click on the appropriate subject heading to find more works under that heading. For example, if you're looking for a book on the cold war and women, you can first try a keyword search in CLIO <"cold war" and women> and then find a relevant result such as, Remaking Chinese America: immigration, family, and community, 1940-1965. The CLIO record lists the LC Subject Heading, Cold War--Social aspects--United States, which can then be searched for a more precise listing of books on the subject.
For a detailed explanation of all the CLIO search features see CLIO HELP.
continue to... Evaluating Resources
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