5911 Maxwell Drive, Paradise, CA 95969
Phone: (530) 872-6425 | Fax: (530) 872-6427
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Ask-A-Librarian     Research Subscription Databases     Research Tools     Evaluation Tools     Plagiarism     Google Search More Effectively
Ask-A-Librarian
The librarian's job is to help you accomplish your research tasks.  When you need some guidance on how to do research for a paper or simply to research a topic of interest to you, please see Ms. Safarik.  She will be more than happy to help out!

If you're stuck and not sure how to proceed on a research project that you have already started, and Ms. Safarik is not currently available, "push the button" to the right to send your question to Ms. Safarik and receive an email answer! (please allow 1-2 work days for reply, school year only)
Safarik keyboard key
Research Subscription Databases
EBSCO Login
User name and password required for home use
Obtain these from:
1. handout in library
OR
2. login to Aeries and get info from the "resources" tab
Nettrekker research link
Results are all trustworthy websites
Research Tools
Almanac, Atlas: provides facts/figures in easy-to-find format
Encyclopedia, Manual, Handbook: provides concise (short-and-to-the-point) information, FAQ (frequently asked questions)
Index, Bibliography, Abstract, Concordance: guides user to information found in other sources
Internet: huge amount of information; there is a great need to carefully evaluate the information for accuracy and reliability
Newspapers: current events
Nonfiction Books: large amount of information on a topic, provides many details
Periodicals and Online Databases: provides current information
  • journals (type of periodical): tend to be more scholarly, more academic.  Many are "peer-reviewed" which means that the information is checked and verified by peers in the same field
  • magazines (type of periodical): less academic, popular-culture issues, leisure, etc.
Primary Sources, including interviews: provides first-hand information, eye witness accounts 
Evaluation Tools

Distinguishing Scholarly Journals from Non-Scholarly Journals

http://library.queensu.ca/inforef/tutorials/qcat/qeval.htm

Evaluating Web Sources

http://library.queensu.ca/inforef/tutorials/qcat/evalint.htm
http://www.neutralbay-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/library/infoeval.htm
http://www.multcolib.org/homework/webeval.html
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html
http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/webcrit.html

Plagiarism

Avoiding Plagiarism

http://sja.ucdavis.edu/academic-integrity.html
http://ec.hku.hk/plagiarism/introduction.htm
http://www.cln.org/themes/plagiarism.html
Google Search More Effectively

Google Search More Effectively

~ searches - The tilde (pronounced till'-day) ~ before a word looks for synonyms (with no space between it and the word). For example:

        highway safety ~elderly 

        ...will also find highway safety and seniors, senior citizens, and older drivers

Advanced Search - allows you to control what Google retrieves and refine your search in ways that the basic search box cannot. For example, you can set the Advanced Search to:

    * Find results with all the words or with an exact phrase
    * Return pages written in a particular language
    * Return results of a particular file format: Adobe Acrobat .pdf Microsoft Word .doc, PowerPoint .ppt., Excel .xls, etc.
    * Return only recent pages updated in last three months, six months, past year, etc.
    * return results from a particular site or domain, including educational (.edu) and governmental (.gov) Websites. 
           -You can restrict your search to only ".edu" sites at universities and colleges or you can even limit your results to "duke.edu" and only retrieve pages from Duke University. (This might come in handy if you know about a particular research center or collection at Duke.) Likewise, you can search for documents at "epa.gov," the Environmental Protection Agency Website, or simply change it to ".gov." for all U.S. governmental agencies.

Google tips modified from the website InfoLit @ Ramsey: http://www.lib.unca.edu/library/infolit/google_research.html
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Paradise Unified School District
Paradise Unified School District