Researching Topics in Education: A Tutorial
NOTE: A NC State Unity ID is required to access the NCSU Libraries
databases from off-campus. This includes many of the databases mentioned in
this tutorial, such as ERIC via EBSCOHost and PsycINFO. This does not apply
to the use of the library catalog or open-access web sites included in the
tutorial. For additional information about off-campus access, please see Proxy Description.
Introduction to the Tutorial
This tutorial is designed to show you effective and efficient ways to do
research on subjects relating to the field of education. While going through
the tutorial you will find information about various web sites and databases,
some of which you will practice searching as part of the tutorial and some
which you can explore at your leisure as they may be of use to you in the
future.
The tutorial is set up to allow you to progress step-by-step. Some
questions on the assignment can be answered by actually using the databases,
others by reading the text of the tutorial. Before you start it is
probably a good idea to print out a copy of the entire tutorial. Then you
will have the practice searches in front of you as you access the online catalog
and databases.
The NCSU Libraries Catalog
It is not possible to get all the research information you need by using electronic
sources such as the Internet or online databases such as ERIC. For example,
very few books are available electronically, but books are always an important
research source. You will need to use a online library catalog to locate them.
In this tutorial, and to complete your assignment for this unit, you will
be using the NCSU Libraries' catalog,
but most online catalogs are similar, so these skills should carry over to
any other library catalog you use. Here are a few hints to help you use
the catalog easily and efficiently, followed by a discussion of various kinds
of searches.
- Punctuation and capital letters do not matter.
- Omit a, an, the at the beginning of book or journal titles.
You will be looking for call numbers which will tell you where items are located. Signs are posted all around the
D. H. Hill Library to tell you which call numbers are on which floors.
AUTHOR: First select author from
the initial catalog screen. Then type in last name first name.
BOOK TITLE: omit a, an, the at the
beginning of titles.
JOURNAL TITLE: You can not find titles of journal
articles in the catalog, but you can find the title (name) of a journal
by doing a Journal Title search. Library holdings and call numbers
are given for each journal. Once the title is displayed you can view the library's
holdings by volume and year (click on Display All Volumes). Note the
call number for the journal, which is used to locate the journal in the library.
For journals located in D. H. Hill Library, current issues of journals are
shelved by call number in the Erdahl-Cloyd (West) wing. Older issues are shelved
in the book stacks, also arranged by call number.
SUBJECT: Items in the online catalog are assigned
Library of Congress (LC) Subject Headings. These are an established list of
controlled vocabulary that are assigned to items to reflect their content.
A search for the subject heading Elementary Education, for example,
will result in a cross-reference to Education, Elementary (related
headings are also listed). Clicking on Education, Elementary will show
you all the items in the online catalog assigned that subject heading. If
you do not know the correct LC Subject Heading for your topic, you can try
a keyword search.
ANYWHERE: The Anywhere search is also known as a keyword
search. It is the most general type of seach, because terms are searched
for in all fields of the item record (Author, Title, etc.). You can use keyword
searching to look for words or phrases which you could not find by doing
a subject search. You can also use the results of a keyword search to determine
what subject headings are being used for the topic. As an example, you might
do a keyword search on high
risk students and find that relevent LC Subject Headings for the topic
include problem children and socially handicapped youth.
Accessing the NCSU Libraries Catalog
The catalog is available from the NCSU Libraries
homepage, or by accessing the catalog directly at Library Catalog.
Practice Searches in the Catalog:
- What is the call number of A Constant Variable?
- Which volumes of Community College Journal are available at the D. H. Hill Library?
- Do an Subject search on Information Literacy. What
happens? What are some of the related subject headings?
- Now do an Anywhere (keyword) search on the same topic.
Click on some of the titles you find and see what subject headings have
been assigned. Click on one of the subject headings to see what happens.
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ERIC is the primary research database for the discipline of Education and is an important resource used frequently in education research.
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Related Library Databases
Access these databases through the Databases.
Mental Measurements Yearbook -- Contains reviews and information about
English language standardized tests covering educational skills, personality,
vocational aptitude, psychology and related areas.
PsycINFO -- Contains citations and abstracts of journal articles,
book chapters, books, and technical reports, as well as citations to dissertations,
all in the field of psychology and psychological aspects of related disciplines,
such as education, medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, pharmacology,
physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business, and law. Journal coverage,
spanning 1887-present, includes international material selected from more
than 1,300 periodicals written in over 25 languages. Current chapter and book
coverage includes worldwide English-language material published from 1987-present.
Sociological Abstracts -- Provides access to the world's literature
in sociology and related disciplines, both theoretical and applied. Covers
sociological topics in fields such as anthropology, economics, education,
medicine, community development, philosophy, demography, political science,
and social psychology. Includes abstracts of journal articles (selected from
over 2500 journals), conference papers, book reviews, and selected sociology
books.
Full text general (multidisciplinary) databases
Two useful general (multidisciplinary) databases are:
Academic Search Premier
LexisNexis Academic
These databases are very popular because of the full-text articles they contain.
You may find them useful for your research. However, be aware that they include
popular magazines along with scholarly journals, so you should carefully evaluate
the content of search results.
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Assignment
The following questions come from both the content of the tutorial
and from using some of the databases in which you did practice searches.
- What is the main reason for you to do a keyword search in the NCSU Libraries
online catalog?
- When planning your search strategy in ERIC, what are the two ways you
can limit your search?
- What is one advantage of using the ERIC Thesaurus?
- What are the two primary types of materials found in the ERIC database? What information do you need to locate an ERIC Document in the D. H. Hill
Library?
- How many ERIC Digests relate to the the topic Anorexia?
- What related database should you choose if you want to research connections
between education and psychology?
Use the ERIC Search Engine
to answer questions 8 through 10:
- Do an author search for Anderson, Norman D. . His sourcebook on
Lyme Disease was written as part of the ________________ project. List two
of the eight descriptors assigned to this document.
- Do a search combining the two Major Descriptors Test Construction
and Mathematics. Print the full record (or make a note of the citation)
of one journal article (EJ) and one document (ED) about these topics. Should
this particular issue of the journal be available in the NCSU Libraries?
- Refine the above search and add a search field. Limit the search to items
with a Publication Type of Journal Articles. How many items did you
find?
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