Talking in the Library

Short Cuts: Check out these Cite Sites!

I confess to a love/hate relationship with citations. A well-researched paper full of citations that I can easily follow to further resources makes me happier than a bird with a french fry. And I've written enough at this point that I don't hate writing citations anymore. But I used to. Oh, how I hated them. I was an unreasoning dynamo of fury when it came to properly formatting citations.

That's why I'm so glad that the young researchers of today have tools to assist with collecting and formatting proper citations. Your experience as a new researcher need not be as harsh as mine.

With that in mind, here are a few of the groovy options to assist you:

• The OWL at Purdue: Not the kind that eats mice or brings letters to magical school kids, but an Online Writing Lab. With style guides for APA and MLA, the OWL has all of the most used bits of the print style manuals. The OWL was authoritative enough to get me through graduate school.
• Easybib: Just plug the information into a form and Easybib will spit out a fully-formed citation --- copy and paste to your bibliography!* It builds citations for free if you're using MLA (and don't mind the ads), and contains details of citation elements for both MLA and APA.
• Citation Builder: Similar to Easybib, you can just plug the citation elements into a form and off you go!* It's free for APA and MLA, and brought to you by the fine librarians of North Carolina State University.
• KnightCite: Chicago and Turabian users feeling left out in the cold? Along with MLA and APA, KnightCite (from the Hekman Library at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI) can build citations for you too!*
• Refworks: For the heavy hitters out there. Have so many references and citations that you can barely keep track of them? Writing multiple papers with literature reviews that measure cited sources in the scores? Refworks is for you, O Scholar! Sign up for an account and combine with Write-N-Cite to drop references into your paper as you write it. Refworks is the handiest thing since pants with pockets!
• Zotero: Similar to Refworks, Zotero is an open source citation manager that works right from the browser. Not as many bells and whistles, but its open source nature let's Zotero work for everyone.

*BUT, double-check it. Any automated citation generator will have errors creep in --- periods where there should be commas, improper capitalization, too many spaces. Trust, but verify with an authoritative style guide.

Happy citing!

Dan Ireton

Traveling this Fall Break? Try listening to a good book.

As you get ready to take off for Fall Break? Do some planning for the long drive and check out the audio books available in the Leisure Reading Collection.  Selections range from thrillers, romance, science fiction & fantasy to mysteries (cozies, procedurals) and so on.  Better than trying to find a good radio station to listen to.  Drive safely and have a great Thanksgiving.

Recent additions to the audiobooks include Hard Way by Lee Child, One Grave at a Time by Jeaniene Frost, Prey by Linda Howard,  Hunt the Moon by Karen Chance and Informant by Thomas Perry.

Below are the titles, print and CD, that have recently arrived.

Title: 3rd alternative : solving life's most difficult problems / Stephen R. Covey, with Breck England.
Author: Covey, Stephen R.
Edition:
Imprint: New York : Free Press, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: BF449 .C68 2011

Title: Five chiefs : a Supreme Court memoir / John Paul Stevens.
Author: Stevens, John Paul, 1920-
Edition: 1st ed.
Imprint: New York : Little Brown & Co., c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: KF8745.S78 A3 2011

Title: Lost angel : a novel / Javier Sierra ; translated by Carlos Frias.
Author: Sierra, Javier, 1971-
Edition:
Imprint: New York : Atria, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PQ6719.I54 A4213 2011

Title: Murder unleashed : a novel / Rita Mae Brown ; illustrated by Laura Hartman Maestro.
Author: Brown, Rita Mae.
Edition: 1st ed.
Imprint: New York : Ballantine Books, c2012.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PS3552.R698 M95 2012

Title: Affair [sound recording] / Lee Child.
Author: Child, Lee.
Edition:
Imprint: New York : Random House Audio, p2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: COMPACT DISC PS3553.H4838 A63 2011b

Title: Dovekeepers : a novel / Alice Hoffman.
Author: Hoffman, Alice.
Edition:
Imprint: New York : Scribner, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PS3558.O3447 D68 2011

Title: Darkness under the sun [sound recording] / Dean Koontz.
Author: Koontz, Dean R. (Dean Ray), 1945-
Edition:
Imprint: Grand Haven, Mich. : Brilliance Audio, p2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: COMPACT DISC PS3561.O55 D295 2011

Title: Best of me / Nicholas Sparks.
Author: Sparks, Nicholas.
Edition: 1st ed.
Imprint: New York : Grand Central Pub., c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PS3569.P363 B47 2011d

Title: I didn't ask to be born (but I'm glad I was) / Bill Cosby ; illustrations by George Booth.
Author: Cosby, Bill, 1937-
Edition: 1st ed.
Imprint: New York : Center Street, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PN2287.C632 A3 2011

Title: House of silk : a Sherlock Holmes novel / Anthony Horowitz.
Author: Horowitz, Anthony, 1955-
Edition: 1st ed.
Imprint: New York : Mulholland Books, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PR6058.O715 H68 2011

Title: Wandering falcon / Jamil Ahmad.
Author: Ahmad, Jamil, 1931-
Edition: 1st American ed.
Imprint: New York : Riverhead Books, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PR9540.9.A44 W36 2011

Title: Showdown at Yellow Butte [sound recording] / Louis L'Amour.
Author: L'Amour, Louis, 1908-1988.
Edition:
Imprint: New York : Random House Audio, p2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: COMPACT DISC PS3523.A446 S528 2011

Title: Cloudburst / V.C. Andrews.
Author: Andrews, V. C. (Virginia C.)
Edition:
Imprint: New York : Gallery Books, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PS3551.N454 C66 2011

Title: Prince of Ravenscar : a Sherbrooke novel / Catherine Coulter.
Author: Coulter, Catherine.
Edition:
Imprint: New York : G.P. Putnams Sons, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PS3553.O843 .P75 2011

Title: Beauty and the werewolf / Mercedes Lackey.
Author: Lackey, Mercedes.
Edition:
Imprint: New York : Luna, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PS3562.A246 B48 2011

Title: I, robot : to protect / Mickey Zucker Reichert.
Author: Reichert, Mickey Zucker.
Edition:
Imprint: New York : Roc, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PS3568.E476334 I66 2011

Title: Inferno : the world at war, 1939-45 / Max Hastings.
Author: Hastings, Max.
Edition: 1st U.S. ed.
Imprint: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: D743 .H364 2011

Title: Lost empire of Atlantis : the secrets of history's most enduring mystery revealed / Gavin Menzies.
Author: Menzies, Gavin.
Edition: 1st U.S. ed.
Imprint: New York : William Morrow & Co., c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: GN751 .M46 2011

Title: When the Garden was Eden : Clyde, the captain, dollar bill, and the glory days of the New York Knicks / Harvey Araton ; with photographs by George Kalinsky.
Author: Araton, Harvey.
Edition: 1st ed.
Imprint: New York : Harper, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: GV885.52.N4 A83 2011

Title: 1Q84 / Haruki Murakami ; translated from the Japanese by Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel.
Author: Murakami, Haruki, 1949-
Edition: 1st ed.
Imprint: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PL856.U673 A61213 2011

Title: Christmas homecoming : a novel / Anne Perry.
Author: Perry, Anne.
Edition: 1st ed.
Imprint: New York : Ballantine Books, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PR6066.E693 C4685 2011

Title: Hard way [sound recording] / Lee Child.
Author: Child, Lee.
Edition:
Imprint: Grand Haven, Mich. : Brilliance Audio, 2011, p2006.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: COMPACT DISC PS3553.H4838 H37 2011

Title: Battle of the crater : a novel of the Civil War / Newt Gingrich, William R. Forstchen and Albert S. Hanser, contributing editor.
Author: Gingrich, Newt.
Edition: 1st ed.
Imprint: New York : Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PS3557.I4945 B38 2011

Title: Wild ways / Tanya Huff.
Author: Huff, Tanya.
Edition:
Imprint: New York : DAW : Distributed by Penguin Group (USA) c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PS3558.U324 W55 2011

Title: 11/22/63 : a novel / Stephen King.
Author: King, Stephen, 1947-
Edition:
Imprint: New York : Scribner, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PS3561.I483 A615 2011

Title: Out of Oz : the final volume in the Wicked years / Gregory Maguire ; illustrations by Douglas Smith.
Author: Maguire, Gregory.
Edition: 1st ed.
Imprint: New York : William Morrow, c2011.
Location: Leisure Collection--Hale 2nd Floor
Callno: PS3563.A3535 O98 2011

Short Cuts: Research. Anytime, anywhere this Thanksgiving.

Even though research may be the last thing on your mind right before Thanksgiving break, we just wanted to rouse you out of your turkey coma for a second to remind you that Hale Library will still be open for an abbreviated schedule that week. We'll be open from 8am to 6pm Monday - Wednesday, 1 to 5pm on Saturday, and we'll resume our normal hours on Sunday after Thanksgiving. Remember to also check the Thanksgiving hours for our branch libraries.

Anyone who needs to work off their Thanksgiving splurge with some hardcore research, relax after a thoroughly crazy Black Friday spent elbowing other shoppers out of the way to get that great deal, or find a warm, quiet location to study is welcome to join us!

Thanksgiving turkey. One week and counting! (retrieved from the Flickr Creative Commons by antonellomusina)

Out-of-town visiting with family over the break? Just remember that when you're stuffed with turkey and pumpkin pie, bored of watching the upteenth football game, and feel the nagging sensation that you really should get started on that final project for nutrition or that paper for psychology, you can still access K-State Libraries from home... or anywhere really!

Simply start at the K-State Libraries home page. The only difference from studying and researching on campus is that you may be asked to enter your eID and password if you need to access databases and resources restricted to K-Staters.

But enough about research. If you're not already salivating over thoughts of turkey legs and gravy, daydreaming about a week of home-cooked meals and free laundry, or wondering if you can remember what life was like before 7:30am College Algebra came into your life, then check out these resources about Thanksgiving to get you in the mood!

Birds of North America Online --- I bet you didn't know that we have a database dedicated to the birds of North America. Well, you should check it out. Try a search for "Wild Turkey," click on the first result, and discover a little more about the bird who sacrificed himself for your meal. Click on the Multimedia tab to view a photo gallery of the brown-feathered beauty and hear the audio gallery with a sound clip of his gobble!

Television News Archive --- Perhaps it's traditional for you and your family to watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Check out television clips from past parades using this database. For instance, this NBC clip from ten years ago reports on the Thanksgiving Day Parade in light of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Or perhaps you want to see the Thanksgiving Day Parade from the year you were born. In that case, check out this other NBC news report on the parade in 1992.

The beloved Kermit the Frog at the Thanksgiving Day Parade! (retrieved from the Flickr Creative Commons by karmakazesal)

Health and Wellness Resource Center --- Helping your parents with the meal and trying to keep it healthy during the holidays? Use this database to find holiday healthy eating tips. Just search for "Thanksgiving" and you'll get nearly 2,000 results, including articles like "Enjoy your Turkey---and your pie, too" from Food & Fitness Advisor, videos like "Bon Appetit's Guide to Thanksgiving" featured on the Today show, and news like "Keep Stress off the Holiday Meal Menu" from the Consumer Health News.

Listen to this wise cartoon turkey! (retrieved from the Flickr Creative Commons by jelene)

Whatever your plans are this Thanksgiving, K-State Libraries wishes you a safe and happy vacation. We'll see you after the break!

Short Cuts: Public Speaking Review and Hammer Time is Sublime!

Public Speaking Library Days will forever be branded in my brain as Hammer Time. I understand that amuses only me. But, you know what, MC Hammer's U Can't Touch This makes me so happy, I'm going to play it for you now.

Seriously, each time I stood in front of you to talk about evaluating sources, I imagined you all in parachute pants--and you totally rocked them, by the way. But enough about my issues, let’s talk about yours.

You have a speech coming up. A speech that requires evidence. Maybe, even now, as visions of turkey (or tofurkey) dance in your head, you are gamely working away at exploring your brilliant topic and searching for the high quality evidence that you know exists. Because wouldn’t Fall Break and Thanksgiving be a little package of bliss if you knew you had your research all tied up before heading home?  If only you could remember all the ways to search and evaluate your sources that the librarian talked about. Excuse me while I save your day!

First, remember everything that we covered (and more, much, much more!) is all wrapped up for you in a happy package we call the Public Speaking Class Guide.

Second, you can do your online research from anywhere that you have the Internet. When you are off-campus, you’ll just be asked for your K-State eID and password. If you’ve headed home without that final piece of evidence, do a little research while the rest of your family dozes in a food coma.

Third, leave your assumptions (or argument) at the door. Start your research by getting the lay of the land and then narrowing it down. If my argument is that zombies will save the world, I’m going to start out by searching for information about zombies in general before narrowing my research down to their savior-like qualities.  This way, I can discover any unique or alternate keywords that I can plunk in a database, like ”living dead” and “reanimated corpse.” Perhaps I learn that zombies is a term used in the banking and computer industries, and neither scenario involves eating brains--now I know that every article about zombies may not be relevant to my topic. I may also discover that I can't find any articles talking about zombies as saviors, but I can find articles about how someone saves the world, and other articles about zombie behavior. Put the two together and you have just recreated the moment when two strangers accidentally mixed chocolate and peanut butter to create an amazing taste sensation. (*Sigh* watch this for an explanation.) Honestly, the cool thing about research in college is that you don't have to repeat someone else's ideas, you can combine them in new and interesting ways to create new knowledge and ideas.

Fourth, search these favorite databases:

• LexisNexis Academic--news sources from around the world. Not sure whether the Variety has the same reputation for covering U.S. politics as the Washington Post? Take a look at the “i” you’ll find at the bottom of every article (no, keep going, allllll the way at the bottom of the article). Click on the ‘i” to learn everything LexisNexis knows about the news outlet.
  
• ProQuest Research Library--we love it because it covers most research topics. And it breaks down your search results by publication type:
  
  • scholarly journals
  • trade journals
  • magazines
  • plus a few newswires and sometimes reports
    Remember, a trade journal is written for someone working in a certain field, like a nurse. A magazine is written at a level for anyone to pick up at the magazine stand and read while waiting for the bus. If you are researching techniques for bandaging wounds after battling zombies, that article in Journal of Community Nursing, a trade journal, is probably going to be more medically accurate than that parenting magazine about bandaging a playground owie.
    Other cool things about ProQuest:
  • It suggests topics for you
  • It includes a "Cite this" link for every article. Guess what it does?

• CQ Researcher--my go-to database for major policy topics in the United States. CQ stands for Congressional Quarterly and these one topic reports have been published by CQ and read by senators, lobbyists, lawyers, and more since 1928. There are surprisingly few reports about zombies, but you will find loads of information about college tuition, drinking age, taxes, and more.

Fifth, be strategic. Find a good source, not just the first source. Read through the entire article to make sure it actually says what you think it says. Read several sources so you have context. What sounded perfectly reasonable in the first article may be contradicted by another two articles. Reading multiple sources helps you train your Spidey-sense so you can critically evaluate information--or at least be aware that experts disagree, and why.

Sixth, we focused on articles during Library Days, but your topic may call for other types of evidence. Try some books, locate statistics, or try to search the Internet for quality sources. Maybe a map is what you need, or maybe just a database that covers a more specific topic.

Seventh, as with anything you find, you'll need to evalute your sources. Fortunately, we can get you started with information about political perspectives of news outlets and how to evalute web sites.

Last, but certainly not least, Ask a Librarian. Whether you find your answer by searching our Frequently Asked Questions or you IM a librarian, don't wait until you're stressed. If you are puzzled or  perplexed, just ask!

Book drop drama

K-State Libraries has one drive-up book drop, in the parking lot behind Dickens Hall and across from Hale Library. Electrical work in Dickens Hall has necessitated a generator being placed in front of the book drop.  Apparently, it's believed that having electricity in Dickens is more important than allowing you to drop off books from the comfort of your car. Crazy!

The generator is expected to remain through the first week of December. Decent timing, considering many K-State students and faculty won't be on campus during the student holiday from November 21-25, or at least during the university holiday November 24-25.  While the generator is there blocking your car, you can still walk up to the bookdrop and deposit your library materials.  Or, if you'd just rather avoid the whole scene, use the Hale Library book drops, the book drop on the sidewalk between Hale and English/Counseling Services, or book drops inside each of the Manhattan campus branch libraries.

If you are unable to use a walk-up book drop, please contact us and we will make alternate accommodations to help you return your materials.  Thanks for your patience and please be sure to go enjoy the electricity in Dickens Hall!

A Call to Action

Have you heard of the Berlin Declaration? If you're like me, and hadn't, you might guess it has something to do with World War II. While there is a similarly-named document associated with the war, the Declaration I'd like to talk about today involves freedom of information, the internet, and K-State's support of the idea that the internet should be a "functional instrument for a global scientific knowledge base and human reflection".

The Berlin Declaration arose from a 2003 conference (held in - you guessed it - Berlin) organized by the Max Planck Society and the European Cultural Heritage Online (ECHO) project. The declaration asserts that "the Internet has fundamentally changed the practical and economic realities of distributing scientific knowledge and cultural heritage. For the first time ever, the Internet now offers the chance to constitute a global and interactive representation of human knowledge, including cultural heritage and the guarantee of worldwide access."

Recently our provost, Dr. April Mason, put her name to the declaration on behalf of Kansas State University, adding our institution to an international list of some 300 universities, libraries, scientific institutes, and academic associations who pledge support to an open access paradigm. This paradigm asserts that disseminating knowledge is not complete until information is made readily available to society. In real world terms, this means that publishing research in journals that restrict access to only those able to pay increasingly high subscription rates is not enough; that same research must be made available freely and openly to everyone, regardless of their institutional affiliation or ability to pay.

The declaration outlines steps that the signatories intend to take towards ensuring open access, which include:

• encouraging researchers/grant recipients to publish their work according to the principles of the open access paradigm.
• encouraging the holders of cultural heritage to support open access by providing their resources on the Internet.
• developing means and ways to evaluate open access contributions and online-journals in order to maintain the standards of quality assurance and good scientific practice.
• advocating that open access publication be recognized in promotion and tenure evaluation.
• advocating the intrinsic merit of contributions to an open access infrastructure by software tool development, content provision, metadata creation, or the publication of individual articles.

You can read the full text of the Berlin Declaration online, of course. For such a powerful and challenging document, it's surprisingly short, and I've actually reproduced much of it in this post. Take a look today; it will help you understand the future of access to information.

Short Cuts: Our Class Guides will rock your socks off!

Class guides. There's one for your class and yours and yours and yours... Never heard of a class guide before? Let me explain.

Class guides are a slice of the librarian-knowledge pie. They're a glimmer of hope in the how-in-the-world-do-I-do-this-assignment oblivion. A rope pulling you out of the where-do-I-start sinkhole. Class guides, in one word, awesomesauce.

Still not sure what I'm babbling on about? Ok, let me try it one more time.

When a librarian or specialist from K-State Libraries visits your class to provide library instruction to help with your assignments, we totally understand that some students might forget what we said during class or simply spaced out for a sec. So, in order to catch those class-specific questions, we condense all of the information presented in the instruction session (plus a little more information that we couldn't squeeze into the session) into an online library guide, called a LibGuide.

This guide organizes information into tabs, such as "Finding Articles," "Evaluating Sources," or similar categories according to your class. The best thing about class guides is that it contains information especially relevant to your class and your class alone.

We understand that K-State Libraries has an overwhelming number of resources and tools and research tips --- too many for even one librarian to handle. So that's why we offer class guides, providing you with just a snapshot of the resources we hand-pick as the most useful for your class or even a specific class assignment.

Even if you haven't attended a library instruction session, it's still worth checking to see if there's a class guide for you --- we may not see all sections of a class or perhaps we visited in previous semesters.

So now that I've been going on and on about these wondrous guides for a while, it would probably be helpful if I told you where to find them!

It's easy. Start at the K-State Libraries home page like usual, look for the heading titled "Help," and click on class guides under that heading. This will take you to an alphabetical list of all the classes that have a corresponding guide. The guides are organized by course number so be sure you remember your class --- SOC 100, ENGL 200, ANTH 204, KIN 200 --- you name it!

If your class guide is a boring Wiki page that forces you to scroll through multitudes of lists, don't worry, that's the old format. Soon, all class guides will be featured in LibGuides with amusing colors, separate sections and pages, and widget-y boxes.

If you use our class guides, you could be as awesome as these cute bears, woot woot! (Why the Academic Library Rocks. by tjerice on YouTube)

So what are you waiting for? We're almost halfway through the semester, and major projects and papers are closing in quickly! Check out our class guides --- they'll rock your research world!

What's the theme?

Another week and another Twitter theme. Did you figure out last week’s theme? Here are some reminder tweets:

• Serve, set, attack! If you're a bit rusty on volleyball fundamentals, here's a book that might help: http://owl.li/7jqfj 
• In honor of our Cross Country team, a book on the science (and occasional mysticism) of the runner http://ow.ly/i/kiNv
• We can all be K-State athletes with the right photo cutout. http://owl.li/749Em

 If you guessed sports, you are correct. Here’s a hint of this week’s theme. 

Why do we fall back?

You know what, I don't know why, even after watching this video. It's actually quite confusing, but now I'm all the more convinced that we should just go to Standard Time year-round.  However, my wishes are not (yet) the law of the land, so don't forget to set your clocks back one hour when you go to bed Saturday night.

Short Cuts: Hey Expos 2! How's that persuasive paper going?

Expos 2 students, you may not have your own Library Days like Expos I, but librarians and specialists from the Undergraduate & Community Services department still met with several class sections and we want to make sure that you know we're here to help all Engl 200 students!

So your assignment --- a persuasive paper in which you need to provide both the pro and con sides of an issue while offering a persuasive argument supporting one side and using at least three credible sources like journal articles or statistics. Sound familiar? I hope so!

So if you weren't in one of the classes we saw for library instruction, don't sweat it --- here's some of the library information we presented in a nutshell. And if you were there, here's a timely recap just in case you spaced out during class (though I know no one would ever do that!).

• In order to persuade an audience, you'll need evidence to support your main ideas. Evidence can be statistics, expert opinions, scholarly journal articles, and more. Be sure that you use credible resources --- that means written by experts in the field with authoritative credentials, heavily-cited research, and featured in a scholarly or peer-reviewed journal. Where can you find these resources, you might ask? --- the Library Databases!

• Check out our resources by going to the Library home page and clicking on Databases. Always start your research at the Library home page... why? Because then you get access to all of the journals, databases, and resources that we subscribe to exclusively for K-Staters! Here are the top two databases we suggest for your persuasive paper!

• CQ Researcher Plus Archive --- CQ stands for Congressional Quarterly. This database contains full-text reports written to inform elected officials of major U.S. issues. The reports strive to be unbiased, presenting sections like Overview, Background, Current Situation, Pro/Con, Maps/Graphs, and Bibliography. It's a great resource to get introduced to each side of your issue and to find citations for further research

• ProQuest Research Library --- This is probably a familiar database for most of you. Librarians love it because it's fairly easy to use and great for finding at least a little information on most any topic. We recommend using one search box per concept in your research topic. After clicking search, you'll find a few features that will make your research a bit easier. First there's the Suggested Topics box at the top of the screen. This looks at the keywords you used in your search as well as the results, and then provides suggestions for similar searches that might get better results. Simply click on one of the suggestions to perform a new search and then to narrow your search. The results are also broken down into tabs so you can easily choose which type of results you'd like to focus on, including scholarly journals, magazines, trade publications, and newspapers.

• Google. You can't deny it. We're a generation of Googlers. And believe it or not, it is possible to find good information using Google without getting too overwhelmed. It's just not that easy. In order to wade through all the junk out there, you have to use some shortcuts to gain more control over Google. Combine any or all of the following tricks to tame the Google beast!
  • Education (.edu) and government (.gov) websites generally present more credible and unbiased information than commercial websites. To limit your search to .gov or .edu websites use the following shortcut --- site:.gov or site:.edu
  • To ensure that a word is in the title of the link or the web address (URL), use the following --- intitle: or inurl:
  • To search for a specific type of file like a PowerPoint or PDF, use the following shortcut --- filetype:pdf or filetype:doc or filetype:ppt

• The Engl 200 class guide --- personalized just for your class! The class guide contains an in-depth review of research tools and tips mentioned in this article and more. Tabs includes Getting Started, Evaluating Sources, Articles, Books, Statistics, Cite Sources, and K-State Libraries Resources. We highly recommend you take a look!

Well, that about wraps up our recap for Expos 2. But that doesn't mean help ends here. You're always welcome to contact us for further assistance --- you can call us, email us, IM us, and more. Check out our Ask-A-Librarian page and good luck on your assignment Engl 200 students!