Texas Child Care now free online

Because of their budget cuts, the journal Texas Child Care Quarterly has become a stand-alone electronic journal. You may now read, downnload, print, and distribute all content for free at http://www.childcarequarterly.com/

Words for Research Papers

So you have a research paper due in 2 weeks, and you have no idea how you are going to find enough information to write 10 pages on your topic, what are you going to do?

One of the biggest hurdles students encounter when writing a research paper is locating adequate sources for their topics. Part of the difficulty is their "search" technique, actually many students will begin by searching, and then after their first search switch or morph to a browsing technique. The other difficulty is that students may not be familiar with the language that their topic experts use, creating a virtual language barrier right from the start. Here are a few tips to hopefully overcome these two difficulties and make your research efforts more productive.

Tip 1: Once you have chosen a topic brush up on the technical language dealing with the topic. Use a dictionary or thesaurus to locate unique terms that illustrate the essentials of your topic.

Tip 2: Ask your professor or librarian for ideas in refining your search terms.

Tip 3: When conducting your search, stick to it. Instead of switching to browsing mode (that is scrolling through page after page of some 2K results) refine your search terms. Use a thesaurus or dictionary to develop a search query that works. In the end searching with a good query is more effective than browsing.

Tip 4: When conducting a search in a database or federated search engine (i.e. Google Scholar) use the provided limiters (date, publication type, subject terms, thesaurus terms) to broaden, narrow or refine your search.

Lastly, remember, a little preparation goes a long way. Before you even begin searching online or in the library for materials you should create an outline with some good focused questions that you want to answer in your paper. Having these questions will aid you in choosing effective search terms and queries.

Need library help? Then Text Us!

That's absolutely true- now you can get library help by text messaging us! Our texting number is 386-320-3229. We do our best to staff the service whenever we're open, so please feel free to use it inside the library or from home. If we can't respond immediately, we will get back with you as soon as we can- promise!

Try it out for a test run. And let us know what you think of it!

Edgar Allen Poe

This being the scary month of October, what better time than now to celebrate the famous American literary figure Edgar Allan Poe 1809-1849. Click here at Golden Age Comic Blog to read various interpretations of "The Raven",  illustrated by Will Elder, and  Richard Corben, famous comic artists,  as well as other illustrations from his works. Keep clicking "older posts' at the bottom right to see prior posts.

Two sides to every story

   There are [at least] two sides to every story, issues, topic. As you prepare for debates or when you are researching a topic, make sure to check out the database called Opposing Viewpoints for a wide variety of sources and ideas on over 5000 topics. 

  Easily searchable, simply type in your topic in the search box, or click on the word "Issues" in the navigation to bring up an alphabetical listing of topics. If you are unsure what to study, look to the Opposing Viewpoints in Context homepage for inspiration. It changes frequently and usually contains topics in the news broken down into categories such as: Business, Family Issues, Health, and Medicine.

As you explore this  resource you will see why it is a terrific place to start your research on social issues. It contains many useful resources including:

• Viewpoints: more than 9,000 pro and con positions on a wide array of topics.
•  Articles: the database contains over 2 million full-text articles from magazine, newspaper, and academic journals. You’re sure to find the most current information, since new articles are added daily.
• Statistics: there are nearly 6,000 statistical tables, charts and graphs on a wide variety of topics.
• Multimedia Resources: including audio, podcasts, and streaming video are incorporated to broaden the scope of subject matter and dynamically engage users
• Websites: experts have chosen over 2,300 subject-indexed outside Websites to assist in follow up study. Primary Source Documents, Maps, Reference Books, Curriculum Standards and more! 

Wikipedia Loves Libraries

Seemingly everyone knows that Wikipedia isn't much of a quality academic source...even Wikipedia! In an effort to increase their standing among scholars, Wikipedia has embarked on a new program named Wikipedia Loves Libraries that aims to get library staff and patrons involved in contributing "good" research to new and existing articles.

The program is in accordance with Open Access Week. Events are only being held at a handful of libraries around the United States and Canada, but perhaps others will join in next year. Any effort to improve the accuracy and credibility of Wikipedia is a step in the right direction.