Honors 105: Library Guides

Why books?  Books tend to be better for beginners, because the author has space to give the subject a thorough introduction.

If I use a book, does that mean that I have to read the whole thing?  No, use the index and the table of contents to zero in on the parts that address your research question.

• Use QuickSearch to find books.  Use the "Format" filter on the right to limit your results to just books.

This video will show you how to find books.

Why videos?  Videos offer a multimedia understanding of the subject of your research -- you are not just reading about it.

Finding videos can be tricky, because there are not as many options as there are with books and articles.  You may need to make your searching more general.  For example, if you can't find a video about the Parthenon, look for a video on ancient Greek architecture.

Here is a guide to streaming video resources, both through our library and publicly available online. 

If you're not sure what you are looking for, it may be easiest just to search for videos in QuickSearch.

• Search for your topic.  
• Use the Format filter on the right to limit your results to Video Recordings.

Why articles?  Some articles give you important information about your research question in a concise package.

Articles include:

• Scholarly journal articles, in which specialists in a field of research share their discoveries with each other.
  • Use QuickSearch to find scholarly journal articles.  Use the "Show Only" filter to narrow to "peer-reviewed journals."
• Articles from magazines and newspapers, which are written for a more general audience.
  • Use US Newsstream to find a newspaper article.

This video shows you how to find scholarly journal articles.  You can use the same techniques to find news articles -- just select the filters that best fit your search.