ENG101 MCTC Library Research Strategy

After making it to the library webpage, locate the library search box at the top of the page.

Once you start searching you will find information that will direct you to print books or DVDs the library owns. The library pays access for you to journal, magazine, and newspaper articles, ebooks, and streaming videos from many different databases. This information is restricted by the vendor/publisher and not for free on the internet. It is like finding buried treasure!

These are the different types of materials the library provides access to for you:

Books are used for more in-depth research, print or e-books. E-reference books can be used for quick, like subject-specific encyclopedias with authoritative background information, as individual articles. Visual material is streaming video, or anatomy models, i.e. bones, muscles, slides, etc.   Journal articles for scholarly research that include references, citations, data, methods, etc. Magazine articles for quick, current information but does not include research information. Newspaper articles have very current news items, not research quality material.

Click on the blue button to view the video. You may need to scroll over the video to see the controls and unmute the sound.

When the video clip has stopped playing, click the Close link in the top right corner of the box.

When you use the library search box, you may get a huge list of results from your first search. To narrow your search you can do an advanced search by combining keywords (or subjects), and by including other fields such as by author, limiting by date range, material type, or a date range for publication.

When combining keywords together, consider the connectors of AND, OR, and NOT to narrow or broaden your search results.

Using these advanced search techniques will help you refine your search in a meaningful way.

The Advanced Search link is to the right of the search box.

Watch the Library Search Box video.

NOTE: All of the different kinds of resources are also available in individual databases.

Go to the library Resources page to select a specific database to focus on a particular subject.

Use AND, OR, NOT or click on advanced search to search in the databases to help focus on your topic.