Did you miss your WR121 library session? Need a reminder on what was covered? This slideshow goes over most things covered in the class. Have a question? Ask a Librarian!

1. WR121 Missed your library session?
Need a refresher on what was covered?
Research This is the tutorial for you!
Workshop
Self-Guided
Tutorial
Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hamed/2302808818

2. Ask yourself…
What is the hardest
part of doing
research?

3. Top Responses
• #1: Getting Started
• #2: Picking a Topic
• #3: Finding Resources

4. What will you learn today?
Here’s what we hope you will take away
from this tutorial today:
Image Credit: http://englishcollective.org/

5. Identify the
kind of
information There is so much information out there.
you need You’ve probably all heard of information
overload, right? Well it’s not an
exaggeration. We’re going to talk about
how you can recognize different kinds of
information—
formats, contents, styles, etc.—and how
you can identify the most relevant
sources of information for your
research.
Image Credit: Iwasaki Library

6. Design Search
Strategies
We’ll talk about designing and
implementing effective search
strategies in order to get the most out
of library resources and make your
research time more efficient.
Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/computerguy_wiki/3686972731

7. Locate Awesome Resources
And hopefully, you’ll be able to locate
some awesome resources relevant to
your research question, during this very
workshop!
Fun anecdote: This image of Fort
Awesome was actually taken in
Harvard Square a few winters
ago, when we had snow.
Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/drgandy/22373340

8. Recognize
what
librarians
can do for
you!
We’re here to help. It’s what we love to do!

9. Let’s get started…
What do these letters mean to you?

10. On The Jersey Shore, it stands for Gym, Tanning, Laundry.
Today, it stands for Gym, Tanning, Library.
We’re going to take a look at how to do research at the
library through the lens of the Jersey Shore. Yes, you can
research the Jersey Shore!
Image credit: http://www.mtv.com

11. You have a research assignment…
Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22409393@N03/5530809591

12. We will refer to this as…
“The Situation”
Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22409393@N03/5530809591

13. Pictured here are a variety of sources of
information…
Are any of these familiar? Have you used
them before? How do you use them?

14. Let’s say I want to do some research on Snooki.
What kind of information on Snooki would you
expect to find in the New York Times? What
about on Perez Hilton’s blog? How are these
sources different? Which do you trust more?

15. So which is the best source for
information about Snooki?
It all depends on the purpose of
your research.

16. Let’s start with an old friend: Google! But, we’re not going to
look at regular old Google.
Let’s take a look at Google Scholar. It’s a great place to start
researching, and has some neat features that work with our
library databases.
Have you used Google Scholar before? What makes Scholar
different from regular Google?

17. Try doing a search in Google Scholar for our Situation…
THE SITUATION:
The influx of summer visitors to the
Jersey Shore causes tension with the
local year-round residents. How does
this annual migration affect the culture
or identity of the region? Are these
migrants part of the culture?

18. http://scholar.google.com/

19. Look at your result list: where is the
information coming from? Is
everything here scholarly? How can
you tell?
Notice that the results show books
and articles and have Cited by
information which leads to other
articles.
Look for Emerson Holdings
AND/OR Emerson Full-Text. If you
can’t get the entire article, you can
try to find it in the library or
request it via interlibrary loan.

20. When you’re at home, set your Scholar
Preferences to Emerson College so
you’ll see what resources are available
to you.

21. Find articles on
your topic
Searching something like Google Scholar is a fine place to begin—
you certainly get to see what kinds of information are out there—
but remember when we talked about sources of information and
how to choose which one is the BEST for your research?
Let’s check out a scholarly resource now. This is Academic Search
Premier, and it lives on the library’s website under Databases.

22. Start at the Library’s homepage:
www.emerson.edu/library

23. We have over 100 databases here at the Iwasaki Library, and
each one of these has information specific to different
disciplines.
ASP (Academic Search Premier) is a great general database—it
has TONS of information from all kinds of sources. Everything
from Entertainment Weekly to the Journal of Biomedicine.

24. You can
print, save, email, or
export articles. You
can also get the
citation here:
You can
narrow your
search by
date, full-text
availability, sc
holarliness, ty
pe of
resource, and
subject.

25. Find a book at Emerson
about migratory
populations in the U.S.
Our next research tool features the core of the library’s resources:
Books! Our catalog is called the FLO catalog which stands for Fenway
Libraries Online.
We are part of a group of schools that share a catalog and share
borrowing privileges. So you can borrow books from Lesley with your
Emerson ID.

26. Start at the Library’s homepage:
www.emerson.edu/library
Limit your search
to book at the
Iwasaki Library by
selecting Emerson
here.
If you forget, you
can also limit it
after you search.

27. You can sort your
results by date or
relevance.

28. Look at the Subject
Headings for links to
more books on
similar topics.

29. Call Numbers
Once you’ve found a book you want, how do
you find it in the Library? By using the Call
Number!
First make sure the book is at Emerson, then
write down the call number and head to the
book stacks.

30. According to the Library Map, our book is in this
part of the Library, Books A-PK.
How to Read a Call Number:
Books are shelved alphabetically by the first
letter or letters.
Then books are arranged numerically by the
number following the letter(s).
Finally, books are shelved alphabetically by
the next letter and decimally by the following
number.

31. Find the shelf range where your book is
located…our book will be in the range on the
left because E184 .I8 comes before the last
number in that range (E184 .J4).

32. Find the shelf with your book’s call number and
then find the book!

33. guides.library.emerson.edu/wr121
Here’s another place to find
information: Research Guides.
Librarians create these to help you
to get started quickly and easily.
These guides are intended to give
you starting points if you’ve never
done research in a given area of
academic study.
We have guides for things like Film,
History, Marketing, and even one
specifically for your class, WR121.

34. But, let’s say, you’re having some
trouble with your Situation. You’ve
explored library resources, you’ve
looked in the databases, you’ve tried
to find books and you’re stuck.
In fact, you’ve hit a brick wall on
your research journey. You are
stuck!
Does this sound familiar? Has it
ever happened to you? What do you
do??
Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theartguy/4721135346

35. Reference Hours
Monday -
Thursday:
9:30a.m.-11p.m.
Friday:
9:30a.m.-5p.m.
Saturday:
noon - 6p.m.
You can talk to a Reference Librarian!
All of these folks pictured here want Sunday:
to help you. Please come and see us!
You can also call us, email us, text us, noon - 9p.m.
or IM us.

36. http://www.emerson.edu/library
Call us, email us, text us, or IM us –
all from the Library’s homepage.

37. Image Credits
• “Let’s Fly!” by Hamed Saber:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hamed/2302808818/sizes/m/in/photostream/
• “What will you learn today?’: http://englishcollective.org
• “Fort Awesome”: http://www.flickr.com/photos/drgandy/22373340
• “Design Search Strategies”:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/computerguy_wiki/3686972731
• GTL: http://www.mtv.com
• The Situation : http://www.flickr.com/photos/22409393@N03/5530809591
• Brick Wall: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theartguy/4721135346