When starting a project, there are a few simple guidelines to keep in mind:

• Know the guidelines of the assignment. Your topic should be specific or broad enough to be dealt with satisfactorily.
• The topic should be of interest to both you and your audience.
• Your topic and the statements you make about it should be supported with reliable information.
• Plan ahead! Set a time line and allow for unexpected developments and planned revision.

When beginning, a good way to obtain background information and ideas to build on your topic area is with reference materials such as encyclopedias, almanacs, and abstracts.

Library Catalog

Search for materials in Randall Library by using the online Library Catalog located on the Randall Library homepage at http://library.uncwil.edu. Searching the Library Catalog will give you call numbers and locations for books, maps, N. C. documents, U.S. Government documents, special collections, microforms, music scores, periodicals, audiovisual materials, and reserve materials.

Perform a search for library materials with a keyword search using your keywords, such as "cultures". If you would like to combine related keywords use the connector AND. For example: "cultures" and "encyclopedias" will bring back a list of encyclopedias that deal with cultures.

Finding Articles

Before you start your search: 

1. List the ideas and concepts that describe your search topic. 
2. Narrow your topic. Remember, your goal is to get a manageable number of useful records. 
3. Think of as many search terms describing your topic as you can. You might find what you want right away, but results
    can improve as you become more familiar with each database.
4. Using AND to combine multiple search terms into a single, more focused search request. 
    AND retrieves records with both search terms. For example: television viewing and academic achievement retrieves
    records with both television viewing and academic achievement. 

EbscoHost indexes periodicals in various disciplines, and is therefore very broad in subject scope. However, it may not be as deep in the subject you are particularly addressing. These two interdisciplinary databases listed can provide citations to magazine and scholarly/academic/peer review journals as well as each offers some full-text articles.

• EBSCOhost -- Academic Search Premier & MasterFILE Premier
  Coverage of 3,000 journals, covering the social sciences, humanities, general science, multi-cultural studies, general reference, business, health, education, and much more.

Consider using some of the following subject specific databases depending upon your topic area. If you are unsure what databases are available for your topic, be sure to look at the "Subject Research Guides" linked off of the Library page.

America: History and Life
    U.S. and Canadian history, culture and current affairs from a scholarly perspective. (1964+)
Biological Abstracts   
    Includes bibliographic references (records) with abstracts derived from life sciences research journals published
    worldwide. (1980+)
ERIC
    Index to journal articles and report literature in education and education related areas. (1966+)
MLA International Bibliography
    Provides access to scholarly research in nearly 4,000 journals and series pertaining to literature, language, linguistics, 
    and folklore and includes coverage from 1963 to the present.
PAIS International
    Index to the literature of public policy, social policy, the social sciences in general and comparative studies of public
    issues. (indexing: 1972+ )
PsychInfo
    Indexes all areas of psychology and the behavioral sciences as well as related fields. (1887+)
Sociological Abstracts
    Access to literature in sociology and related disciplines, both theoretical and applied. Includes abstracts of journal
    articles selected from over 2500 journals. (1963+)


Newspaper Indexes

• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe
  Lexis Nexis General News Topics can provide you with today's news or glance back more than 20 years.
• EBSCOhost -- Newspaper Source
  Provides selected full text articles from 143 U.S. and international newspapers.
• ProQuest Newspapers
  Includes the "North Carolina Newsstand", "South Carolina Newsstand", The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.
  

Web-Site Evaluation

The reliability and quality of information from Web sources has created much debate in the academic world. Researchers must always remember that the Web is a vast, unregulated information resource that ANYONE with the proper tools and a little money can create a site on the Web. When viewing a site for research purposes the three most important features to consider are:

Authority: Who's responsible for the page content? Are there any clues about that person's qualifications?
Content: Does it seem accurate? If you don't know much about the topic yet, consider these other questions. Are there citations to other works? Has the page been updated recently? Are there facts you could try to verify?
Audience/Objectivity: Who designed it? And for whom? Is there obvious (or not so obvious) bias? Is the page nothing more than a marketing tool? What level of audience is it designed for (e.g. children, adults, students, professionals)? 


Helpful Links

• Accessing Randall Library Databases from a Home Computer [http://library.uncwil.edu/offcampus.html]
• Randall Library Homepage [http://library.uncwil.edu/]
• Randall Library Reference Desk phone number - 962-3760
  Last Update: December 12, 2005
  
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