Research Tips
Frequently professors will require you to do research at the library. Here are some tips for using the resources at Scarborough Library to their fullest.
Rent a study room
Especially if you have a laptop, a study room is a good place to do research. You can leave your things in the room while you explore the shelves for useful material, and it is a quiet place to spread out and get things done.
Don't rely entirely on the catalog
The catalog only provides book titles. When looking for books, search for your topic and find the number of the section where books on that topic are found. Since books in the library are organized thematically, you can browse the indexes of all the books on a single author or topic at once without having to make several trips.
Use the academic journals
Scarborough Library has a wealth of academic journals in the bottom floor. In order to find journals that will provide useful information, try using the online full-text journal locator. It can sort the journals available by a variety of criteria.
Make use of indexes
Most reference books will have an index in the back. Flip through as many indexes as you can to see if you can find parts of the book that deal with your topic, because quite often it is difficult to
find specific information when scanning entire chapters.
Use the online databases
The University subscribes to a number of online databases that can be a great help to students who need reliable academic resources for their assignments. The Writing Center has made tutorials available for using both the EBSCO and MLA databases
Don't cite Wikipedia
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia with articles that were written by the general public and can be edited anonymously by anyone. Never cite Wikipedia in your papers, but occasionally the reference links found at the bottom of Wikipedia pages can be relialbe, usable resources.
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