Exploring the Library
and Web
Library and Web Research
For an excellent tutorial on Library Research,
explore the Library
Research at Cornell: A Hypertext Guide. If you are doing literary research,
see the Introductory
Guide to English Literature Research. If you want to check your
understanding of library terminology, you can try this online
review of terminology.
Many newcomers to the Web wonder whether they
can find the same resources on the Internet that they are familiar with
in libraries, that is, books, periodicals, periodical indexes, and newspapers.
Explore the links below to get a sense of the range of resources you'll
be able to find on the Web.
Some convenient starting points include the following:
- Research Tools on the Web
If you are new to the Web, use a Web
tutorial to get an overview of how the Web works.
Explore Your Library
- Locate the online catalog and find out how to
search for books, journal articles, newspapers, and reference sources.
Note: Find out if you should search by key word rather than by subject
term for best results.
- Check out a book on your topic.
- Locate the current periodicals area and determine
which periodicals are available to you both in print and online.
- Locate the reference collection and browse the
shelves.
- Find out whether your library has a collection
of CD-ROM databases in addition to their online collection.
Explore
your library's Internet or Web Interface.
Learn how to access your library through the Internet.
Also learn whether you can access your library collection from off-campus
sites.
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Explore
Other Libraries
New
York State
Libraries: from
Yahoo
Library of Congress
The Universal Library Project
BOOKSTORES:
Amazon Books
BarnesandNoble.com
Children's Literature
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Learn
how to search your library's online indexes.
Online indexes are collections of journal, magazine,
and newspaper citations, often including the complete text. Many libraries
no longer subscribe to the print versions of these indexes. Since they
are produced by different companies, online indexes are organized differently
and use different search strategies. These indexes are accessed either
with a Web browser or a CD-ROM disk. Note: If you access your library's
Web page through a service such as America Online or CompuServ, you will
probably not be able to use the Web-accessible periodical indexes to which
your library subscribes. The computer will not have any way of knowing
that you are a registered student. You can usually narrow your search by
year or publication type (books only or journal articles only).
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Explore the Web
If you are new to the Web, start exploring it
before you begin working on your research paper. Learn how to enter
Web addresses (URLs), how to bookmark your favorite sites, and how to locate
key resources in your field or in areas of interest. Also learn how
to take notes from Web sources and save them to disk. Most importantly,
get a sense of the range of resources that are available to you on the
Web, such sources as newspapers, online magazines, government sources,
and university research projects.
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