Research Tools
Research Tools
Guides to Literature search: Explain how to conduct a literature research
Ex.: Texas Information Literacy Tutorial (TILT) is a very comprehensive information literacy web site with online modules that walk you through a range of topics and discuss the issues involved in selecting, searching and evaluating information.
Library Catalog: The library online catalog contains over 40,000 bibliographic records for the books, ebooks, journals, and audiovisual materials available in the library. Each record consists of fields such as author, title, publisher, item location, call number, description, bibliography and subject.
Ex.: A. M. Al-Refai Library Catalog
Databases: A Database is a collection of information organized in such a way that a computer program can quickly select desired pieces of data. The A. M. Al-Refai Library subscribes to bibliographic and full-text databases. These Databases allow you to find articles in journals, magazines and newspapers. They can also contain references to book reviews, conference proceedings, reports, book chapters and other publications. These databases can contain a mixture of record types including full text, abstracts or citations.
Ex.: Academic Search Premier, JSTOR
Monographs (Books): A scholarly piece of writing of essay or book length on a specific, often limited subject.
Ex.: Poetry criticism : excerpts from criticism of the works of the most significant and widely studied poets of world literature (PN 1010 .P499 vol.79 2008)
The Norton anthology of American literature (PS 507 .N65 2003)
A beginner's guide to critical reading : an anthology of literary texts (PR 83 .J34 2001)
An American mosaic : prose and poetry by everyday folk (PS 508 .W73 A83 1999)
The Longman anthology of women's literature (PR 1110 .W6 L66 2000)
Journals: An academic journal is a peer-reviewed periodical containing scholarly articles in a recognized field of study.
Ex.: American Literature, Early American Literature
Dictionaries: A dictionary is a book of alphabetically listed words in a specific language, with definitions, etymologies, pronunciations, and other information.
Ex.: Al-Mawrid : a modern Arabic-English dictionary (PJ 6640 .B342 2004)
Dictionary of literature in English (PR 19 .K56 2002)
Longman dictionary of contemporary English (PE 1628 .L58 1995)
Encyclopedias: A comprehensive reference work containing articles on a wide range of subjects or on numerous aspects of a particular field, usually arranged alphabetically.
Ex.: The New Encyclopedia Britannica (AE 5 .E363 2002)
The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language (PE 1072 .C68 2003)
Encyclopedia of American literature of the sea and Great Lakes (eBook)
Bibliographies: A bibliography is a list of citations for books, periodical articles or other materials. Published bibliographies on specific subjects are often found in the reference collection.
Ex.: A bibliography of Islamic economics (HB 126.4 .B516 1993)
Mathematical models in international relations :a bibliography (Z 6461 .C48 1979)
Internet: A worldwide network of computers that allows the "sharing" or "networking" of information at remote sites from other academic institutions, research institutes, private companies, government agencies, and individuals. Understand that internet leads to some excellent information, but results need to be evaluated.
Ex.:
· Outline of American Literature, Revised ed.
· African American Women Writers in the 19th Century
· Cambridge History of English and American Literature
· The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Writing tools: While writing a research paper, documenting the sources is very important. There are different styles of documentation. Ask your mentor which style of documentation to use.
Ex.: MLA Style Guide, APA Style Guide, Chicago-Turabian Style Guide
· MLA Handbook for writers of research papers(LB 2369 .G53 2003)
· Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association(BF 76.7 .P83 2001)
· The Chicago manual of style(Z 253 .C45 2003)
Other writing guides available in the Library:
· How to write research papers(LB 1047.3 .S267 2002)
· Research papers for dummies(LB 2369 .W66 2002)
· The curious researcher: a guide to writing research papers(LB 2369 .B246 2004)
