Library Session with Elana Broch
Stokes Library
November 15, 2006
The three four five things I want you to remember from my visit to your class.
1. Research is a process. It is rarely a linear process. It can be serendipitous. Think about how you’re going to organize your work. Laptop, index cards, xeroxing/printing, palm pilot, etc.
2. I am here to help you locate materials and help you find a topic for your paper that is interesting to you and do-able. There are many other librarians here, too. We have an embarassment of riches. There is no way you could find everything we have access to without someone showing you the ropes.
3. Not everything is on the Internet; you will find things using library databases that are not on the web.
4. Controlled vocabulary is a great tool. Google has many wonderful features, but controlled vocabulary is not one of them. When you use the card catalog, be sure to take advantage of the Subject Headings in the Long View. When you use a database, be sure to take advantage of the Subject(s) links.
5. The e-journal finder works if you have a citation OR within many of the databases we have access to (such as Sociological Abstracts). It will help you locate the full-text of an article, if we have it in our library system.
Getting started finding books 
Search by keyword using the online “card catalog”
Search by Subject Heading using the online “card catalog”
As of 11/14/06 there are 492 books with the Subject Heading “Education and State--United States”
Getting started finding articles (Searching a database for journal articles)
We will use Education Full-text but there are many more to choose from.
ERIC is another Education Database that you may find useful. It also has a thesaurus. Public Policy-related databases will also contain articles of interest.
The thesaurus is on the navigation bar on the left hand side. Begin by entering a subject you're interested in.
Note: Terms you search from the thesaurus correspond to the "Subject(s)" in the citations you find.
Data? Did someone say you need data?
Education Statistics on the Web
News sources
Education Week If you have trouble accessing any articles, we have full-text access. Use the e-journal finder to locate.
Citing Sources
Each discipline has its own preferred style
Consider learning EndNote or Refworks (bibliographic citation managers)
Stokes Librarians
Nancy Pressman Levy (609) 258-4782 pressman@princeton.edu
Joann Donatiello
(609) 258-1377 jdonatie@princeton.edu
Elana Broch
(609) 258-5517ebroch@princeton.edu
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