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Six Major Steps to Successful Research

Step 3: Information Gathering
1. Locate information resources
   • Books and Media
   • Periodical Articles
   • Web Resources
2. Read and evaluate the resources
3. Assignment

A. Locate Information Resources

Access to information resources begins at the Mansfield Library homepage.

• Locate Information Resources: Books and Media
  Access the library catalog to identify books and media materials located in The University of Montana library system. Another resource for locating books and media is WorldCat, a database that combines library catalogs from libraries around the world.
  
  
  • All students may obtain books not available in the Mansfield Library from other libraries by using the online Interlibrary Loan form.
  • WorldCat can be accessed from the Find Articles link on the Mansfield Library homepage.
  • Distance Education students access these services through the Distance Education Reference Service.
  • Module 2 provides detailed information for searching and locating library materials.
  
  
• Locate Information Resources: Periodical Articles
  To locate periodical articles by topic, use the indexes to periodical literature that are available as electronic databases. Begin with Expanded Academic ASAP, an interdisciplinary database designed for academic research that indexes over 1,500 periodicals and includes the full text of more than 500 of these titles. This database can be accessed from the Mansfield Library homepage.
  
  
  • Module 3: Finding Periodical Articles Using Online Academic Databases provides detailed information for searching.
  
  
  Subject-specific databases can be identified by selecting the general subject headings at the top of the database web page.



• Locate Information Resources: Web Resources
  Another resource that can be used to locate information is the World Wide Web. To locate quality Web resources appropriate for academic research, use the guidelines in Module 4: Guide To Web Searching.

B. Read and Evaluate the Resources

Read, take notes, and evaluate the collected material. Allow plenty of time for this important part of the research process. Module 5: Evaluating and Documenting Sources provides specific guidelines for assuring that the information resources are appropriate for academic research.

C. Assignment #3

Identify and record two books or media from the library catalog and three periodical articles from Expanded Academic ASAP or a subject-specific database. These documents should relate to your thesis topic. The information about these 5 documents should be in the form of a complete citation--author, date of publication, title, and publication information. Add this information to your working electronic bibliography and e-mail this information to your instructor.