Hiram College Library: Money, Sex, and Conspiracy Theory: Getting Started With Research

General Background Information

As you begin your research, learning more about fields of study relevant to your focus will help you create more effective searches. The Hiram College Library owns many general and specialized encyclopedias and dictionaries that provide this background information.

Listed below are some general reference sources and databases of encyclopedias and dictionaries.

Snopes
Snopes.com has come to be regarded as an online touchstone of research on rumors and misinformation. The site’s work has been described as painstaking, scholarly, and reliable, and has been lauded by the world’s top folklorists, including Jan Harold Brunvand, Gary Alan Fine, and Patricia Turner. Hundreds of the site’s articles have been cited by authors in a variety of disciplines, and various of their articles have been published in textbooks currently in use in the U.S. and Canadian school systems.
Oxford Reference Online
Database of online encyclopedias and dictionaries and other reference sources from Oxford University Press.

Oxford Research Encyclopedias This link opens in a new window
Articles written, peer-reviewed and edited by scholars covering 25 subjects. Articles, which are being added and updated on a regular basis, help break down broad subjects like International Studies or Neuroscience.
Science Reference Center This link opens in a new window
A comprehensive research database of full-text resources designed for high school and introduction college science courses. Covers biology, chemistry, earth and space science, environmental science, medicine, physics, and the history of science. Includes periodicals, reference books, images, and videos.
National Academies Press This link opens in a new window
Created by the National Academies to publish the reports issued by the national Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council, makes available more than 1,500 of its books available free online.
Electronic Journal Center (EJC) This link opens in a new window
Searchable, full-text issues of journals from a number of major publishers. More than 7,000 journals are available.

Wikipedia (Researching with Wikipedia)
Gives the ins and outs of using Wikipedia for research.

Generating Ideas - Popular places to search

New York Times This link opens in a new window
The New York Times contains every article, fully searchable, published in the New York Times since 1851. First, set up an account (instructions here). Then just connect to nytimes.com and login. Or, once you have your account set up, download the NYTimes app from the app store. For more information on setting up an account and using the iPad app, see the New York Times Subject Guide.
http://www.nytimes.com/
Opposing Viewpoints in Context This link opens in a new window
Covers current and controversial social issues from immigration to gun control to fracking. Viewpoint essays present different sides to an issue and the database adds periodical articles, statistics, video/audio, news articles, and primary sources.
Points of View Reference Center This link opens in a new window
Provides multiple sides on current issues, such as cloning, abortion, race, and medical ethics. Each topic has an overview, a point, a counterpoint, and a Guide to Critical Analysis of the topic.

National Public Radio
On-air and online, NPR presents fact-based, independent journalism that examines and airs diverse perspectives. NPR's journalists strive for mastery of the narrative form, telling stories in ways that transport the audience to the places where news is happening and introducing the people affected.
The Week
Their description for themselves: "In the age of information overload, THE WEEK is an oasis of smart, concise, and balanced content tailored to a busy thought starter. THE WEEK makes sense of the world, providing readers everything they need to know and understand about the world around them. "

Hiram College Library Local Catalog

Search for books using Hiram College Library catalog.

Hiram College Library Local Catalog

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Keyword vs Subject Term

Subject headings describe the content of each item in a database. Use these headings to find relevant items on the same topic. Searching by subject headings (a.k.a. descriptors) is the most precise way to search article databases.

It is not easy to guess which subject headings are used in a given database. For example, the phone book's Yellow Pages use subject headings. If you look for "Movie Theatres" you will find nothing, as they are listed under the subject heading "Theatres - Movies."

Keyword searching is how you typically search web search engines. Think of important words or phrases and type them in to get results.

Here are some key points about each type of search:

Keywords	vs.	Subjects
natural language words describing your topic - good to start with		pre-defined "controlled vocabulary" words used to describe the content of each item (book, journal article) in a database
more flexible to search by - can combine together in many ways		less flexible to search by - need to know the exact controlled vocabulary term
database looks for keywords anywhere in the record - not necessarily connected together		database looks for subjects only in the subject heading or descriptor field, where the most relevant words appear
may yield too many or too few results		if too many results - also uses subheadings to focus on one aspect of the broader subject
may yield many irrelevant results		results usually very relevant to the topic

When you search a database and do not get the results you expect, Ask Us for advice.