Getting Help with Your Research
- Visit the Reference Desk during the Library’s open hours
- Call the PMC librarian at the Reference Desk: 718.636.3704
- Email a librarian: libref@pratt.edu
- Follow the steps of the Information Literacy Guide
Helpful Research Guides
Browse all Guides.
Search Smart
Remember that with library resources especially, it pays to search smart:
use AND in between search terms to group them together
use OR for more results
use NOT if you want to exempt a word from your results
use quotation marks "_" to isolate phrases
use the wildcard * to get all versions of a word
Starting Research: Get the Big Picture
Once you have a basic idea of what your topic is, you'll need to get an idea of the big picture. What are the major issues involved in your topic? What are the terms associated with it?
Reference sources are a great way to begin your search. They'll show you which sources experts recommend and give you ideas for specific areas of the topic you may want to research. These are often broad and general, so it's best to start here and narrow your topic down as you progress.
- Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science This link opens in a new windowCovers a spectrum of related information disciplines, including Archival Science, Bibliography, Document and Genre Theory, Informatics, Information Systems, Knowledge Management, Library and Information Science, Museum Studies, Records Management, and Social Studies of Information. Relevant articles can be found by entry title, subject category, or specific name or topic.
- Gale Ebooks This link opens in a new windowGale Virtual Reference Library is a database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research.
- Scopus This link opens in a new windowProvides abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature and quality web sources in science, technology, medical and social sciences fields, and arts and humanities. Excellent source for finding the most widely cited articles on your topic.
- Google ScholarGoogle Scholar searches specifically for scholarly materials such as journal articles, research reports, dissertations and theses, preprints, technical reports, patents, manuscripts in preparation, working papers and many other document types. It is an excellent source for discovering citations on your topic.
Brainstorm Keywords
Evaluate Sources
The CRAP Test
Currency
- How recent is the information?
- Can you locate a date for when the resource was written/created/updated?
- Based on your topic, is it current enough?
- Why might the date matter for your topic?
Reliability
- What kind of information is included in the resource?
- Is content of the resource primarily opinion?
- Is is balanced or biased?
- Is there a Bibliography? In other words, does the creator provide references or sources for data or quotations?
Authority
- Can you determine who is the creator or author?
- What are the credentials (education, affiliation, expertise?)
- Is the publisher or sponsor reputable?
- Are they reputable?
- What is the publisher’s interest (if any) in this information?
- Are there advertisements on the website?
Purpose/Point of View
- What's the intent of the article? (to persuade you, to sell you something?)
- For web resources, what is the domain? (.com .edu, .gov?) How might this influence the purpose or point of view?
- For web resources, are there ads on the webpage? How do they related to the topic of the web resource? (for example an ad for ammunition next to an article on firearm legislation or against gun control)
- Is the author presenting fact or opinion?
Adapted from Dominican University
Books on Research Methods
The Craft of Research (3rd ed.) by Call Number: 001.42 B725C
Practical Research Methods for Librarians and Information Professionals by Call Number: 020.72 B393ISBN: 9781555705916Publication Date: 2007-10-01
APA Citation Help
Most of your classes at the School of Information will require you to write papers using APA (American Psychological Association) style. You can learn more about APA here. You can also vist the Purdue OWL YouTube Channel to view their APA vidcast series. For more information, visit the library to consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, (6th ed., 2nd printing).