ENGLISH 110: USING THE LIBRARY CATALOG AND RESEARCH DATABASES TO HELP FOCUS YOUR TOPIC
Review the information about vocabulary and primary/secondary sources. Remember that the library catalog will help you find books and
materials other than specific magazine, newspaper, and scholarly journal articles. The research databases will help you find specific
magazine, newspaper, and scholarly journal articles. The library catalog and the research databases, however, also can serve as tools for
moving from a general research topic to a focused research question or from a too narrow topic to a somewhat broader, more manageable
question.
Here’s an example:
1. Read Stephen King’s commentary “How TV Ruined Baseball” http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20218931,00.html .
2. Imagine that your research topic is: The effect of TV on sports in the U.S.
3. Around the text box below, create a “cloud” of words and phrases that you might use to search for primary and secondary sources
related to this topic.
4. Searching for primary and secondary sources—and reading the subject headings, title words, and article summaries--often gives you
ideas for refining your research question. It even can point you to a new and more engaging research question. Feel free to come back
and add words to your cloud later after you’ve done some searching.
THE EFFECT OF TV ON SPORTS IN THE U.S.
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ENGLISH 110: CATALOG/RESEARCH DATABASE WORKSHEET
YOUR NAME:
5. On the OSU Library home page (http://library.osu.edu), click “OSU Catalog Search”.
6. Take a minute to read the “Search Tips”, then click “Use advanced Search” which will give you multiple text boxes to use.
7. Enter some of your “cloud” terms as keywords in the boxes. BEFORE YOU CLICK “SUBMIT”, scroll down and change “Search and
sort/Sorted by relevance” to “Sorted by date”. This will return your results with most recent first.
8. List the titles of two books that suggest research questions you might focus on:
a.
b.
9. Return to the “Advanced Search” page. Type American Sports: from the Age of Folk Games to the Age of Televised Sports and change
the drop-down “Any field” to “Title”.
10. On the resulting screen, select the 2004 edition, and then click the “Full Record” tab. Scroll down to where it says “Subjects”. Click
on “Sports-Social aspects-United States”.
11. On the resulting screen, click on the subject heading in the highlighted box in the middle of the screen. Use the “Limit/Sort” button
to sort by date. List the title of one book that suggests a third possible research question. (It doesn’t need to have anything to do with
the original reseach topic on page 1.)
c.
Reflection #1
Describe how developing a thorough search vocabulary for the initial general research topic led you to unexpected books and unexpected
research questions related to your own interests for this class.
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ENGLISH 110: TIPS FOR USING OSU LIBRARIES RESEARCH DATABASES
1. Start with the online databases available under “Research Databases” on the library home page (http://library.osu.edu). If you know
the name of the database you want to use, you can type that into the text box on the left of the screen. If you don’t know which
database to use, select a broad subject from the list on the right of the page (e.g., “Women’s Studies/Gender”).
2. If you’re off-campus, be sure to click the “Off-campus Sign-in” link either on the library navigation bar or on the information screen
about a particular database.
3. Academic Search Complete is a good place to begin. It covers a wide variety of topics, from both popular magazines and scholarly
journals. It also will allow you to limit your search to “peer-reviewed” articles. (Many other databases have this feature, too.)
4. Not finding enough? Switch to a subject-specific database (listed under “Databases arranged by subject” on right of the “Research
Databases” screen. For English 110, Communication and Mass Media Complete is often helpful, especially if your topic relates to
advertising. (Hint: The databases listed under “Langage and Literature” usually will not be the most helpful for the topics you’re
writing about in English 110.)
5. Depending on your topic, you may want to try indexes/abstracts that are available only in print. You may want to go back to print
indexes when you want contemporary coverage of an historical event, for example, the Kent State shootings in 1970. Let a library
subject specialist (http://library.osu.edu/sites/collections/) advise you about this.
6. No matter what database you’re using, if the full text of the article is available electronically through the library you’ll be able to
connect to it with a single click. In other words, you don’t have to use an EBSCO database to connect to articles provided by EBSCO, or
JSTOR’s database to connect to articles provided by JSTOR. Everything is interconnected.
7. How do you find out if an article you need is available online or in print at OSU? Click on the “Find It” icon.
8. If the article is neither available online nor in print at OSU, you can request an article through Interlibrary Services (listed under “Quick
Links” on the library home page.) You’ll need to register for an account the first time, but after that it’s quick, easy, and free. (If the
article you need is far away on campus, e.g., at Ackerman, try requesting your article through “Article Express”, a special service of
Interlibrary Services.)
9. If you’re ever asked to pay for something, you probably made a wrong turn somewhere. Contact the library and ask for help.
10. Don’t waste hours not finding what you need. Call, stop by, email or IM a librarian and ask for help. (See “Ask a Question” under
“Help” on the library navigation bar.)
11. If you’re not receiving as much help as you need from a library staff member or student assistant, feel free to ask for a referral to a
librarian. For a list of librarian subject specialists see “Subject Specialists” under “Libraries” on the library navigation bar. In many
cases, any available librarian will be able to help you.
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ENGLISH 110: CATALOG/RESEARCH DATABASE WORKSHEET
YOUR NAME:
This part of the exercise will give you practice in using a research database to find both primary and secondary sources.
 Review your Primary/Secondary Source Worksheet.
 Review your vocabulary “cloud” on p. 1 of this worksheet.
 Read the tips on the p. 3 of this worksheet.
 Keep in mind the general research topic “The effect of TV on sports in the U.S.”
Research Database = Academic Search Complete
1. Select “Advanced Search”. On the resulting search screen look at the list under “Document Type”. List 4 document types that might
be good examples of primary sources.
a.
b.
c.
d.
2. In one text box, type “television or tv” (no quotation marks). In the next type “sport*”. (The asterisk “*” gives you all variants of the
stem “sport”, e.g., sport, sports, sporting, sportive.) Read the abstract of one article that gives you ideas for a possible focused
research question. List its title here:
3. Click on “Refine Search”. Then under “Document Type” select “Editorial.” Add an additional search term in a third text box, e.g.,
“Olympics”. Write the title of one editorial here:
4. Draft two research questions here, one that could use the editorial as a primary source and another that could use it as a secondary
source:
a. (Primary)
b. (Secondary)
5. At the top of your results screen click “Advanced Search” again to return to a new search screen. Re-enter the three search terms you
used in 2) and 3) above. Click the “Scholarly/Peer Reviewed Journals” checkbox and, under “Document Type”, “Article.” This is an
excellent way to find high quality secondary sources from academic journals.
6. Click on the title of one interesting article. Above the complete citation, click on the “Cite” icon. Cut and paste the MLA-formatted
reference here (be sure to edit the library name, city and state abbreviation):
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ENGLISH 110: CATALOG/RESEARCH DATABASE WORKSHEET
YOUR NAME:
Reflection #2
What problems are you still having differentiating primary from secondary sources in relation to your own research topic and research
question? What features of the library catalog or a typical research database have helped you select suitable primary and secondary sources?
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