FRS 118: Leadership/Service: World Religions in Asheville
Fall Semester, 2007
Library Research Assignment Information
(adapted with permission from Chris Nugent)
Below are
general things that
you need to know for any library research assignment.
For a refresher on how to do
library research
go to Painless
Library Research
To evaluate what you find on
the Web
go to Evaluating
Web Resources (from Widener University). Look in the
left-hand column under "evaluate web pages" for relevant links.
If you want to learn this and have some fun at the same time, check out
the Internet
Detective!
To recognize and avoid
plagiarism
work with these sites:
Plagiarism,
its nature and consequences (from Duke University Libraries)
Plagiarism,
what it is and how to recognize and avoid it (from Indiana
University)
To write papers in religious studies
work with these sites:
from UNC
from Dartmouth
What do
these library words
mean?
Source: Adapted,
with permission,
from Hunter Library, Western Carolina University.
Bibliography - A list of the resources you used to write your
paper. An annotated bibliography
also gives brief information about the content of each resource and its
usefulness for the paper or project.
Call Number - A specific combination of letters and
numbers assigned to a book that indicates the book's location on the
shelf. Each book has its own unique call number. You find the
call number on the bottom of the screen in our catalog. You need
the entire number to find the book.
Citation - Information about a source
that contains the author, year of publication, volume number, page
numbers, title of periodical, etc. A periodical index or database will
provide a list of citations. The library catalog gives a list of
citations of books. Your bibliography will be a list of citations of
sources you used for your paper.
Copyright - According to the
United States Copyright Office in the Library of Congress, copyright is
"a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title
17, U.S. Code) to the authors of “original works of authorship,”
including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other
intellectual works." Copyright law protects both published and
unpublished information (http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wci).
Database - "An organized
collection of information, data, or citations stored in electronic
format that can be searched for specific information or records by
techniques specific to each database." -from the University of Texas,
San Antonio Library. Examples of scholarly databases are ATLAS,
JSTOR, and the Humanities Index.
Full Text - The entire text of the article (or
other
document) is available from the database, ready to print from your
computer.
Journal - A periodical containing a collection of
articles, usually written by scholars, presenting information in a
particular area. Examples: Buddhist-Christian
Studies, Catholic
World, Hinduism Today, Jewish Journal etc.
Literature Review - A
summary and evaluation of the important works that have been written on
a given topic. This is usually the first part of a paper and
indicates that the author is building on previous knowledge.
Plagiarism - Taking information from another
source and passing it off as your own. This may be done by not giving
credit for a quote or a passage of information or by deliberately
copying a written work or downloading a paper from the Internet.
Reserves - An item that has been
selected by your
instructor for you to read. The items are located in our circulation
area. You check them out, but can generally use them only in the
library for a few hours. Careful, there are fines for late return!
Scholarly Journal - Also referred to as
"Peer-Reviewed" or "Refereed," a scholarly journal features articles
that usually contain original research (qualitative or quantitative),
citations of other works, and have been reviewed and selected by other
scholars in order to be published.
Source or Resource - This can
be a book, a journal article, a video, a website, a CD etc. We
distinguish between primary and secondary sources.
Return to WWC Library
Home Page.
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