| Contact | |
|---|---|
| Kristen Motz | |
| Phone: 231-591-3625 | |
| Office: FLITE 140H | |
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Off Campus Access
- Starting Your Research
- Finding Specific Journals
- Finding Journal Articles for Research
- Getting the Full-text of the Research Article
- Interlibrary Loan
- Scholarly Journals
- Useful Guides
- Books in Electronic and Print Format
- Citations
- On the Web - MeL (Michigan eLibrary)
- On the Web - Other Sites
- Handouts and Further Information
EDUC 511 - Lashaway-Bokina
Education Resources at FLITE
Off Campus Access
FLITE Distance Education Library Services
One of our missions at FLITE is to offer all off-campus students access to the high-quality research materials available through the library. FLITE's subscription databases are available to all current Ferris students, faculty, and staff, including off-campus students. Our Distance Education web site should help you with any questions you may have about reaching FLITE from wherever you are. Be sure to study it carefully and return to it often. If you experience problems logging on, please call (231) 591-2669 or (800) 4-FERRIS (ext. 2669).
Starting Your Research
If you have questions about finding and researching a topic, use this FLITE tutorial:
Getting Started With Your Research
Remember, avoid plagiarism by properly citing your sources. Please go to the Citations web page to learn how.
Using Education JournalsJournals provide an excellent way to access scholarly research-worthy information in your field. You can access journals in two different ways:
- Look for a particular journal title and read the articles within it.
- Use a journal database, which will return articles from many different journals on a single topic.
Try using both methods while you are learning more about your field.
Finding Specific Journals
Trying to find article titles in specific journals isn't practical in large databases. You'll need to use the FLITE Find A Periodical database. Here you can get to specific journals such as The American Education Research Journal or Computers and Education.
Some of these journals will be in the library in physical format: print for current issues, and bound volumes, microfilm, or microfiche for older copies. As off-campus students, you may request digital copies using interlibrary loan. You may also be able to access the journal directly online. To look up whether FLITE owns a particular journal, use the Journals tab or the Find drop-down menu to "Journals" to reach our Find a Periodical database to search for the journal title.
If you use this method, you may want to go to the journal's web site presence (if it has one) and read the "About Us" or "FAQ" information about the journal online to see if it will suit your needs. Remember from our discussion, most likely you will not be able to read the full-text of the article on the free Web. That's where you need to use Find a Periodical.
Remember to use the journal title not the article title for your search
Finding Journal Articles for Research
To find journal articles on a particular topic, use the Databases available on the FLITE Web site. These databases cumulatively provide indexing to thousands of journal titles. Some of the databases provide all or mainly full-text (content of the articles is found directly within the database), but others only provide citations (description of where the article originally appeared in print) or abstracts (summaries of the articles in question), requiring you to try to link out to articles using FLITE's "Find-It" technology. Please read Off-Campus Database Access if you want to do your searching from home.
Some of the databases we recommend you try include:
Education Databases General and Related DatabasesClick here to see all of our Databases listed by name.
Getting the Full-text of the Research Article
Once you've found citations relevant to the topic you're working with and you need to get a copy of the articles, you'll need to verify whether FLITE owns the particular journal in which each article was published. Many databases now have a link called "Find It", which gives you the range of options available to find the material. If the full text of the article is available, you will be able to find the article by clicking on the link.
Sometimes the "Find It" button will provide a link to the Online Catalog. This indicates that the journal is found in FLITE's print collection. If you are off-campus and can't come to FLITE, simply order the article through Interlibrary Loan.
Interlibrary Loan
If the only message you see is "Request document via Interlibrary Loan", you will need to order the article. Interlibrary Loan is a service provided by FLITE to request articles and books that FLITE does not own. Most often this service is used when searching for articles in FLITE databases, and you are directed through the "Find It" button to request the item. The first time you use this service, you will need to register with ILLiad, our Inter-Library Loan service. Click on the words "First Time Users" to register. You will complete a form, creating a username and password which will be used for future requests. Article requests are emailed to you in 5-10 business days (ferris email preferred), and books will be mailed to you if you are an off-campus student. On-campus students may pick up books at the Checkout Desk.
Scholarly Journals
The library has developed a Guide to Popular and Scholarly Periodicals to assist you in determining if articles come from Scholarly Journals, also called Academic Journals, Peer-Reviewed Journals, or Refereed Journals. To search for Scholarly Journals in different databases, please use the guides below for more specific assistance.
Useful Guides
| APA Citation Style Guide | |
| Research Guide: Education | |
| FLITE Refworks Tutorial | |
Books in Electronic and Print Format
Books are the best way to gather background, gain a general understanding of your topic, and then explore subjects in-depth.
To find books in FLITE, try either Subject or Keyword searches in the Online Catalog. Remember that circulating FLITE books will be mailed to you free of charge. Your only cost is the return postage via UPS. See our section on Document Delivery/InterLibrary Loan.
Requests can be made electronically through the InterLibrary Loan (ILL) Request form. You'll need to register as a First Time User when sending your first InterLibrary Loan request.
Online Reference Materials (Reference Books in digital form) can be reached by following the Online Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Etc. link on the FLITE home page. Select the Education subject heading in the column on the left.
Electronic books (Ebooks) can be found by using the Find--Books link, and then using a Keyword Search. Here is a search for materials in Criminal Justice. Use keywords in your subject area in place of the "criminal justice" search. Use the Material Type drop down menu on the page to select "EBOOKS".
You may also search for them from a results page by selecting the "LIMIT THIS SEARCH" tab on the top of the page.
Limit the search again to EBOOKS.
Authoritative Internet resources may also be accessed through our Online Catalog. Search for them using either the Keyword search or the Limit button and restrict your search to "ELECTRONIC" resources.
Once you reach the catalog record, click on either the Internet address provided or the words "Connect to online version" to reach the web site.
Using Electronic Books from FLITE - NetLibrary or Ebrary
- Turn off your pop-up blocker.
- For Ebrary, allow automatic download of the plugin that will become the book "reader". Follow the steps to accept the license and download the reader.
- For NetLibrary, you must create an account through a library. Call the FLITE Reference Desk for assistance at 231-591-3602. Librarians will create an account for you from within FLITE, which you can use to access NetLibrary from any computer connected to the Internet.
- Set up a user name and password so you can save searches and take notes.
- Skim the forward, introduction, and table of contents to gain general sense of topic.
- Preserve your search by either printing your material (printing limits apply), emailing the citation to yourself, or saving the citation to a bibliographic database like RefWorks or Citation Machine.
Citations
Check out our new Citation web page for help with your references and bibliographies! Avoid plagiarism by properly citing your sources.
On the Web
There are several good sites on the Internet for resources about education topics - these could be invaluable once you graduate:
MeL (Michigan eLibrary) (Use through the Databases while at Ferris)
ERIC - more full text resources are available all the time. (Access ERIC through FLITE while you are a student. Access ERIC through MeL databases if you live in Michigan.)
MeL - the Michigan eLibrary at mel.org (if you live in Michigan)
- Find Books using MeLCat
- For more help using MeLCat, click here.
- For information about using MeLCat from the current FLITE online catalog, click here.
- For information about using MeLCat currently as a Distance Education student, click here.
- Search free (to Michigan residents) MeL Databases (including Academic OneFile, ERIC and Educator's Reference Complete)
- The Educator's
Reference Desk
- EduHound.com: Everything for Education K-12!
- Michigan Educators' Resources (Formerly Michigan Teacher Network)
- EBSCO Teacher Reference
Center
Click here to get handouts and further information about class topics:
Search Engines, Directories, MetaSearch Engines and the Invisible Web
Search Engines Table from University of California at BerkeleyRecommended Subject Directories from University of California at Berkeley
MetaSearch Engines from University of California at Berkeley
The Invisible or Deep Web
The Four Content Layers of the World Wide Web
Search Tools: A List of Search Engines, Directories, and MetaSearch Engines
Evaluating Web Sites
Criteria for Evaluating Web SitesWeb Page Evaluation Checklist from University of California at Berkeley
Internet Evaluation exercises
Check out urban legends, hoaxes, and misinformation.
Snopes.com
Contact: Kristen Motz / Email / Phone: 231-591-3625 / Office: FLITE 140H
Don't forget, you are welcome to come to the Oval Information Desk and ask for help any time. You can also call us 231-591-3602 or chat with us.
Last update: October 7, 2008