Contact
	Kristen Motz
	Email
	Phone: 231-591-3625
	Office: FLITE 140H

EDUC 101 - Ennis

Education Resources at FLITE

Getting Started With Your Research

Not sure even how to begin the research process?. Our FLITE guided tutorial, Getting Started With Your Research, may help you jumpstart your project quickly.

You can also take a journey with the Spybrarian and explore the steps of the research process more carefully in Ouroboros: Seven Steps to Enlightened Research, our Flash-animated tutorial.

Suggestions to retrieve better/more results:

• Search topic as both a keyword and subject
• Combine terms with AND or OR
• Set date ranges limit to a specific time
• Use quotes for phrases

• Subject searching: Search for the subject of your topic.
  Example:
  Topic: Early language development
  Subject: Language acquisition



• Keyword searching: Search for keywords on your topic.
  Example:
  Topic: Early literacy
  Keyword(s): Beginning reading, beginning writing, emerging literacy

Finding the Right Words

Research Guide: Education

Our Research Guide for Education is available to help you research. You may be able to find these resources at your local library if you are off-campus.

Finding Journal Articles for Research

To find journal articles on a particular topic, use one or more of the databases available through the FLITE web site. These databases index thousands of journal titles. Some provide full text, but others only provide citations or abstracts.

Some of the databases we recommend you try include:

Education Databases

• Education Abstracts
  Although Education Abstracts provides very little full-text, this option also allows you to search Wilson OmniFile Full Text Select, a full-text general database, broadening your search to journals not indexed by other Education databases. The ability to link out to articles in using the "Find It" link further increases this database's usefulness. Look for the check box for peer-reviewed articles under the "Limit to" section.
  
  
• Education Collection - Sage Journals Online (formerly Education Sage Full-Text)
  Although articles are pulled from just 36 education journals, all are peer-reviewed and the articles are provided in full-text with coverage back more than 90 years. Use this database for in-depth historical research. This will change in the future with more journals to choose from.
  
  
• Educator's Reference Complete
  With full-text provided for more than half the journals indexed in ERIC, this large database covers all aspects of education from pre-school to higher education. Limiting to peer-reviewed articles is an easy task using a check box.
  
  
• ERIC
  The premiere education database, ERIC (the Educational Resources Information Center), is a digital library provided by the Institute of Education Sciences of the Department of Education. Many of the resources are citations or abstracts only, rather than full-text, and using the "Find It" function to link to other databases will be necessary. Use this Guide for Searching ERIC.
  
  Be sure to access ERIC through the FLITE web site in order to find your articles.
  
  (Please contact Kristy Motz if you would like one-on-one help using this valuable resource.)

General Databases

• Academic OneFile
  A general database with more than 39 million articles from 13,000 journals, its ability to allow you to easily restrict your search to peer-reviewed journals makes it a great place to start your research.
  
  

Related Databases

Or, click here to see all of our databases listed by name.

Getting the Article

If HTML or PDF full text options are available, click the link to go directly to the full text.

If full text is not an option:

Click the "Find It", link or button;


Select red GO button.

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.

Interlibrary Loan

If the only message you see is "Request document via Interlibrary Loan", you will need to order the article. By clicking on the link in the window provided, you will be directed to a blank Interlibrary Loan form to be filled out. You will need to register if you are a first-time user. Click here to learn more about Interlibrary Loan.

To look up whether FLITE owns a particular journal, use the Find--Journals database to search for the journal title, such as Career and Technical Education Research or The Journal of Classroom Interaction.

You can also use the Journals tab in the library catalog. Remember to use the journal title not the article title for your search.

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), and Peer-Reviewed Journals, (also called Refereed Journals.) Most databases have a special tab or a special limit function, to allow you to select scholarly and peer-reviewed journals.

MeL

As a researcher or as an educator, the MeL collection of databases should be very helpful to you and to your students. Several of the major FLITE databases are available as free online resources to the citizens of Michigan, provided by the Library of Michigan without charge. Use this valuable tool yourself, and promote it to your students: MeL - the Michigan eLibrary Click on MeL Databases - See Databases From Home for a list of available resources, including Academic OneFile, ERIC, and Educator's Reference Complete. When you are not in a library, you will need to use either your Michigan library card barcode number or your Michigan Driver's License/ID number to access the databases.

Books

Many books are available from FLITE. Try searching the online catalog, for the keyword: "education". You might also want to try other keywords that relate to "education", such as "teaching", "learning", or more specific topics such as "collaborative learning". Remember that FLITE will mail any book to you, free of charge. Use Interlibrary Loan to request books, or call our Distance Education Librarian, Stacy Anderson, at 591-3635.

Don't forget about using Online books, also known as ebooks or electronic books. FLITE provides more than 30,000 book titles online. We have prepared a short tutorial Finding and Reading Online Books and a web document, Finding Online Books, as guides for you with tips for using the different interfaces from the four major vendors we use: Ebrary, Springer, Credo Reference, and NetLibrary. (Hint: always turn your browser's pop-up blocker off when accessing online books or articles from library databases.)

Reference Materials

Reference books are a great way to gather background, explore topics, and gain a general understanding about a variety of topics. Electronic reference books can be reached at the Online Reference Resources page. Credo Reference is a great staring point. Then click on the Education subject heading in the left hand column.

On the Web

There are several good sites on the Internet for resources about education topics:

• The Educator's Reference Desk
• EduHound.com: Everything for Education K-12!
• Michigan Online Resources for Educators (Formerly Michigan Teacher Network)

Writing Assistance

The Ferris Writing Center offers free assistance to all FSU students, faculty, and staff. In addition to tutoring help on-campus, the Writing Center will do tutoring online, including reviews of research papers and citation consultations. Don't pass up this opportunity for help.

The OWL - Purdue University Online Writing Lab (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/) is an invaluable reference for writing research papers. Covering everything from creating a thesis statement and coping with writer's block to formatting citations and the principles of academic writing, this comprehensive web site is a resource tool for every paper you'll ever need to write.

Hot Topics in Education (Useful for paper topic selection)

• The Campbell Collaboration Hot Topics in Education
• International Reading Association "What's Hot" List for 2011
• "What's Hot 2011" Discussion from IRA

APA Citations

Check out our Citations web page for help w ith your references and bibliographies! Avoid plagiarism by properly citing your sources.

The following link provides information on how to use APA:

Citation Style Guide: APA (PDF)
An APA Citation Style guide with examples created by FLITE.

APA List of References

Copies of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Sixth Edition, are located in the Ready Reference section near the FLITE Oval Information Desk at FLITE itself, or you can contact any academic library near you to take a look at a copy of the manual.

KnightCite and Son of Citation Machine - Help with Citations

KnightCite, a tool prepared by the Hekman Library at Calvin College, will help you format your citations properly if you are having trouble figuring out the proper form.

Son of Citation Machine is a tool which you can use to create bibliographies. Please be aware that you will have to review your bibliography to ensure it is correct.

KnightCite
(www.knightcite.com)

Son of Citation Machine
(http://citationmachine.net)

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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.

Make an appointment for a research consultation with a librarian - one-on-one personal library help.

Last update: September 10, 2010