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EDUC 663 - Callahan

Research Strategies and 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.

Scholarly and Peer-Reviewed Journals

Confused about academic, scholarly and peer-reviewed journals? Here's a useful explanation of the scholarly, peer-review process:

I Don't Know What to Believe: Making Sense of Science Stories

Using Education Journals

Journals provide an excellent way to access 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 Journals tab. 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 of these physical 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 Journals database.

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 Journals.

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 provide indexing to thousands of journal titles. Some of the databases provide all or mainly full-text, 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

Related Databases

Click here to see all of our Databases listed by name.

Getting Articles in Full-text

Once you've found citations, you will want to get a full-text copy. You'll need to explore whether FLITE owns the particular journal where each article was published. Many databases now have a link called "Find It", which helps you 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.

Useful Guide

Research Guide: Education

Finding Books and eBooks in FLITE for Research

Books are the best way to gather background, gain a general understanding of your topic, and then explore subjects in-depth. eBooks are another Deep Web source and FLITE provides more than 35,000 titles which can be very helpful for off-campus students.. You should be choosing eBooks instead of selecting information found in abstracts or excerpts from Google Books.

Finding Books on Your Topic - Print or Electronic - Using the Library Catalog

To find books in FLITE, try using a Subject search in the Library Catalog. Many subject headings are intuitive, but if nothing comes up, use a Keyword search. Remember that circulating FLITE books (in print) 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.

How to Find Electronic Books through the Library Catalog

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.)

Hot Topics in Education (Useful for paper topic selection)

APA Citations

Confused about citations? This FLITE Citation web page for explanations and guidance. Avoid plagiarism by properly citing your sources.

APA Citation Guide

APA Image Citation Guide

OWL (Purdue Online Writing Lab) APA Formatting and Style Guide

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.
  • Search free (to Michigan residents) MeL Databases (including Academic OneFile, ERIC and Educator's Reference Complete)

Other Sites On the Web

Looking for Education statistics and datasets from the federal government? Try these reliable websites from the U. S. Department of Education.

Evaluating Web Sites
Criteria for Evaluating Web Sites
Web Page Evaluation Checklist from University of California at Berkeley

Check out urban legends, hoaxes, and misinformation.
Snopes.com

Research Assistance

If you have any questions about your capstone research, Email Kristy Motz.

If you would like to make an appointment for a one-on-one research consultation with her by phone or in person, use this online form.

Don't forget, you are welcome to contact the Oval Information Desk and ask for help any time. You can also call us 231-591-3602 or chat with us.

Last update: May 19, 2011



Rick Bearden
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