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CI 317 -
Middle Level Methods & Curriculum

Kati Tvaruzka, Education Reference Librarian

University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire

Library Basics

www.uwec.edu/Library - check out this short presentation on why you should use the library's website instead of jumping to an Internet search engine!

The library's website should be your launching point and will provide you with access to information on library collections, services, hours of operation, loan periods, as well as access to the online catalog, online databases, and research guides to help you.

Here's a guide to help you locate materials by call number.

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The Research Process

There are four basic steps to the research process:

  • Pick a topic
  • Get background information: Start with subject encyclopedias and dictionaries as it's a good idea to get a working knowledge of your topic before you start digging for more detailed information.
  • Get detailed information:  Use books from the library's main stacks or other collections
  • Get current information:  Use library databases to find journal articles

The Research Map will help you find your way through these four steps.  Information is broken down by  discipline.

It's important to develop a search statement and pick out keywords in that statement.  Also think of synonyms for those keywords so that you're armed with good search terms.  Think of ways to link those terms using Boolean operators

For additional guidance, use the variety of guides put together by the reference librarians to help you with your research.   

Check out this short PowerPoint presentation if you are having a hard time distiniguishing primary versus secondary research/sources.

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Education Research

Check out this guide for tips on doing education research, including tips on using the online catalog to find books and reference materials. If you're not sure what a literature review looks like, there's a good example here.

Finding Education Articles and Journals
The library provides you with access to several databases specific to the field of education, including Education Full-Text and ERIC. General databases, such as Academic Search Elite may also prove useful. Each database uses its own subject terms, so the keywords that create a successful search in one database may not work in another database. Be ready with synonyms and use the database thesauruses to check your terms for the most accurate, successful searches.

  • ERIC (EBSCO): ERIC contains indexes and abstracts from education and education-related journals and from professional papers, reports, and documents. Journal articles have an “EJ number” and documents have an "ED number.”

  • Education Full-Text: Education Full Text brings you comprehensive coverage of an international range of English-language periodicals, monographs and yearbooks. Full text of articles cover to cover, from hundreds of journals, make this a great source for research.

  • Academic Search Elite: Academic Search Elite, an EBSCO database, is a general academic index that indexes almost 3,000 magazines and journals from every academic discipline and provides the full-text of more than 1,200.This is also an EBSCO product, so looks very similar to ERIC, but it searches different journals and uses different subject headings. These subject heading can be explored in the thesaurus, which works the same as in ERIC.

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Evaluating Your Sources

Citation City


Updated: February 22, 2007