Dancing on Heaven's Door Research Paper, Page 4

Finding Sources

One of the first places to look for information about your topic is the King Library's web site. To find books, videos, and other library resources on your culture, go to the menu on the left side of the main library page and fill in the "Quick Search” box. The default search type is for a “keyword”; in the blank box, type the name of your topic. I typed in “witchcraft” and found 184 items including audio books and DVDs. Since there is so much information, I will limit my search to items in the SJSU collection. These will be more academic works and easy for me to find. I can narrow my search more by searching on "witchcraft Africa". This narrows the search to twenty books and three are ebooks I can access from home.. When I go to the library, I will take a look at the physical books. If I find one that is useful, I will check it out and fill out a data collection sheet for it. You need to have at least one data collection sheet on a physical book for your first research paper assignment.

Since I am working from home, it is particularly useful to use an article in an e-book. To access this article, I click on the name of the book which takes me to a summary of its contents, the name of my culture is highlighted in red, so I know there is something useful to me. By clicking on the phrase “An e-book available to SJSU Students and Faculty,” I go to a page where I can enter my name, Tower Card number, and my library pin code. This takes me to a page with all the information I need to fill out a data collection sheet on the e-book. If you only use one article in an edited book, do not forget to include the name of the article, the author, and the pages within the book where the article is located. You treat this e-book in your citations and reference list as if it were a physical book. You can print a copy of an article or download it. However, do not be tempted to cut and paste from an e-book without citing it, since that would be plagiarism.

Now that you know how easy it is to find library materials in e-books, let's take a look at some good electronic databases; proceed to page 5.