Seth Davis
US History II (11th Grade)
Introduction to Research Resources
Information literacy topics:
Determining best sources
Searching strategies for information
Using technology tools
Objective: To learn to access appropriate online research sources, to practice effective searching strategies, and to use appropriate technology tools.
1. Please keep this reference page open throughout the class.
Amity website→High School→AHS Library Information Center
Find Online Stuff→By Subject→History→Class Projects →Davis→US History II Open Topic Project
2. Discussion: quick tour of sources for today’s practice (notes are included at end of instructions for reference):
Types of online databases discussed today
School product databases
Scholarly databases
Example:
Free web site
Example:
Great source for primary source documents, photographs, recordings.
3.a. Presentation of School Product Database Site:
Take note of your surroundings: Look at headings, tabs, links, etc. Decide on a starting point for a search.
Quick Search
Consider the topic: “conscientious objector”
Try the quick search box, look at the number of results. Repeat with quotes.
Try other search terms (“selective service”)
Use the left sidebar checkboxes to filter your results
TOPIC tab
Topics is an index, or table of contents. Broad overview. Choose a topic.
Left sidebar:
Read Overview, follow links in text to clarify unfamiliar ideas
Look at relevant General Resources
Look at pictures/videos, maps, in Media.
Look for relevant Documents (primary source documents)
Search categories by time period and events
PERSPECTIVE tab
Key Question: the research question answered in the presentation.
Need to Know: all the information available to answer the research question
Also look at Facts and Figures, Glossary Terms, and Maps
LIBRARY tab
Library allows you to search by keywords, limiting your results to different eras. You can also choose the kind of information you want, like biographies, original documents, or photos.
Decide on a search process. You can do a keyword search, and check boxes to limit it to different categories.
The DATABASES option is a drop down link to the other databases purchased by the school
3.b. Practice searching
Use tools to search for topic, play around for a few minutes.
Choose an article relevant to your topic, skim it.
Prepare to share one observation about your searching experience.
4.a. Presentation of a scholarly database site:
Main points:
Take note of your surroundings: Decide on a starting point for search.
Main search box or Advanced Search?
Using Main search box
Search terms: conscientious objector. How many results?
Search terms: search exact phrase, using quotes -- “conscientious objector”
Search terms: search for alternate forms, using OR -- “conscientious objector” OR “conscientious objection”
Search terms: limit search more, using with parentheses, and AND --
(“conscientious objector” OR “conscientious objection”) AND Vietnam
Compare number of results
Using Advanced search
Useful if you know the title, author, publication, dates of interest, or kind of document you want
Use checkbox ¨limiters¨ to LIMIT your search by:
only content I can access (full-text)
types of sources
dates
languages
discipline
and whatever else is offered
View your results
Look at All/Journals/Books/Pamphlets tabs
Check your articles of interest.
Save your chosen results to avoid losing stuff (use personal lists, email, notes/citation tools, etc.). Make sure you are logged on with your own account to save your information.
Read online, or download PDFs
4.b. Practice searching 
Use tools to search for topic, play around for a few minutes.
Choose an article relevant to your topic, skim it.
Prepare to share one observation about your searching experience.
5.a. Presentation of an open web source
Great source for primary source documents, photographs, recordings.
Browse by Collection Highlights
Browse by Topics
Look at the themes presented here, including “The Great Depression”, and After the Day of Infamy: Man on the Street Interviews”.
5.b. Practice searching 
Use tools to search for topic, play around for a few minutes.
Choose an article relevant to your topic, skim it.
Prepare to share one observation about your searching experience.
Additional Resources
Search Hints
Advanced Search
Start simple. You can always add more words to narrow down.
Too many results and not really relevant? Add more words to narrow down.
Too few results? Broaden your search with fewer words
Save good candidates to look at later
Sign up to save searches and results
Use more advanced techniques:
Try with synonyms or related words (poor, poverty, etc.)
Use commands (“operators”) to narrow down (and (to get both terms), or (for one OR the other), not (to filter out the word), apostrophes around several words like “world war II” or “world war two” to get the exact phrase
When you identify a good source/article:
Follow up by clicking on subject headings that appear in relevant articles (how about Child Labor, Child Welfare, Great Britain History 19th C.?)
Refine results, limit to sources, dates, formats you want.
Save your chosen results to avoid losing stuff (use personal lists, email, notes/citation tools, etc.). Add a username and password to recover information.
Additional tips to find research material:
Get a library card so you can use iConn at home.
Practice searching from our web page databases:
SIRS
iConn/Resources for High Schools/ (all the databases for journals)
Jstor
Any other database listed that looks good
You are MORE likely to find something useful for school FASTER from a paid database than from a web search.
Everything that ISN’T useful has NOT been included.
Everything you find in a full-text search is really available, as opposed to just being a summary (abstract).
You can avoid “pseudo-authoritative” sources written by people who confuse opinion with science, and beliefs with objective facts.Citation and Reference Information
How do you cite the article in the body of your paper? In general, in Chicago’s NB format (Notes and Bibliography), when you include an idea or quotation in the text from a research source, you include a superscript number at the end of the sentence or clause in the sentence with the idea or quote. At the bottom of the page you write a complete citation with all the information about the source, which is ALMOST like the bibliography citation at the end of the paper, with some small differences (see the style guide at the Purdue OWL site).
You will need to follow the instructions and examples from a reliable source, like the writing experts at Purdue University’s OWL CHICAGO style pages.
Seth Davis
U.S. History II
Introduction to Citations, References, and Note-taking with EasyBib
Information literacy topics:
Taking notes
Organizing source citations
References
Using technology tools
Objective: To understand and define the concept of a research “citation”, and to use a web citation generator (EasyBib) to create citations and bibliographic references, and organize notes.
Before class: Students will have narrowed their areas of interest for their research topics, been shown how to search school databases, and have identified some research sources.
During class:
1: Find the activities for this class, at:
Amity website→High School→AHS Library Information Center
(tab) Find Online Stuff→By Subject→History/Social Studies
(tab) Class Projects →Davis→ Citations with EasyBib
Part A: Understanding and Creating Citations
2. Answer the question, “What is a citation?”
3. Answer the question, “What kind of information is included in a citation?”
4. Analyze this sample citation to see which elements it includes.
Students answer: “What kind of source is it?”
Goldfarb, Ronald L. "Three Conscientious Objectors." American Bar Association Journal 52, no. 6 (June 01, 1966): 564-67. Accessed March 3, 2015. doi:10.2307/25723644.
5. Sign up for an account in EasyBib.
Follow these instructions:
Please use the high school coupon code: "amityregionalhs1"
If you already have an account from Orange or Bethany, you should eventually create a new account with the high school coupon code.
Log on
6. Practice creating citations.
Click on +New Project
Name the project, choose Chicago as your default style, click CREATE.
Go to Bibliography (where you create your reference list)
You are ready to create a citation list.
6.a.. Student practice: COPYING a citation for a database article (ABC-Clio).
Go to this article from a database. Find the citation at the end of the article, or click on “Cite this document”. Copy the citation (use Chicago format).
(If the link doesn’t work, here is the citation below:)
"Gillette v. United States (1971)." American History, 2000. Accessed March 4, 2015. http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com.
Cut and paste this citation directly in EasyBib. Go to “All 59 Options”, then “Write/Paste Citation”.
NOTE: You could also have chosen the automatic “Export to EasyBib” option, visible when you clicked on “Cite this document”.
You can check the accuracy of your citation by looking at the Chicago guide HERE.
6.b. Student practice: EXPORTING a citation for a database article in JSTOR (register here).
Register for an account in JSTOR, so you can access from home, and save your citations.
Search for the article titled: “Three Conscientious Objectors”. Open the article
Click on CITATION TOOLS. SAVE CITATION to save it to your JSTOR account (recommended, so you don’t lose the article).
Click on CITATION TOOLS/EXPORT CITATION (choose RIS file, and download it to your desktop).
Upload the citation file to EasyBib. Go to “All 59 Options”, then “Upload/Database Import¨”. Find your file, upload, and you will see it in your bibliography.
Edit and correct the citation if needed (no import is always perfect).
6.c. Practice; Creating a MANUAL citation from a book.
Discussion: “What information will I probably include from this book?”
Go to Bibliography, go to the Book tab
Click ¨Manual Cite¨ and fill in all the information needed. Please do this manually to get practice.
Look at the book cover
Look at the title page
Look at the chapter you are citing
Look at the back of the book
NOW try an automatic citation:
Search by title, authors, or ISBN (number on the barcode)
If you find the right book (check title, author, publisher, and year), choose that book.
Now check the manual citation you wrote against the automatic citation. Are they the same?
Part B: Writing and Organizing Notes in EasyBib
7.a. Students practice taking notes.
Back in EasyBib, go to Notebook under project dropdown box:
Create a new note under the NEW NOTE tab, for the first article.
Include a title that represents the basic idea of your note.
Choose one of your source citations from the dropdown menu.
Cut and paste a QUOTE, or write a paraphrased note. Hint: take the time to create a well-written note NOW, that could get slotted right in your paper.
Save the note.
Create a second note in the same way for the second article.
Drag one note on top of the other to create a GROUP.
Name your GROUP. A group can be a category or theme that both notes address. We are pretending that the two notes deal with the same specific topic.
7.b. Start your outline:
Drag your GROUP of two notes to your OUTLINE on the right. The GROUP has become a heading, and each note is a sub-heading.
You can change the relationships in your outlines
7.c. Create a text document of your notes:
When you have a million notes grouped into themes/categories, choose PRINT to create a text document, that you can build to convert into a finished paper.
8. Cite your sources within your paper.
How do you cite the article in the body of your paper? In general, in MLA format, when you include an idea or quotation in the text from a research source, you generally include the author’s name and the page number, where there is one.
You will need to follow the instructions and examples from a reliable source, like the writing experts at Purdue University’s OWL CHICAGO style pages.
Additional Online Resources
The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University has an entire set of online guides for writing research papers, including materials on how to cite and format documents in the major citation styles.
