Finding Information for your Research
Κολέγιο CITY College
Main Campus, Thessaloniki, Greece

Finding Information for your Research

The Information & Learning Commons (ILC) supports the research needs of the College community, providing access to rich and vast collections of books, printed and electronic journal subscriptions, databases, digital libraries, special collections, etc. These pages will show users the steps to follow for an effective research using library resources.

 

 

Identify and Develop your Topic

  • Read carefully the theme of your assignment, essay or project carefully.
  • State your topic as a question and select keywords that will help you find relevant information.
  • Look for subtopics within your main topic. Some topics are so broad that you can't write about them in a single paper.

Find Background Information

  • Once you have identified the main topic and keywords to support your research, use reference resources (bibliographies, guides, handbooks, dictionaries, etc.), online search engines and subject directories to get inspiration for the next steps.
  • Additional background information may be found in lecture notes, textbooks, and recommended readings.
  • Read the background information and note any useful resources (books, journals, magazines, etc.) listed in the bibliography of each item. The sources cited in a bibliography are a good starting point for further research.

Select and Use Resources

  • Find out what kind of resources (books, articles, statistics, etc) you need to look for by checking your assignment or syllabus, or by consulting with your instructor/supervisor.
  • Brainstorm questions about your topic. Make a list of possible resources that can answer these questions and identify which are the best resources to use.
  • Find these resources in the ILC print collections, on the computer, etc. If you experience difficulties using resources ask the ILC staff to help you out.

Find Books

Use ABEKT Online Library Catalogue to find books or other items on your specific topic. You can search books by:

  • Author
  • Title
  • Subject

From the results list select the ones that best fit your topic. You should consider the following:

  • Title of item: is it relevant to your topic?
  • Name of author: is it someone in the field you recognize?
  • Date of publication: is the book current? (A book about economics or statistics from the 1990s will probably be out of date)

To find items on a specific topic conduct a Subject search.

Finding items on the Shelves

Write down the book’s classification number and location to find the item on the shelf. If you experience difficulties, ask a member of the ILC staff to help you out.

Find Articles

Use the following resources to find articles for you research:

  • E-journals
  • Databases
  • Google Scholar

Use Find It – if you have specific article details (citation) or a specific bibliography (e.g. from a reading list, sources cited in the end of an article, book chapter, conference paper, etc.) of items located in the ILC or gathered from elsewhere (external resources, Internet, etc.) to locate and retrieve the full documents. You may also use Find it to locate all the journal titles that refer to your specific research topic.

Use Databases – if you need to look up for articles on a specific subject for a project, assignment or dissertation.

Use Google Scholar - if you want to broadly search for scholarly and peer-reviewed literature across a variety of disciplines and sources.

Request a Copy

If an article is not available online, you can use the Interlibrary Request Service and obtain an electronic copy which will be emailed to your College account for free. This works for any article, whether or not held by the ILC.

Evaluate Resources

Print resources

  • Critical thinking is necessary you are reading the information you have gathered on your topic.
  • Most research/scientific publications go through an external editing or peer review process that helps verify the authority and accuracy of the information presented.
  • Research/Scientific publications check their facts, but you will also need to consider such issues as objectivity, currency, and depth of research.

Internet resources 

  • The majority of Internet resources lack of peer review and fact checking. Therefore anything encountered on the Internet must be thoroughly evaluated before used in an assignment/project, essay or report.

Visit the Help and Support web pages to find useful guides on how to evaluate print and Internet resources and how to distinguish scholarly and popular publications.

Cite Sources

  • Be careful to cite all the resources you use in your research, especially if you are quoting or using someone’s work. This also includes information you find on the Internet. NOT citing the resources of your research can be considered plagiarism. Note that the College policy requires all CITY students to submit the electronic version of their work to TurnItIn plagiarism detection software to check originality.
  • When photocopying book chapters or articles for your research remember to write down the bibliographic details – as it would be difficult to track them down later.
  • Depending on the format of your essay, project/assignment, you will need to compile a reference list, footnotes, a bibliography or a combination of these.

Information to include when citing

  • Articles: author(s), title, source title, volume/issue, date, page range, URL (Web address) and date accessed if an online source.
  • Books: author(s)/editor(s), title(s), publisher, publisher location, date, and pages used.
  • Web page(s): author(s), title, last update date, date accessed, and URL (Web address).

There are many different citation styles such as Harvard, APA, MLA, IEEE, Chicago Manual of Style, etc. Check with your instructor to determine which style you should use. Different areas of study (e.g. computer science, psychology) use specific citation styles.

Organise material and Write

Once you have organised your material start writing your project or assignment so you may turn in your paper on time.

Good resources to look for advice on structure, grammar & different types of academic writing is:

TASHThe Academic Skills Hub

This site includes resources such as every day, learning, writing, communication, presentation and research skills sections that can help students throughout their studies.

ORION (ΩΡΙΩΝ)

Online Digital Literacy Tutorial with guidelines on how to research and find material for assignments and dissertations (Designed for Greek students)

The Information & Learning Commons (ILC) occupies staff that can introduce you to the most relevant print and electronic resources for your subject or research. You may also request to participate in an Information Skills Tutorial if you wish to further develop your search skills. Ask for information at the Library Services Desk.

 

 

back
Accreditation and Recognition by:
Change your Cookies Preferences