There's lots to find at the library.
You have access to print and eBooks,
magazines and journals, and big
collections of magazine and journal
subscriptions online called databases
that you generally will not find out on the open internet.
We also have laptops
for in-library use, Chromebooks that you
can check outside of the library, and
quiet study rooms for your studying.
Your library has reference librarians also
available anytime the library is open.
We can help you build effective search
strategies and look in the best places
to find information and also help you
cite that information.
We've also put together websites to help you succeed on
your course exams and assignments.
These are called research guides. These guides
will point you in the direction of
suggested books, databases, websites, and
other sources to help you complete your assignments.
Let's navigate to the
political science guides right now.
We'll start on the library's homepage,
library.elgin.edu.
From there, we're going to go to the Research Guides
The guides are listed alphabetically by course subject.
We're going to go down to political science.
To find the
appropriate guide, look for your course code.
In some cases, you will want to look
for the exam number for the course that
you're in, and also notice there is a
research guide for certain assignments,
such as the scavenger hunt and also
making an annotated bibliography in
Chicago style format. Let's go to the
guide for exam 4 for POS 150 National Government.
On these guides you are going
to find specific resources, either in
print or online. They're going to help
you answer the questions from the exams.
You will also find pages for certain
assignments and that will have resources
for you to complete those
assignments, such as the articles that
you need to read for the Follow the
Footnote assignment and resources and
search strategies for the Revolution
Will Not Be Televised so you want to
look and see if there's an assignment
tab for what you're working on.
Also, each research guide is going to have citation
help so you can see how to format your
citations correctly in Chicago-style.
We're going to ask and answer a question
together: What is "constructive possession"?
We're going to use the reference book
West's Encyclopedia of American Law.
A reference book, such as an encyclopedia
or dictionary, is meant to introduce you
to a topic with a basic definition or a
brief overview.
You aren't reading reference books all the way through like
you would a chapter book.
you're just consulting them with a certain topic in
mind.
This is a 10 volume set, and it's going to be set up alphabetically. We're
going to look then in volume 3 which has
COM through DOR  - "constructive possession"
should be underneath it.
Here's an alphabetical picture of the entries that
are in here. We have "constructive
eviction" and "constructive trust". Oh, no! We
do not see "constructive possession".
What happened?
Sometimes when you're researching, you
want to look at a broad category for
finding information rather than the
specific term at least to start out with.
For instance instead of trying to find
information on type 2 diabetes look up
diabetes, and then see how a book or a
source discusses both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Instead of iPhone, try to look up
smartphones or technology. In this case,
instead of constructive possession as
our term,
let's try Possession. We're going to take
this search tip into volume 8 of the
same reference book. If we look at
Possession, it should be here in the PO's to SANs. If we look for the word
Possession we see the main entry here
inside of this reference book and then
it lays out in the entry different types
of Possession including
"constructive possession". So if you're looking in a
source that you think should have the
answer and you don't see it, try
experimenting with your search terms and
look for that broader category. Great job!
What I want you to take away from this
video is that we have a lot of materials
and resources that are going to help you
succeed in your classes. Please take
advantage of them. Keep in mind that
we librarians can help you build the
best searches and make sure you're
looking in the right places for information.
Don't forget about the
research guides for your class and then
if one way you're trying to find
information does not work, persevere and
try another way. Experiment with your
search! There are many ways that you can
contact the reference librarian. You can
come in and visit us at the Reference
Desk in Building C, and we have phone and
email here as well.
To use the resources off-campus, to check out the
laptops, you
will need a library card. You can
see the information for the Circulation
Desk to be able to set that up.
Thank you very much!
