LIBRARY INTRODUCTION
Make sure to activate your City Tech ID at the library’s circulation desk ASAP. This has many advantages, most notably that all your academic research can be done at home! You do not need to be in the library to use the library’s resources (or any CUNY library’s resources).
You can always ask a librarian for research help (in person, phone, or email).
When googling for sources, don’t forget to evaluate your evidence using the RECAP method. You need to make sure your sources are legitimate.
Library website: http://library.citytech.cuny.edu/
When researching, try to think of keywords to use in your search. Don’t search by typing in a full sentence, but rather keywords for your search. If you’re not getting many hits, try removing or changing the keywords.
Remember: City Tech’s database shows results by date of publication, not relevance.
To open an ebook, click on CUNY under availability, and then access for all CUNY users.
Use the “How to Cite” link to help with your works cited list by having a bibliographic citation generated for the specific text you’re using (don’t forget to double check). Also look at the “Bibliography” for more relevant sources.
You can renew your books online (unless someone else put a hold on that book).
Your tuition helps pay for free access to thousands and thousands of subscriptions. You can access all of these articles/magazines/newspapers through the library database, without having to pay to access these articles.
There are many databases to use. Academic Search Complete is a great place to start. It has mostly academic content and full articles, and is good for scholarly journals and professional/trade news. After you search, there are many ways to help narrow your search (by date, by subject, etc).
Lexus Nexus is great for newspapers and news articles across the globe.
You can email articles to yourself so you don’t lose them or forget where you found them. You can also often generate a citation for articles.
HOMEWORK
- Start collecting research and working on your research project!
- Read Daniel Goleman’s “Peak Performance” and do your reading response.
