Library Research Tools
First Year Seminar - Dr. Steve Crow

Presented by Anne Bradley, Business Reference Librarian
bradleya@csus.edu ~ 916-278-4350
October 11, 2012

• Always a great place to start your business research!
• Access ALL library databases from Database and Article Search Page

Use books to find information on your country!

Eureka Online Catalog - http://eureka.lib.csus.edu/
Use the online catalog Eureka to find books on your country. Books can provide a broad overview of the many different aspects of culture and business practices for a particular country.

The Simple Search screen allows you to do a Keyword search. Or you can select other fields in the record to search (subject headings, title, author, etc.). Useful Subject terms to consider for this assignment:

Country Business Etiquette (e.g. China Business Etiquette)
Business Etiquette
Intercultural Communication
Country Social Life and Customs (e.g. Japan Social Life and Customs)
Country Commerce (e.g. France Commerce)

Reference Books available in the Library

These books will provide a succinct overview of culture, religion, marriage, food, etc. for a particular country.

CultureGrams - Ref. GT 150 .C85 2003
Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life  - Ref. GN 333 .W67  1998 

Use Library Databases to find magazine and journal articles about your country!

Use the periodical databases to search for articles on your topic.  Databases can be accessed from anywhere (Library, campus computer lab, off campus) by clicking Database and Article Searching on the Library home page - http://library.csus.edu

Search strategies:

1. Select a database that may cover your topic.  Database and Article Searching on the Library home page provides databases listed by subject.
2. Come up with a clear statement of your topic.
3. Break your topic down into key concepts. Hint: Some databases include thesauri or indexes that help you choose subject headings for your search.
4. Combine terms with AND to narrow the search; use OR to broad the search.

General or Multidisciplinary databases – These databases cover a broad range of topics.
1.  Academic Search Premier
2 . LexisNexis Academic

Examples of specialized databases
1. Business – Business Source Premier, ABI/Inform
2. Education – ERIC, Education Full Text
3. Psychology - PsycINFO
4. History – America History and Life

Other databases recommended for this assignment

Country Reports from Business Source Premier
Profiles and reports political, economic, corporate and environmental news and trends for each country in the world.

Sociological Abstracts
Covers all facets of sociology and related disciplines including anthropology, criminology, demography, education, law and penology, race relations, social psychology, and urban studies.

How to find further books, databases and web sites

We have Research Guides covering a huge variety of topics.

Business Research Guides - http://csus.libguides.com/cat.php?cid=24958

International Business Guide - http://csus.libguides.com/international
Tons of sources for finding more country information.

 

Using the Internet for research

The world wide web contains a wealth of information; however, you must be very careful when using the web for research purposes.  There are no quality standards for putting information on the web, and as a result many web pages contain unreliable, even false, information.  For this reason, your instructors may limit use of web pages for your research projects.  The web can be a good resource for certain purposes; it may not, however, be the best place to go for academic research.

Internet sites may be useful for locating background information on your topic.  Carefully evaluate the information that you may find on the web using the criteria listed below.

Authority

Take a look at the following web site for more information and examples:
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: or, Why It’s a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources   http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/evalcrit.html                                      

Plagiarism is using others’ ideas and words without clearly acknowledging the source of information.  To avoid plagiarism you must give credit when you use: