Sowa ED 6150 Field Experience and Action Research

Information Sources in Education
ED 6150 Field Experience and Action Research
Dr. Patience Sowa

Instructed by Kim B. Cullinan, M.Ed., MLIS

Reference Librarian Greenlease Library
Summer 2007

Ask A Librarian Research Assistance
This instruction page will likely inspire additional questions on your research when you return tothis page to use the recommended resources. Please visit our Ask a Librarian page to get additional help from a librarian.

Information Literacy Competency
The Information Literacy Competency for Rockhurst University Students document outlines the needed competencies for a person to be considered "information literate" in today's world. You will develop competencies in many of these areas in this course and in the future courses you will take in your program. Several of these competencies will be addressed in today's presentation.

Understanding the Difference Between General Periodicals and Scholarly Journals
Criteria to determine how scholarly and trade journal articles differ from general interest articles in the field can be found on the Scholarly Journal, Trade Journal or Popular Magazine? research guide.

Sources of Analysis and Discussion on Education Issues
Scholarly publications in these fields include information not found in other sources. One of the most important things they do is give you analysis and discussion.

Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center

This database provides information on controversial social topics from viewpoint articles, contextual topic overviews, government and organizational statistics, biographies of social activists, court cases, profiles of government agencies and special interest groups, newspaper and magazines articles, as well as links to more than 1,800 reviewed and subject-indexed web sites.

ERIC
ERIC is a national information center designed and developed by the U.S. Office of Education and now operated by that department's Institute of Education Sciences. ERIC indexes research reports, descriptions of outstanding programs and other documents of educational significance, plus periodical literature with coverage of more than 500 major educational and education-related publications.

ERIC is freely available on the web at http://www.eric.ed.gov/

View the ERIC Comparison Chart which describes differences between the versions of ERIC.

ERIC non-journal documents, designated with ED at the beginning of the record, are available on microfiche at the library from 1963-2003. In addition, selected non-journal documents from 1993-present are available in the public version of ERIC.

Education Full Text
Articles from English-language education periodicals and yearbooks published in the U.S. and elsewhere. Subjects include administration, teaching methods and curriculum, literacy, government funding, and more. From 1983 - present.

Access to Databases
On campus access to most of the library's subscription databases is available on the "Electronic Resources" page on the library's web site. Use either the alphabetical or subject lists of databases to find the one you need.

Off campus access is available through the VPN proxy server provided by Computer Services. The Off Campus Access to Databases page will link you to the page provided by Computer Services. If you link directly to the library's web site outside of VPN you will not be able to use the databases.

Library Accounts
Register online for your library account or at the Circulation Desk on the main floor of the library. Rockhurst students, faculty and staff are required to use their Rockhurst email addresses in their library accounts. Library accounts expire at the end of each semester so you will need to reactivate your account next semester. This can also be done online.

You will be given a unique identification number in addition to your library account number. With this library account number and unique borrower identification number you may:

Identifying Books and Journals in the Library Collection
Books owned by the library can be identified by using the Online Catalog on the library's web site. Rockhurst University is a member of the MOBIUS consortium consisting of 60 Missouri academic libraries. Books available in MOBIUS libraries can be requested by you and sent here for your use. Additional information about this is found on the Patron Initiated Borrowing Through the Online Catalog guide.

Periodicals (journals, newspapers and magazines) owned by the library can be identified by linking to the Periodical Holdings page on the library web site. On this page you will be directed to use the Periodicals Holdings List to see if we have a subscription to a title.

Interlibrary Loan
Articles not found full text in the library's collection can be ordered from other libraries across the country through Interlibrary Loan. Databases in EBSCOhost have a link in each record which allows you to submit your request right from the database. Otherwise, use the forms on our Interlibrary Loan page to submit your request electronically. Books are free; articles are 20 cents per page per article. Generally you will have your materials within a week.

Proper Citation of Sources
When using information from other sources, whether copyrighted or not, it is necessary to give attribution to those sources. Doing so will help you avoid plagiarism.

The library provides the RefWorks bibliographic management system. This is a bibliography management program that allows Rockhurst University faculty, students and staff to set up their own online account to manage electronic citations imported from databases subscribed to by the Greenlease Library as well as input citation information from print sources. Only Rockhurst University email accounts may be used with RefWorks accounts. These citations are easily incorporated into documents created in word processing programs. Many citation formats are included.

Additional Sources of Information in the Library Collection
In addition to the sources listed below, the library has many print sources in the Reference collection that give information on education. Most of these sources cannot be checked out, so plan time to visit the library to consult them. Many of these are listed on the Education Research Guide.