Margaret's COMM110 LibGuide  

Watch this tutorial to find reliable, credible information with Google Advanced. It will also help you recognize good websites when you see them.

Quick Catalog Search

Find books, videos, and more in the College Library.

For more help options, visit the Ask a Librarian page.

It is not unusual for students to have problems getting access to the library databases. Please don't despair! Read the information at this link, and if you still have problems, call our Technology Learning Center (TLC) at 215-497-8754.

Hi! This is a message from Margaret. I'll be sharing some information in person about how to go about researching information for your speeches, but I thought a LibGuide like this would also be a great help to you. You'll see widgets and links to tutorials in the left column. Use these to acquaint yourself to the library's website and catalog (to find books). In the center column here under this message, you'll find information about databases where you'll find articles from magazines, newspapers and scholarly journals. These are the sources you should really be using for college-level work. EBSCOhost is the most comprehensive of all these, and you'll find a link to the database and a tutorial to show you how to use it effectively just under this box.  You will also find the Opposing Viewpoints database very helpful. This database will bring you different kinds of information on many topics, including full-text scholarly journals and credible websites. 

Remember to cite any ideas you use from other writers or scholars. I have included a link to a tutorial on how to do this in this center column. You can also take a look at my plagiarism LibGuide for lots more information. There is a link to that LibGuide under the box with my picture.

Meanwhile, if you get stuck, are uninspired, or hit a brick wall, check with me or any of the librarians. My contact information is under my picture in the right column, or you can use the "Get Help" link in the left column to instant-message a librarian anytime the libraries are open. Good luck with your speeches!

These Library databases will be useful for most Informative and Persuasive Speech topics.  Find high-quality, reliable information from reference books, journal articles, and newspapers.  Contact the Library if you can't find what you need!

Please watch this up-to-date video tutorial to learn more about EBSCOhost and score some great tips on using it effectively.

We librarians throw these terms around recklessly sometimes, and it occurred to us you might not know what they mean! For your convenience, here are some valuable library words and definitions:

Boolean operators: These are the little words (AND, OR, and NOT) that you can use to make your database search strategy more specific. Some databases, like EBSCOhost and JSTOR, supply them in little drop-down boxes. AND is the one we use most. Use AND to narrow a search like this: Gilman AND "Yellow Wallpaper" AND criticism. Use OR to broaden a search like this: medieval OR middle ages AND literature. Use NOT to leave out results you do not want: pirates NOT baseball. (See also databases, periodicals, and scholarly journals.)

Catalog: This is the old-fashioned name we use for the big searchable index of books, DVDs, CDs, and other items that the library makes available. If you are looking for a book or other item, look for the blue-book icon on the library's main page or use the widget for a quick search.

Databases: These are searchable collections of articles or encyclopedia-like entries. The library buys them, buys rights to use them, or subscribes to them based on the courses taught at this college. Think of these as the pool of information appropriate for the kind of assignments you are doing in your classes. The kind of information you are likely to find ranges from short explanations of a term or topic to scholarly, peer-reviewed, articles by top thinkers in a field. Find the databases on the library's main page by clicking on the brown laptop icon. You can learn about the databases by reading the blurb supplied for each, ask a librarian for assistance, or consult the LibGuide (research guide) for your class. (See also scholarly journals, peer-reviewed, full-text, interlibrary loan, and Boolean operators.)

Ebooks: These are books that you can read on your computer or mobile device. You can access an index to what we offer on the databases page (see above) or through the catalog (see further above). Most allow you to check them out, add bookmarks, and take notes. Our collection of these is growing!

Full-text: Databases offer complete articles in some cases by simply clicking on a link under the citation. The article may be in HTML format (these look like they were just typed into the database and leave out the pictures and charts that may have been in the original) or PDF format (these look like a photograph of the article from its original print source). If you have a really slow internet connection or printer the HTML version is probably preferable. Otherwise, if you have a choice, go with the PDF because you will be able to see photos, charts, and page numbers. (See also databases and interlibrary loan.)

Interlibrary Loan (ILL): If Bucks does not have access to an article, or we do not have a book in our collection, you can ask us to borrow it for you from another library. You do not have to know what other library has it because we can check in a giant nationwide database. We do ask that you give us complete information about the item, author and title for books, and complete citation information for articles from the database or bibliography where you found it. There is a form for each type of ILL on the library's main page: click on the yellow book icon.  Make these requests as early as possible. While it usually takes a week or so to get a book or article, it depends on the library sending the item and variable like the U.S. Mail. (See also full-text and databases.)

Peer-review: This is when one person's work is critiqued by other people (peers) doing the same kind of work. You may have an assignment where your classmates are required to read and comment on your paper or speech, for example. In academia, the stakes are much higher. Researchers, scientists, and other original thinkers are required to submit their work (usually papers or articles) for comments from other folks doing the same kind of work before they can be published in a scholarly journal. Some jobs and some grant funds depend on researchers and scientists publishing their original thought or scientific findings, so it is crucial to get these articles through the peer-review process. (See also scholarly journals below.)

Periodicals: Newspapers, popular magazines (Time, Wired), scholarly journals (Journal of the American Medical Association) and professional magazines (Library Journal) are grouped together under the classification periodicals. Any item that is published on a regular schedule, (daily, weekly, monthly, annually) can be referred to as a periodical. Most periodicals are not peer-reviewed, but scholarly journals are. (See also databases, scholarly journals, and interlibrary loan.)

Scholarly journals: These are the type of periodical that contain peer-reviewed articles (see above), book reviews, news from the discipline, and some relevant ads. By using our databases (see above), you can search for them by topic, keyword, author, journal name, or a combination of these (see Boolean operators above). Some of our databases search only scholarly journals (JSTOR for example), and some databases can be guided to search only scholarly journals by clicking on a box (EBSCOhost, for example). These are the best sources to use for most college assignments. There is a time lag (because of the time it takes to peer-review the content mostly), so more popular periodicals would be more useful for very current topics. (See also Boolean operators, databases, peer-review, and periodicals.)

Check out my Plagiarism LibGuide for more information!