WRITING 65 INFORMATION RESEARCH
for Salem Witch Trials
http://web.cocc.edu/finney/writing65SALEM.htm

TO GET TO THE COCC LIBRARY WEBPAGE:
http://campuslibrary.cocc.edu/

USING ONLINE AND PRINT ENCYCLOPEDIAS TO FIND BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR YOUR TOPIC:

Before you do anything else, you need to use online and print encyclopedias to find some background information on your topic.  Why?

• Background information can help you define your topic, so that your topic is not too large (unless you feel like writing a book!) or too small (you may not find enough information).

• Online and print encyclopedias provide valid, scholarly, research based background information (as opposed to the opinions or mis-information that can be found on random blogs and personal websites).  Use online and print encyclopedias to establish important facts for your topic: names, dates, places, context and background. 

• Once you locate some valid, research background information on your topic, you are better prepared for searching other information resources such as the web or journal article databases.  Encyclopedias can also provide you with "keywords" that might be useful for searching.

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ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIAS:

Useful online encyclopedias (these are some of those valid, scholarly research based items)  are listed below.  You can use these links or get to all of these from the COCC Library webpage for online reference.

Gale Reference Online

Oxford Reference Online

Explore some other options for locating background information at COCC's collection of online encyclopedias at http://campuslibrary.cocc.edu/Research+Tools/Encyclopedias/default.aspx.

 PRINT ENCYCLOPEDIAS:

The COCC Library has some print encyclopedias that might be helpful for background information as well.   Look for these in the reference section on the main floor of the Library:

Encyclopedia of American social history
COCC LIBRARY REFERENCE HN57 .E58 1993 

Dictionary of American history
COCC LIBRARY REFERENCE E174 .D52 2003 

Encyclopedia of witchcraft : the Western tradition
COCC LIBRARY REFERENCE BF1566 .E56 2006 

Witch hunts in Europe and America : an encyclopedia
COCC LIBRARY REFERENCE BF1584.E9 B87 2003 

McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of science & technology
 COCC LIBRARY REFERENCE Q121 .M3 2007 

Encyclopedia of religion
COCC LIBRARY REFERENCE BL31 .E46 2005

TO FIND GREAT, SCHOLARLY, AUTHORITATIVE, PROFESSIONAL WEBSITES:

• First, you have already used some print or online encyclopedias and found some great authoritative, scholarly background information... right?  That is, you have the basic information for your topic... and your topic itself feels pretty defined.   Those print and online encyclopedias have also provided essential names, dates, places and other facts for your topic.

• Use GOOGLE SCHOLAR (http://scholar.google.com/) to locate websites (often consisting of articles or book chapters) maintained or created by scholars, colleges and universities and non-profit institutions.

• Use GOOGLE ADVANCED SEARCHING (http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en) to limit your results to educational websites.  Look for this part of the search from (lower part of the screen) and type in the domain edu.
  
  
  

• Click on to bring down more advanced searching search options, including the option to limit search words to website titles, which looks like this:  
  
  

• Use phrase searching--use " " for phrases (this locks words together).  Example:  "salem witch hunt"
  

 EXTRA!  EXTRA!  TO GET SOME ARTICLES, USE JOURNAL ARTICLE  DATABASES:

Journal article databases let you search on your topic to locate academic, scholarly articles.  The library purchases these databases for you to search--this is different from searching on Google or other "free web" search engines!

Get to the COCC Library Databases webpage.

 SPECIFIC DATABASES
 PARTICULARLY APPROPRIATE FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT

 JSTOR (full text articles in Arts and Humanities)

Academic Search Premier

 TO SEARCH A JOURNAL ARTICLE DATABASE:

clf 10/22/08