Your suggestions for revising this page would be appreciated. You may also ask for more detail on any topics covered below.
2. The most desirable qualities of information are: accuracy, specificity, significance.
Readers are hungry for information. They want the images and facts, revealing details and interesting quotations, amazing statistics and insights that make them see, feel and know their world better than they did before the reading (Murray, 1998, 49-50) [see last page for information on citations] .3. Adopt a search strategy that won't waste your time or frustrate you.
Outline your paper and write a list of things you want to find:4. Be open to serendipity. Follow a surprising link or scan the bookshelf for interesting sources--but recognizing the importance of hint #3, set a time limit.basic facts,Make a list of "keywords" from this list;
important arguments,
contrasting value perspectives,
relevant theories and explanations, and
definitive evidence.Use "boolean searching" to avoid having to wade through a lot of irrelevant sources. Specifically,
combine keywords to make sets (use AND for set intersections),limit sets by date, by type of publication.
5. Start early. UMBC doesn't hold all the useful sources, but you can almost always get these sources through Hold/Recall and Interlibrary Loan.
6. Ask the reference librarian for help. If you don't like the service, wait for a replacement and try again. 455-2232, -2346.
7. Interview people. See section below.
8. Write down where you looked and what you found.
Create a "nuggets file": a computer file of snippets--quotes, ideas, questions, possible titles, subheads, and lead sentences, etc. Back up this file!9. Think skeptically about your argument.Periodically edit your file, dumping the fool's gold and rearranging the valuable stuff.
Start saving citations from the beginning--include a references section at the back of the file.
Reorganize ("outline") the file periodically as you learn; eventually you can shape your paper out of it.
Can you quantify your observations?10. Finish your project. See the quote at the end of this web page.What are alternatives to the most likely explanation?
Would it be possible to test which explanation might be more accurate?
What additional information do you need to find to answer these questions?
The web is fantastic, but it omits valuable information and includes lots of crap, to be kind. When you view a new page, begin with some skepticism about the source and the content.
To save time, find some comprehensive lists of links. I have a master page of useful links on American politics, public policy and administration, and other topics, at: http://userpages.umbc.edu/~meyers/links.htm
Learn the advanced techniques of a search engine--click on its "help" section. I like Google as a place to start. However, recent studies show that search engines fail to capture many useful sources. You might instead try an expert source like britannica.com. Others are listed on the library home page under internet guides.
Once you find a good site, bookmark it. Backup the bookmark file, and organize the bookmarks into folders.
Download files with care. Do you have a virus scanner?
Books
Go to the library catalo via the library home page.
Searching through the whole system will give you many more useful sources. You can then use the hold/recall command to request books from other libraries in the system. If the book that interests you is currently on the shelf, it will take about a week for the book to arrive. If you have to recall the book, it can take up to a month.
Another approach is to note the call number ranges of some books that interest you, and then go to the stacks. Scan the titles, looking up and down, and right and left. The president of my undergraduate college told my freshmen class to try this sometime--and it's still the best research advice I've ever received.
If you want a more complete list of books beyond what the University
System of Maryland holds, try the "other catalogs" section.
Through this portal you can connect to the Library of Congress.
Or
go to amazon.com or another online
bookseller and search on a topic. If you find a book that
isn't
held by the University System of Maryland, ask for it via interlibrary
loan. Expect at least two weeks to receive your source.
Newspaper, Magazine and Journal Articles
Electronics has made it much easier to find the identity and abstracts of useful articles from newspapers, magazines, and journals. Some databases even allow full-text access. Using these databases well can require practice and patience, however, because of restrictions on access and incomplete coverage.
To connect to these databases, go to the library
home page, and then click on find databases.
Under general interest, I suggest you try Lexis-Nexis and
Academic
Search. Also on this page is the Ingenta
system, which will allow you to scan article titles and to be notified
by email of new articles that match a keyword profile that you select.
The ResearchPort is a useful site for combining searches. It
is also helpful for when you are off-campus, since it allows
connections to restricted access sources. Another tool that
enables this is the VPN that can be downloaded from the computing
website.
Under social sciences, I strongly recommend Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS); Social Science Abstracts can be helpful if you are only interested in academic journals. Under business and economics, try Econlit; under education, try Eric.
Another useful approach is to identify a leading journal in the
field
that interests you, and then go to the stacks to leaf through past
issues.
In economics, for example, the Journal of Economic Literature
(Reference
HB 1 J6) has great review articles. Nature and Science
are excellent sources on science. For Washington politics and
policy-making,
National
Journal, Congressional Almanac (Ref JK1 C66), and
Congressional
Quarterly Weekly Report (Ref JK1 C15) are indispensable.
Maryland documents are not well-indexed or distributed, but State Archives web site is improving.
Two of the best specialist libraries on Maryland are Baltimore's Pratt Library (Maryland Department 410-396-1789) and in Annapolis, the Legislative Reference Library (410-841-3810).
Regarding the important documents that are not on the web, talking
to
insiders can inform you that other sources exist. It is often the
case that all you need to do then is ask the right person politely for
a copy. If you are denied access, then it might be time
to
consider a Freedom of Information Act request. Talk to me if
you're
having a problem getting access to a document.
When you take an oath in court, you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. In my job, I am committed to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. To get the whole truth, you're going to have to make a few calls." (Christopher Conte, "Imagemaker," Governing, July 2001, p. 23.)To get the whole truth, you often need to talk to people who have been involved with your topic. These are your "informants." Involved people usually know much more than they write down for public consumption. And in an age where crazy people tell all on talk shows, you will probably find that most potential informants will reveal much to you, IF you plan and conduct interviews carefully.
Interview only after you know enough to avoid making a fool of yourself. Read. Observe if possible before interviewing--"case the joint." Practice your questions with a friend.
Almost all issues have different sides to them; try to talk to people who have different perspectives, such as:
outside critics--auditors, legislative staff, pressTo identify potential informants, start with web site; also helpful is the "snowball" approach, in which you ask current informants for recommendations. Also ask current informants how they get information--they may refer you to a targeted journal or a specialized library or archive.insiders--public affairs officers, line officers
interest groups, policy/planning shops
Be truthful and courteous with informants. Explain that your research is for a school paper. Ask for permission if you want to report the findings of your interview in a way that your informant can be identified. Remember that one discourteous act on your part and the word about you will spread quickly. Send a thank you note after the interview.
Phone interviews are often productive and easier to arrange; in-person may provide easier access to documents and give you a better feel for the informant's position.
Conduct the interview as a conversation, not by running down a list of pre-determined questions. Start with the journalists' "Ws"--what, when, who, where--and only after those, why? Take careful written notes.
After an interview, ask yourself how well the interview went.
Ask also if you believe what the informant said, and if a different
informant
might challenge or corroborate what you heard.
For references at the back of the paper:
1. Alphabetize by author.
2. Books: Author's last name, first name, year of publication. Title (Place of publication: publisher). For example, the reference to the citation on the first page of this guide is:
Murray, Donald M., 1998. The Craft of Revision (Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace).3. Articles: Author's last name, first name year of publication. "Article title," Journal title volume (Month) pp. .
For citations in the text, use the "author, year, page" method. For example, your text could read:
To illustrate how writing skills benefit from practice, Murray goes back to the ancients, claiming that ". . . it is the counsel of writers in every century since. Put rear end in chair every day and keep it there until the writing is done." He then quotes Roger Simon of the Baltimore Sun, who once wrote, "There is no such thing as writer's block. My father drove a truck for 40 years. And never once did he wake up in the morning and say: "I have truck driver's block today. I am not going to work'."(Murray, 1998, 19)