Scholarly vs. Popular Articles

Has your professor ever assigned you a paper that required scholarly articles? Are you unclear on what really makes an article a scholarly article?

If so, check out the chart below. It should help to clear up any confusion that you may have regarding telling the difference between scholarly and popular articles.

Please contact us if you have any questions.

-Theresa Whitehead, Distance Learning Librarian

Interlibrary Loan

Do you need a book or article that the library does not own? Or, are you an online student and need a section of a book only available in print?  

If so, don't worry! The Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Department can send the book, article, or section of a book to you. 

Just fill out one of the Interlibrary Loan forms and your item will be sent to you. It's as easy as that!

         
                                  Book Request Form     Article Request Form

-Theresa Whitehead, Distance Learning Librarian

"Everything you need for better future and success has already been written. And guess what? All you have to do is go to the library." - Henri Frederic Amiel

Drowning in Information? Narrow your Topic...

Do you ever feel like this?

Try this...

Original Topic: Pollution

Narrowed Topic: Health effects of acid rain on people within the United States

Topic Tip: Think of a particular aspect of a subject to explore and break them into main concepts. If your topic is too broad, then you will retrieve way too many articles.

Search Tip: Use the concept terms within a database search.

                           ORIGINAL TOPIC                            NARROWED TOPIC

Contact us if you have any questions on on how to locate the most relevant sources for your assignments.

-Theresa Whitehead, Distance Learning Librarian

JSTOR Daily Launches with Free Access to Popular Articles

Ever wish you had the time simply to explore JSTOR? Since it has thousands of journals with electronic copies of each title starting with volume one, issue one, relying on serendipity to guide you can be challenging. Now there's help...

October 1, 2014, JSTOR launched its open-access JSTOR Daily online magazine, featuring short, blog-style articles on a wide range of popular and general-interest topics. Each piece is designed to lead you further into JSTOR's cache of academic material. Sections feature pieces on: Arts & Culture; Business & Economics; Politics & History; Science & Environment; and Education & Tech. 

Each JD piece includes links to relevant JSTOR articles and makes them open to the public. Of course, once something piques your curiosity, you'll want to log into the library's subscription to "dig deeper" on your own.

For example, "Infection Control 600 Years Before the CDC," by James MacDonald, appears in the Science & Environment section (9Oct14) and highlights relevant articles from 1917, 1951, and 2007. Seems ripped from today's headlines, right?

Read the full announcement in the 9Oct14 Library Journal article, "JSTOR Launches Free Online Magazine for Popular Audience." (Just remember: This is a Beta service.) 

--Sandy Hawes, Online Services Librarian

Database Spotlight: A-Z List of E-Resources

Do you ever find yourself searching multiple databases for a specific article and still coming up empty? 

If so, A-Z List of E-Resources is exactly what you need to identify which databases possess your article!

A-Z List of E-Resources is a searchable index of electronic journals, magazines, and newspapers available online in Saint Leo University Library Databases.

With the A-Z List of E-Resources, you can:

•      Search by the article citation
•      Explore all issues within a specific journal 
•      Locate all journals with particular keywords
•      Browse through all of the journals

Do you know the article title, but not the citation? Just do a Google search on the title to retrieve the article and citation. Remember: You must use the library’s databases to access the articles for free!

Assignment: Your professor wants to locate the following article:

Early childhood pre-service teachers' response to mobile technology: creative projects, analysis, and reflection on learning experiences. (2013). Education, 134(2), 161-166.

Steps:

• To locate the article, click on A-Z List of E-Resources on the library website homepage.

• Once in the A-Z List of E-Resources, locate journals in one of two ways:  

1. Search by journal title or partial title 
2. Browse all journal titles

• Just type in your topic - locate the journal, then the databases it is located within.

• Click on one of the databases to open up the journal.  From there, you will see a list of years which hold all of the issues published for those dates.

• Click on the year to open up all of the volumes/issues and click on the one that is listed in your citation.

• Once you do that, you will see all of the articles published within that issue.  The article for the assignment is the third article down.  Voilà – you found your article without having to search through multiple databases!

It's as simple as that. If you need any further assistance with the A-Z List of E-Resources or any other type of research question, contact the reference desk.

- Theresa Whitehead, Distance Learning Librarian