Library Support for Education Majors

We at the Cannon Memorial Library know that you may feel overwhelmed in your search for great sources for your education coursework.  So, here are some valuable sources that may help you with your studies.

Electronic Books

• Here is a sample of the types of education-related ebooks that we have in our collection. 

                                                                            (Click on book image to open and read)

• Search for additional education ebooks.
• Library Catalog
• ABC-Clio Greenwood Digital Collection & Education Library
• Credo Reference - Education
• eBrary - Education
• EBSCO eBook Collection - Education

Databases

• These databases are most helpful for locating articles for your education coursework:
• CQ Researcher
• EBSCO
• Films on Demand
• ProQuest

Websites

• Faculty and Librarian recommended websites. Includes websites within the following topics: Education Journals Online, Lesson Plans &Teaching Ideas, Classroom Management Resources, Sociology & Social Work Journals Online, Counseling & Self Help Links.

Education Recommended Websites

LibGuide

• View these education-related subject research libguides for further information and links within the following categories: Online Databases/Articles, EBooks, Selected Websites, Print Books, and Print Periodicals

Education / Instructional Leadership Subject Research Guide

Elementary Education Subject Research Guide

Exceptional Student Education Subject Research Guide

Middle Grades Education Subject Research Guide

Please contact us if you have any questions.

-Theresa Whitehead, Distance Learning Librarian

LibGuides to the Rescue

Do you need a starting point with your research?  If so, use a Subject Research LibGuide!

Watch this short video on what Subject Research LibGuides are and how to use them to assist you with your research.

If you have any questions on Subject Research LibGuides, please contact us.

-Theresa Whitehead, Distance Learning Librarian

Attention Business Majors and Business Enthusiasts

The Cannon Memorial Library has many business resources which can assist you with your studies, as well as provide you with business-related entertainment.

Electronic Books

• Here is a sample at the types of business-related books we offer. If you want to read any of these electronic books, just click on the image to open the book within our library catalog.

Websites

• Faculty and Librarian recommended websites. Includes websites within the following topics: Business and Human Resources; Finance and Accounting; Career, Study Abroad, and Internship; and Business Directories

Business, Finance, and Marketing Recommended Websites

Videos

• Watch informative videos which will help you locate a great number of business resources.

LexisNexis: Introduction video on how to search for news, business, and legal research.

Standard and Poor's NetAdvantage Database: Learn how to search for company information.

SWOT Analysis: How to find a SWOT analysis on EBSCO, ProQuest, and Standar and Poor's NetAdvantage Database.

LibGuide

• View this libguide for further information and links within the following categories: Online Databases/Articles; Ebooks; Selected Websites; Print Books; and Print Periodicals

Business Subject Guide LibGuide

Please contact us if you need further assistance on how to locate business-related books, information, or resources.



-Theresa Whitehead, Distance Learning Librarian

Reliable Websites at Your Fingertips

Did you know that the library compiled an extensive list of reputable websites within a variety of subjects? If not, you should take a look at the Recommended Websites page.

Save yourself the time of endlessly searching the web for something that may not even be reliable and use the recommended websites that faculty and librarians found for you.

• Art
• Business, Finance, and Marketing
• Career information and Job Prospecting
• Computers and the Internet
• Criminal Justice and Legal
• Education
• English, Literature, and Poetry
• Government on the Web
• History and Geography
• Humanities
• Information Literacy Links
• International Studies
• Math
• Medicine and Healthcare
• Military and ROTC
• Psychology and Educational Psychology
• Religion, Theology, and Values
• Science
• Social Services

If you have any questions regarding finding reliable websites for any of your courses, contact the reference desk.

- Theresa Whitehead, Distance Learning Librarian

Compare and Contrast with FindTheBest.com

Do you need to write a research paper where you need to compare and contrast different elements within such topics as religion or art?  If so, FindTheBest.com is a great place to start your research!  It is a vast website where you can analyze the similarities and differences within a variety of subjects.

On the site, you can type in a search for a specific topic or browse through the different categories.  For example, if you want to compare Protestantism with Catholicism, you can type “religions” in the search bar to see a list of all the religions.  From there, you click on which religions you want to compare and then click “compare now” to see a side-by-side description of the two religions.

Or, let’s say that you say that you want to compare portrait paintings completed by Leonardo da Vinci during the end of the 15^th Century.  Under the Browsing section, click on Educational Resources under the References tab and locate European Art.  Within the European Art subdivision, type in the artist’s name, and then click on the intended time period, form, and genre.  From there, you will see all his portrait paintings that he completed during those dates.  Then, just click on which ones that you want to compare.

Once you get the initial comparisons from FindTheBest, don’t stop there!  Make sure to go to the LibraryWebsite to search for related information.  Search for a book (print or electronic) within the catalog and a scholarly article within the databases.   Books and scholarly journals are important as they support the original comparison found on FindTheBest.com with scholarly information needed for your research paper.

-Theresa Whitehead, Distance Learning Librarian

Your CHOICE® of Online Research Sites

Art, Communications, History and Current Culture (Reference): Flickr: The Commons, a subsite of Yahoo!’s photo-sharing site.

CHOICE® reviewers wrote: “This is the most accessible collection of freely available historical photographs on the Web, and the rich metadata make photos easy to find.” Participating institutions include: the George Eastman House, the Getty Research Institute, the New York Public Library, the Smithsonian Institution, NADA, and the national archive of the US, the UK, Norway, and the Netherlands.

URL: http://www.flickr.com/commons

Computer and Information Science: AI (Artificial Intelligence) Topics, from the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).

Aimed primarily at AI students and faculty, an editorial review board selects materials “to be accessible to all interested readers.” Articles date from the 1980s; video sources include materials from the 1940s and 1960s. The site employs standard Google search methods. Readers may submit materials to the review board for consideration using an online submission form. Not all articles can be freely provided, although each includes citations and abstracts. Saint Leo University students, faculty, and staff can use citations to track full-text back to university databases for full-text delivery, or search for individual eJournals by title using the AtoZ Journal List to locate full-text from online library resources.

URL: http://aitopics.net/

Health Care and Medical Technology: Influenza Encyclopedia, from the University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine and MPublishing.

Similar to The Great Pandemic: The United States in 1918-1919 <http://www.flu.gov/pandemic/history/1918/>, the Influenza Encyclopedia site is actually an encyclopedia solely about the American flu epidemic of 1918-1919. It addresses how the Department of Health and Human Services used two University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine research studies to “form policy decisions on handling pandemic influenza.” Fifty US cities are represented, each with an essay and supplemental materials. The site is based on primary source materials, including images, and is divided into four topics: People, Places, Organizations, and Subjects.

URL: http://www.influenzaarchive.org/

Health Care, Sociology and Social Work (Reference): The Human Mortality Database, created by demographers John R. Wilmoth (Univ. of California, Berkeley) and Vladimir Shkolnikov (Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Germany).

On the home page, site developers Wilmoth and Shkolnikov explain that it was “created to provide detailed mortality and population data to researchers, students, policy analysts and others interested in the history of human longevity,” such as those majoring in or researching topics in the fields of health care, sociology, anthropology, or social work. At present, there are 37 countries included, each with data sets linked from the site’s home page. Use the left-hand frame for navigation to sections such as registration, projects, people, methods, data, and links. If you need this type of data, you might also consider looking at the United Nations’ Population and Vital Statistics Report at <http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/vitstats/>. For similar data on the United States, look at the US Census Bureau's The National Data Book, the online version of the series known as The Statistical Abstract of the United States or link to it from the library's online catalog, LeoCat.

URL: http://www.mortality.org/

History and Archeology : Texas beyond History: The Virtual Museum of Texas’ Cultural Heritage, from the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin, in partnership with the Department of Anthropology at Texas State University, the Council of Texas Archeologists and 15 other organizations. 

Launched in 2001, the site seeks to “interpret and share” a bounty of research into "at least 13,500 years" of Texas history and archeology. The site includes virtual museum exhibits, Gr. 4-7 curricular materials, and a clickable map to 60 other Texas sites. Additional resources are listed in the Credits and Sources section of individual pages. The site has been infrequently updated in recent years, but still provides a great jumping-off point for both academic and lay researchers.

URL: http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/

Scholarly Communications (Reference): The Scholarly Kitchen, from the Society for Scholarly Publishing.

This moderated blog was started in 2008 by the Society for Scholarly Publishing and focuses on “scholarly publishing, particularly in scientific, technical, and medical fields.” Use the "Follow" button on the lower right of the home page or the Twitter, RSS Feed, and Email Notifications features on the right-hand side of the home page to sign up for notifications from the site. Readers can search by contributor, keyword, or a topical index, as well as join in the scholarly discussions of individual articles using the "comments" feature. You might want to compare it to the SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) blog site,< http://www.arl.org/sparc/media/blog/index.shtml>.

URL: http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/   

Undergraduate Instructional Materials (Reference): PRIMO; Peer-Reviewed Instructional Materials Online, from the Instruction Section of the Association of College and Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association.

Started as the Internet Education Project by ACRL’s Instruction Section, this database is regularly updated and curated by section members. Tutorials are selected for “their strong instructional value” and can be used by both academic librarians and undergraduate subject faculty interested in developing the research skills of their students. The collection presently tops 250 tutorials created from 1996 to the present. Navigate the site by browsing or searching. Results include the tutorial record, a short description, the tutorial link, and data from the developers.

URL: http://www.ala.org/acrl/aboutacrl/directoryofleadership/sections/is/iswebsite/projpubs/primo/

--Items selected by
Sandra Lee Hawes,
eLibrary News Editor,
from CHOICE Reviews
March 2013, Vol. 50, No. 7

Top 100 Search Engines for Academic Research

Hello once again, SLU Pride! It has been a while since the last entry, but we are back and in full form!

Being librarians, we understand that sometimes you will use sources for research other than what we have available at our library. Of course we prefer you choose us, but if in a bind, or can’t find the exact information you are looking for, we want you to use credible sources. This is why today’s entry showcases the Top 100 Search Engines for Academic Research, a helpful tool to set you on the path to academic excellence.

Teachthought.com has generated this list in order to keep researchers supplied with information, and will expose researchers to sources they may have never heard of before! The list is organized by genre, with a category for nearly every discipline, and includes reference, general searches, journals, databases, and books.

This list is definitely bookmark worthy, and a great fallback in the event the CML does not have the sources you are looking for. Make sure to check the sources available through the Reference Desk or contact our Interlibrary Loan department if assistance is required! 

-          Aimee Graham, Online Librarian - 

More CHOICE(R)-Recommended Online Resources!

CHOICE® “is a publishing unit of the Association of College & Research Libraries, a division of the American Library Association." The following online resources were featured in the October 2012, Volume 50, No. 02 issue of Choice magazine (pages 23, 53, and 111, respectively) and are included here as items of potential interest for your future research:

General

Trove, from the National Library of Australia is a "web portal" that "...offers access to over three million resources"
"include...[ing] access to online catalogs" which makes available "the substantial digital content  of many other libraries and archives around Australia." This amazing "union catalog" is searchable via "basic or advanced searching...".  Of particular interest to scholars, is the opportunity to access "digitized materials" which can be searched via the following categories:  "Digitised Newspapers and More", "Journals, Articles, and Data Sets", "Books", "Pictures, Photos, Objects", "Music, Sound and Video", "Maps", "Diaries, Letters, Archives", "Archived Websites (1996-Now)" and "People and Organisations".  Access to "all the major colonial..." "Australian newspapers" in digitized form (spanning the dates 1803 to 1982) is a marvelous benefit indeed!  Registering with the site also gives you the option of making "public or private lists to keep track of...[your] research."  "Lower-level undergraduates and above" as well as "general readers" will appreciate the wonders to be found in this treasure Trove. Beginning users will find "A Guide to Trove" especially instructive. 
 
Humanities

The "result of a merger between the American Music Center and Meet the Composer", New Music USA "serves as a portal to invaluable resources...for contemporary musicians and composers as well as their audiences."  An important source for grants previously funded by these two companies, New Music USA has continued these programs which can be found "...here, with detailed information and [application] instructions."   Site highlights include NewMusicBox, a multimedia production created by New Music USA which features news focused on American composers, innovators and their fans and also provides additional access to Counterstream Radio, "a streaming radio site for American music", and the Online Library which provides "a comprehensive database of works by living American composers."  If you are interested in "the latest developments concerning contemporary American music, composers, and musicians", then this site is a must-see!  Be sure to also check out their "weekly blog" which usually includes "audio and video clips." 

Social & Behavioral Sciences

States Perform, "sponsored by the Council of State Governments", is a "website" that "provide[s] users '"access to interactive, customizable and up to date comparative performance measurements for the 50 states..."' in the following six areas:  "fiscal and economic matters, public safety and justice, energy and environment, transportation, health and human services, and education...".  If you choose the "Compare" option, you will find that each area is also further subdivided into subcategories, including measures, with up to ten measures available for comparison for each of the six areas.  Comparisons can be made across "the US as a whole or one of four geographical regions..." with "search results appear[ing] in easy-to-read charts that may be downloaded as Excel files."  If you would like to focus on an individual "state...and views its collected data, choose the "Profile" option.  The "Customize" option provides a unique opportunity for "users to select one of the key areas, choose from several subcategories, select a date range [typically ranging "from 2002 to 2012"], and produce charts or maps to display these data."  Finally, the "Trend" option allows "users [to] select a region and individual states constituting that region, then choose from subcategories of the key areas, and produce charts, maps, or tables that display data from 2004 to 2010."  An "invaluable" resource for "scholars, students, government officials, and members of the public", the opportunity to freely access such "a wide range of information..." about "the 50 states", so quickly and efficiently, is truly priceless.

                             - Kerry Vash, Online Librarian, Blog Co-editor -

Expedite Your Research Formatting with Google Scholar Citations!


Improve the efficiency of your research experience with Google Scholar Citations! 

From http://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/citations.html


You can now cite any article by clicking on the "Cite" link which appears below each article entry. 

Clicking on the "Cite" option for your particular item of interest, provides you with instant MLA, APA and Chicago citations immediately available to copy and paste.  It also gives you the option to import the citations to various citation management softwares (BibTeX, Endnote, Refman, Refworks). 

For more advanced research options for scholars, it is beneficial to set up a profile on Google Scholar Citations.  An informative post by Eileen Allen from Syracuse University's School of Information Studies' Information Space blog, entitled, "Google Scholar Citations:  Setting Up a Profile", clearly illustrates these benefits.  To join Google Scholar Citations, you will first need to set up a Google account.  The next step is to click on the "My Citations" link at the top righthand corner of the Google Scholar home page and fill out the necessary information.



  

Good research takes time, patience and effort.  Luckily, modern technology can help lighten the burdens of some of the more tedious steps such as citation formatting.  So give yourself a break and let Google Scholar Citations help you out today!

                                       - Kerry Vash, Online Librarian, Blog Co-editor -



Attention Science Majors!

Websites That Help Answer Your Scientific Inquiries!

From Wikimedia Commons
Click here for the specific File URL.
"Currently living on earth organismes mixture"
Amalgamation of photos by the following authors:
  Fir0002, John Severns = Severnjc, NASA,
w:en:User:Dmcdevit, Deutsch: Dr. Ralf Wagner
Uploaded by Mike Krüger at de.wikiped
(For individual attibution of each photo, click here):
[CC-BY-SA-3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

If you are looking for websites that will help you answer a variety of scientific inquiries, then this MakeUseOf article by Saikat Basu, "For the Scientific Spirit:  7 Websites for Science Questions & Answers", will be sure to steer you in the right direction!  

Basu highlights the following websites in his article:

How Stuff Works

More than just a depot for fun facts (although, certainly, there is much fun to be found on this site; just click on the "Random Article" option at the top right of the menu bar to generate an interesting article on a completely random subject), most of the articles on this website are based on pure science.  To read more about the reliability of this amazing source, click here.  To focus solely on scientific topics, choose the "Science" tab from the menu bar and then choose from the list of subtopics which appear on a submenu bar.  Make sure to also check out the many science videos available!

Mad Sci Network

A network for those of all ages to ask scientific inquiries of all kinds, Mad Sci Network is "staffed and maintained by volunteer scientists and engineers from around the world." Basu also points out that "All questions are graded and range from K-3 to professorial levels." Search through the archives of the 36,000 questions already answered via the website's Search Engine or if you feel you have a frequently asked inquiry, check out the MadSci FAQs. If you don't find your inquiry answered in these areas, you may also address your question to Ask-A-Scientist. Before submitting your question, you might also want to review their stipulations for inquiries.
 
New Scientist

A science forum for inquistive minds of all ages that aims to provide "The Last Word" on "The science of everyday things", New Scientist online contains "an archive of over 76,000 content pieces" from New Scientist magazine.  According to the Open Directory Project, New Scientist is a "weekly science and technology news magazine, considered by some to be the world's best, with diverse subject matter." This website would be a great resource to answer a general scientific inquiry or spark your interest in a new facet of the ever-evolving world of science.  Basu points out that "You can search for anything without logging in, but if you want to ask a question, do the free registration...".   Just keep in mind that for academic research purposes however, the information on this website stems from a magazine as opposed to a scientific journal which would most likely be peer-reviewed, thus helping to preserve standards and reliability.  To find more suitable sources for your academic research, check out our Library's Subject Research Guides for Biology, Chemistry and Environmental Science.    

The New York Times

The New York Times Science Q&A page provides excellent information online from their highly reputable newspaper. You can find out the answers to inquiries ranging from, "Do Germs Have Germs?" to "Can Animals Get Sunburn, Too?". Search the archives via the search box at the bottom of the page (just be mindful that the further back you go, the more you will need to consider the importance of currency to your specific topic). As it states near the end of every article, you may also email your inquiry to question@nytimes.com.

Wolfram|Alpha

This incredibly unique "computational knowledge engine", designed by Stephen Wolfram and originally based on his computational software system, Mathematica, establishes the following prominent goal:  "to build on the achievements of science and other systematizations of knowledge to provide a single source that can be relied on by everyone for definitive answers to factual queries."  Wolfram Alpha strives to provide "expert-level knowledge", drawing upon its own database to deliver an organized collection of data in response to each inquiry, rather than the typical search engine’s response of a list of web resources.  A distinct answer engine indeed, Wolfram Alpha accepts inquiries in both natural ("What is five plus five?") and computational ("5+5") language. Click on the “Examples” link which appears below the search box to see the types of inquiries you might ask within the various fields of science.  Choose your area of interest (Physics, Chemistry, Engineering, Astronomy, Earth Sciences, Life Sciences, Computational Sciences, Health and Medicine are listed as options) to see specific examples.  For example, clicking on the “Physics” link, gives you examples of the types of search terms you might enter (such as if you want to find out about Newton’s laws, you might just enter “Newton’s laws” or perhaps, you might have a question about Thermodynamics, specifically involving computations with Joule’s law, in which case you would enter your computation:  “Joule's law u=3V, R=1ohm for 10s”).  Although you may use Wolfpram|Alpha's free service without signing in, there are benefits to creating an account (click on the "Sign in" link at the top right of the home page to create an account; alternatively, you may use your Facebook ID) such as being able to set favorites, view your search history and customize settings.   A paid service, WolframAlpha|Pro, is also available with extended options (such as the opportunity to go beyond “text input” and enter “images, files and tabular data” into your search query for analysis).  

But on to the most critical question…Can you trust Wolfram|Alpha’s results?  According to their, “Frequently AskedQuestions (FAQ)” page, they "certainly hope so", citing their "automated testing, expert review, and checking external data...".  They also mention that their “data is continually being updated…”.  To learn more about the origins of their data, click here.  On their “About” page, they cite their "world-class team and participation from top outside experts in countless fields...."  Although they primarily retrieve answers from their own database, they do offer some unique search options as well that pull data from outside websites (such as their option to create personal “facebookreports” or for example, relying on data from businesses such as Best Buy to list product information for shopping queries).  So returning to the original question...Can you trust Wolfram|Alpha's results?   While many praises have been sung about this unique answer engine's accuracy, ultimately, it is really a similar answer as to many of these websites:  it is best that as a critical user, you verify the results via additional reliable sources, especially when conducting academic research.

Don’t forget to have fun exploring the wonders of Wolfram|Alpha as questions about Culture, Sports, History, Money & Finance, Socioeconomic Data, as well as many more categories (even Shopping!), are fair game as well!  Wolfram Alpha has the answers to questions as wide-ranging as “What was Green Day’s first album?”, “How old was Babe Ruth in 1942?”, “Where was Abraham Lincoln born?”, “What is the second largest country by GDP per capita?” Clicking on the “Random” option below the search box is also a fun way to learn about a totally new and surprising topic!  While factual inquiries with "a mathematical or physical answer" are Wolfram Alpha's main concern, Basu also points out that this one of a kind answer engine is not adverse to pondering more philosophical questions from time to time:  "...go ahead, ask what is life too!”

**

In addition, Basu highlights the following sites which may also contain very helpful information, however they should be examined with increased scrutiny as they are run by open communities where anyone may answer a question.  In these types of online communities, it is up to each respondent to prove his or her own credibility with their answer which is then ranked by the community of users.  Therefore, it is important that you consider each answer from a critical viewpoint where you must first verify the following: 

• the credibility of each respondent (as well as the resources they might cite in their answer)
•  the accuracy of the answer itself determined by checking against other reliable resources
• the objectivity of the answer (is this fact or opinion?)
• how current the information is. 

Our Library Tutorial by Faculty Development Librarian, Doris Van Kampen, on "Verifying and Evaluating Online Sources" can further assist you in making those critical resource decisions. 

Here are the open community websites Basu recommends: 

Reddit

According to their own description, Reddit is "a type of online community where users vote on content." Registered users (to register, click on the "want to join? login or register" tab to the top right of the page under the menu bar) may post links or write their own entries on any subject they wish, as well as vote on posts which impacts their ranking in order of importance, and thus their positioning on the page. In regards to science, Basu recommends "Reddit" as a resource which "can probably answer all your science questions as there are sub-Reddits [specific subject areas] on every branch of science". Click here to be taken to their question / answer AskScience page with a list of Science-based Sub-Reddits (including Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Psych/Cog/Neuro, Earth Sciences, Applied Sciences, Formal Sciences, just to name a few...) found in chart-form to the middle of the column at the right of the page (you will need to scroll down the page to find it). Just click on the science sub-reddit link of your choice to be taken to that subject's individual page. In addition to having a question / answer Science Reddit, there is also a Science Reddit page where members write posts on scientific topics or link to outside scientific articles (also broken down into sub-Reddits; see the chart of science sub-topics located towards the middle of the right-hand column).  Although the "Science" area of Reddit attempts to establish a level of authenticity regarding their content, asking their users to keep their discussions "Scientific (i.e. based on repeatable anaylsis published in a peer reviewed journal)", it is of course, up to you as a critical user, to determine if the source (remember, Reddit is an open source community, where any registered user, expert or novice, may write a post) and information offered in each post can be considered reliable and accurate. Keep in mind also, that ranking may NOT be an indicator of reliabity or accuracy, as it will not be clear what terms were used in each user's voting process to determine ranking. 

Stack Exchange

Stack Exchange encompasses an incredibly broad range of information.  Basu describes it as a "network of specialized communities, each on separate subjects...."  Their Science link offers community options for many different areas including "Biology", "Chemistry", "Physics" and others...  Each area includes a multitude of questions and answers which are further organized by subtopic tags at the right of the "Questions" page.  For the most part, Stack Exchange's communities are open at this time where anyone can ask or answer questions, or recommend editing changes without logging in (however, to vote on the credibility of a respondent, one must log in or create an account). Be sure to check out each area's "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)" section (you can find the link in the yellow "Welcome!" box to the right of page; the "faq" link is at the bottom of the box; here is an example of the "Biology" community's FAQ page) to determine each community's ground rules, including how they determine the "reputation" of respondents which is based on community ranking (you of course, as a critical user, would still be wise to scrutinize on your own terms). 

There is so much to wonder about our world...Here's hoping these websites spark your scientific spirit!

                                               - Kerry Vash, Online Librarian, Blog Co-editor -