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Literature
Review Tools
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INTRODUCTION
The ability to search for and find high quality literature
written by other practitioners and experts about the topic
of your action research is a valuable asset in your research
effort. It allows you to discover what others before you may
have done to find answers to some of your research questions.
While action research primarily has local applicability, doing
a review of the literature may reveal insights in data collection
techniques, possible interventions and practices worth exploring,
or may help provide new insights into understanding the problem.
While
it's possible to find reliable literature by doing a general
search of the Web, literature reviews are usually conducted
by searching well-known databases of collections of writings.
These may be articles in periodicals or books. Sometimes full
articles are available for free through these databases. More
often, a fee or subscription is required in order to access
the literature they catalog.
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ACCESSING DATABASES
The Auraria Library has many, many databases for you, in
your status as a UC Denver student, to access. These are made available
to you through some of the fees you pay each semester. You
can access these resources on-campus through the Web. You
can also access them using computers off-campus, for example
from home.
Visit
this page to read the instructions for accessing
the Auraria Library databases off-campus. You are strongly
encouraged to utilize this service.
Once
you have established your ability to access Auraria Library
resources from off-campus:
- Go
to the Auraria Library Web site: http://library.cudenver.edu/.
- Click
the link to the databases and indexes found In the
column called "Find It."
- Go
to Resources and use whatever seems most appropriate for
your topic.
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YOUR FIRST SEARCH
When
you do any database search you will have to log on as a student
at CU. You’ll type in your name and your ID number is
your password.
Type your
search keywords and choose a database. You can choose Education
or News and Current Events as a topic or go straight to a
database like Per Abs, Wilson Select, or ERIC. When you click
on the database Wilson Select it will take you to OCLC First
Search. You might want to do the same search several times,
each time searching a different database because you will
get different articles.
A list
of possible titles will come up. If the article has a blue
link underneath the bibliographic information that says, “view
HTML full text” you can click on that link to get the
full article. If you like the article, at the top of the page
will be a series of buttons where you can choose to print
and it will change the format, or you can e-mail the article
to yourself.
If the
article does not have a link to the full text you can click
on it anyway to find what libraries own that item or to get
a list of key word descriptors to help narrow your search
to more appropriate titles.
Here are
some additional resources that may help you make the best
use of the Auraria Library:
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ARTICLE INDICES and RESEARCH DATABASES
- ERIC.
Citations and abstracts to journals and reports in Education
and many related fields. In a very few cases there
is some full-text. 1966 - present, updated monthly.
NOTE: due to a recent update, you can now search up
to three FirstSearch databases at once.
- Dissertation
Abstracts. Index, with abstracts, of most
Ph.D. dissertations published in the U.S. Indexing from
1861 - present, abstracts from 1980 - present, updated monthly.
If you wish to see the full dissertation, make an EARLY
REQUEST, as we will probably have to purchase a copy for
the Library from the publisher.
- Education
Full Text. Formerly Education Abstracts.
Leading publications in the field of Education. 1983
- present, updated monthly. Full-text coverage of
over 200 journals, 1996-present. http://wilsonweb2.hwwilson.com/
- Expanded
Academic Index. Selected full-text articles for
many subjects in scholarly journals as well as popular magazines
and newspapers. Use the word "and" to combine
search concepts, e.g., Holocaust and children. You may e-mail
the full text or citation of the article to your home or
MSCD email address. The "Advanced Search" feature
allows you to access articles/information from a periodical
you name, e.g., The American Historical Review. 1980-present.
- Periodical
Abstracts. This database provides indexing for
1,500+ general and academic journals. Full text is available
for selected articles. 1986-present.
- PsycInfo.
The leading research-oriented journal indexing service created
by the American Psychological Association (APA). 1967-present.
- WorldCat.
A comprehensive database which searches over 19,000 libraries
in the United States and worldwide for books and periodical
titles/holdings. You can e-mail results to yourself, initiate
an Interlibrary Loan request on-line, and determine which
libraries in Colorado and other areas own a particular work.
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PUBLIC
LIBRARY DATABASE ACCESS
To use public library databases you must have a current library
card.
The following
instructions are based on the Boulder Library web site and
the databases to which they subscribe. It would be expected
all public libraries subscribe to on-line databases, so check
your local library for specifics.
- Establish
an Internet connection.
- Open
Internet Explorer (or whatever browser you are using)
- Log
on to http://www.boulder.lib.co.us
(or whatever your library’s URL is)
- Choose
databases and reference links
- Choose
Online Databases
- Enter
name and library card number.
- Search
databases. Boulder Public Library has the following available:
- NoveList
- First
Search
- InfoTrac
- Galenet
- Poem
Finder
- Grolier
Online
- Dialog@CARL
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EDUCATION
WEEK and TEACHER MAGAZINE ONLINE
http://www.edweek.org/
Here is
a description of this resource from their site:
Editorial
Projects in Education Inc. publishes Education Week, the monthly
Teacher Magazine, and Education Week on the Web. We are a
nonprofit, tax-exempt organization based in Washington, D.C.
Our primary mission is to help raise the level of awareness
and understanding among professionals and the public of important
issues in American education. We cover local, state, and national
news and issues from preschool through the 12th grade. We
also provide periodic special reports on issues ranging from
technology to textbooks, as well as books of special interest
to educators.
Here is
a URL for searching the archives of Education Week and Teacher
Magazine for use in literature searches. (Simply put in your
search term and go) http://www.edweek.org/search/
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INTERNET SEARCHING TIPS
Nueva
School Library Website
This site functions as a kind of training ground for Internet
searching. It is very user friendly and helps the researcher
understand effective research and search-engine strategies
and also provides MLA style models for citing sources
Graduate
Student Survival Kit
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/6007/Survival.htm
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COLORADO DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
This CDE site has a search engine that may be a useful resource
for searching education topics. Go to the site. Click on the
“Search” tab and enter your term. Many full text
articles and studies are here, as well as LOTS of info about
educational and educators in Colorado – standards, projects,
grants, etc. http://www.cde.state.co.us/index_home.htm
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