Introduction to Media History

• First steps
• Find a focus
• Background
• Tips
• Books
• Scholarly articles
• Other resources

A) First steps

• Your OneCard is your library card. New cards should be automatically registered.
• You will be asked to login when accessing paid resources from off campus

B) Finding a focus

• Developing a research question (5:07)
  • Write five possible research questions
• Getting great results: narrowing your search (3:02)
  • How to narrow topics using a few techniques

C) Background

• look up keywords for your topic in a specialized encyclopedia of dictionary:
  • Gale Virtual Reference Library
  • specialized Communication Studies Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

D) Tips

• read each source as you go along; each one will lead to more
• keep track of where you look and the keywords you use (this is part of the assignment)
• use a variety of sources: articles should be from more than one journal
• start early (library staff can deliver items from other libraries)

E) Books

• Find two books or book chapters
• Use the Omni to identify books at Laurier, the Universities of Waterloo and Guelph, and the Annex
  • Limit to the books tab
  • Start with a narrow focus, then broaden to find more items
  • Check the facets at the left of the results page for useful subject headings
  • Learn about call numbers
  • Floor plans for locating books
    • Check out books at main floor service desk
  • Requesting books from other libraries

F) Scholarly articles

• Find three scholarly academic articles
  • Identifying Peer-Reviewed Journals (2:15)
• Identify articles using a database:

Communication Studies @ EBSCOhost

Articles for Communication Studies and related disciplines. Limit search to scholarly (peer reviewed) journals and language = English.

CBCA Complete

Articles from Canadian publications. Start here for Canadian topics. Limit to peer reviewed.

• Look for full text links or try the "Get it at Laurier" button for more options
• Tracking down citations from a list of references?
  • Try Omni
  • No luck? Search journal titles
    • Finding a journal article when you only know the title (3:50)
• What if you're still not sure if it's a scholarly article?
  • Look for the journal's homepage online, search for the "About" page, or a page that outlines the publishing process and whether it is peer-reviewed or not
  • Search for the journal in Ulrichsweb: determine if the journal is "refereed" or not

G) Other resources

• CS100 Video: Researching the annotated bibliography, Module 1 (5:24)
  • Module 1 quiz
• CS100 Video: Researching the annotated bibliography, Module 2 (6:37)
  • Module 2 quiz
• CS100 Video: Researching the annotated bibliography, Module 3 (8:48)
• Creating an annotated bibliography (3:37)
• Improving Your Thesis Statement (5:25)
• How to find scholarly books (3:04)
• APA style: citation examples
  • APA style guide to electronic references
  • How to cite in APA style (4:00)

Having problems? Don't hesitate to contact me: email, call (519-884-0710 x3912), drop in, or make an appointment. My office, L3-310, is one floor up from the main floor of the Library on the Waterloo campus. Come up the stairs, then walk straight ahead.