Tag Archives: research

RESOURCE REVIEW: Ferguson’s Career Guidance Center

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Happy National Career Development Month! A great resource to help you explore career options is Ferguson’s Career Guidance Center database provided by NOVA’s library.

Ferguson’s offers 3 major resources:

 Job and Industry Profiles picture  Job Hunting and Workplace Skills  Career and Industry Resources picture
Use the Job and Industry Profiles section to find detailed profiles of more than 3,000 jobs in over 94 industries. Use the Job-hunting and Workplace Skills section to learn valuable information for finding employment including tips on: etiquette, teamwork, resume writing, and leadership. Use the Career and Industry Resources section to find resources devoted to college and career advancement including scholarships, fellowships, internships and apprenticeships.

Ferguson’s Career Guidance Center offers everything above and more, including a career interest assessment. So, whether you are just starting out, you are interested in advancing your career, or you would like to change fields this database has something for you. Happy searching!

Need more guidance? Contact your career services counselor .

RESOURCE REVIEW: LEXISNEXIS

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Let’s say you wanted to look up the U.S. Supreme Court Case involving Apple Computer and Microsoft. Where would you go? Luckily, NOVA has a database for that!

LexisNexis offers court documents on thousands of American legal cases. You can search by citation (513 U.S. 1184), parties (Apple v Microsoft), or topic (interstate commerce).

However, LexisNexis is not just for legal cases. You can find information on U.S. and world news and research on over 80 million companies!

If you need help using this database, contact me at NOVA Online-Library@nvcc.edu and/or view this video tutorial. Happy searching!

Picture of LexisNexis Homepage

Research Series: Refining Your Topic

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Sometimes when we choose a topic to research, our topic is too broad. For instance, you’re assigned a 5 page research paper. This might seem like a lot, but once you start researching you will need to  narrow your topic to fill those 5 pages. With  a topic that is too broad, you could write an entire book with the amount of research you can find!

To begin, start with your broad topic and add extra elements to it. For example, the ‘Civil Rights Movement’ can be narrowed to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s. To focus it even further you might look at the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s in Washington, D.C.

Picture demonstrating narrowing a topic

 

See how I’m adding these extra elements to focus my topic? First I add a time period and then I add a place. The extra elements are not limited to time frames and locations; sometimes they are specific people or themes.

Starting with a good topic will make researching a lot easier!  As always, if you need more help with your topic or research please contact the NOVA Online library at NOVA Online-Library@nvcc.edu.

Research Skills: A Blog Series from your NOVA Online Library staff

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Evaluating Websites

search1A couple of weeks ago, we talked about using Google for your research. Of course, NOVA Libraries has access to thousands of newspaper, magazine, and journal articles through the library databases. But that doesn’t mean that there’s not good and useful information out on the web as well.  You just need to be critical.

 So how can you decide if a website has good information that would be appropriate to use in your assignments? You’ve heard of the 5 W’s, right? Well, they can also be applied to evaluating information, on the web and elsewhere. 

 WHO – Who wrote or published the information? Is it someone you have heard of? Is it an organization that you are familiar with?

 WHAT – What are the author’s credentials? Are they clear about their experience in the subject and how they relates to the topic they are writing on?

WHEN – When was the information published? Is it the type of information that changes over time (Think: Medical Information)? Or is it the type of information that stays the same (Think: History)?

WHERE – Where did the author get their information? Are they properly citing their sources? Are they clear on where their facts, statistics, graphs, etc. are coming from?

 WHY – Why are they publishing this information? What is the author’s motivation? Are they showing a bias?

Take a look at the NOVA Libraries’ 5 W’s to Determine Good Information for more tips! And as always, if you’re not sure about a website, ask us! NOVA Online-Library@nvcc.edu

Research Skills: A Blog Series from your NOVA Online Library Staff

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Finding Articles in Library Databases

Did you know that NOVA Libraries gives you access to thousands of journal, newspaper, and magazine articles that are housed in over 100 databases? The good news is it’s pretty likely that we have information on the subject you are researching. The bad news? I could be a little overwhelming.

databases1This short 5 minute video will introduce you to library databases and give you some search tips.

And, as always, if you need help finding information or using any library resources, we’re here to help. E-mail your NOVA Online Library staff at NOVA Online-Library@nvcc.edu.