Writing a Research Paper

Step 4: Focus Formulation - Now that you've explored some topic options using LibGuides, it's time to start narrowing your focus and developing a thesis.  A great way to do this is to pique your interest by looking at books, eBooks, online videos, or other items about your general topic.  Find books, eBooks, and more in the library's online catalog.

MacPhaidin Library's catalog is accessible from both the library's home page and the library's myHill portal, as shown below.

Library Catalog on myHIll Library page

Library catalog on Library Homepage

Once you have identified search terms, type them in the search box and press enter or return. Below is the results set for a search for "pandemics".

Figure 1. - Shows my search term(s).

Figure 2. - Shows information about my results set. This search returned over 7 million results for the term "pandemics".

Figure 3. - Shows the "All Filters" button.  Filters can be applied to refine your search. Click on the All Filters button to reveal the list of available filters (see below).

• Availability: These are the checkboxes at the top of the filters list.  You can limit your results list to commonly used limiters such as "Available in Library Collection" or "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals."
• Published Date: If you know the year in which the item you want was published, this filter allows you to limit results to items published only in that year.
• Content Provider: Use this limiter is you want results from specific database(s).
• Source Types: Filter by Source Type if you are only interested in a type of item, such as books, articles, or videos.
• Limit By Subject: Apply subject limiters if you want to filter your results to include only items that are labeled using a term from the catalog's controlled vocabulary.
• Limit By Publisher: If you are looking for items produced by a particular publisher (e.g. the Washington Post, Taylor & Francis, etc.), use this filter.
• Limit by Publication: This filter will retrieve materials that appear in a specific publication or on a particular website.
• Subject: Major Heading: This filter is a less precise version of the Limit By Subject filter.
• Language: Limit your results to items written in a particular language.
• Geography (not shown): Limits based on the geographic area the material is about.
• Library Location (not shown): Use this filter to limit your results to items in a specific areas of the library (physical items only).

Retrieving a Bibliographic Record

By clicking on the "Retrieve Catalog Item" button in your results search, you can review the full record for that item, as shown below.

 

Viewing the Bibliographic Record

Figure 1: Shows the bibliographic information for the item - author, title, and a brief summary of the contents,

Figure 2: Shows how to access the item. In the example above, the citation indicates that this is a print book located in the library's main stacks, which are located on the second and third floors of the library. A call number is provided. If this was an eBook, the catalog record would include a link to the full text of the book.

Figure 3: Shows the persistent link to this record. Often times, when students are doing research, they will create a word document containing links to the items they have found and want to refer back to. If you choose to do that, make sure you use the persistent link provided as apposed to the URL in your browser's address bar.

Figure 4: Shows the subject terms associated with this item. Subject terms can be helpful in broadening or narrowing your search. By clicking on one of them, the library catalog will retrieve a results list for all items associated with that subject term.

Figure 5: Shows the additional available information about the item, including a full description and a table of contents.