Junior Thesis Project
Junior Thesis Search Strategies
Get comfortable online and get your list together first before heading to the libraries. 1- SRC online catalog (Destiny)
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2- Badgerlink (www.badgerlink.net) FREE for Wisconsin Residents
3- UW-Parkside (www.uwp.edu/departments/library/)
4- Racine Public Library (www.racinelibrary.info)
5- Wiscat (www.wiscat.net)
Summary
Note: WorldCat (www.worldcat.org) is another amazing source but requires refined search strategies and often lists books or articles without full text. Badgerlink should be adequate but if not, try WorldCat.
- The best place to start
- 8,000+ full text magazines
- 6,800+ full text books
- 4,500+ full text newspapers (~3,000 historical)
- Also contains Wiscat
- Use advanced search tools / be specific
- Start search as a Student -> Higher Education for more journals such as Academic Search Premier
- Limit your results using check boxes under Advanced Search to include: Full-text and Scholarly articles
- Generate keywords from your thesis statement
- Fine tune your search strategies to use with other engines
- Full text items count as print resources
3- UW-Parkside (www.uwp.edu/departments/library/)
- Require a user account (card) with a fee.
- Not as lenient on overdue books.
- Uses a different system (Library of Congress -LC) for organizing materials
4- Racine Public Library (www.racinelibrary.info)
- School account; see Mrs. Weaver to have titles placed on hold and brought to school
- Part of the SHARE consortium
- Public libraries from 4 counties included in the search (ILL is an option)
- Find out if they have the book and if it is available.
5- Wiscat (www.wiscat.net)
- Searches all Wisconsin public libraries
- Good way to find books that exist on your topic
- If needed, use Interlibrary Loan with Racine Public Library - Mrs. Weaver can help you with this process.
Summary
- Start with Badgerlink
- Save Abstracts/Full Text as PDFs,
- Devise your search terms with that database
- Branch into other systems/databases as needed
- Organize your sources using NoodleTools
- Return your materials to the right library!
Note: WorldCat (www.worldcat.org) is another amazing source but requires refined search strategies and often lists books or articles without full text. Badgerlink should be adequate but if not, try WorldCat.
Clements, Jessica, Elizabeth Angeli, Karen Schiller, S. C. Gooch, Laurie Pinkert, and Allen Brizee. “General Format.” The Purdue OWL. April 3, 2013.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/13/.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/13/.