Research Starting Points
by Abby Kasowitz-Scheer, Librarian in Learning and Academic Engagement
The Syracuse Universities Libraries website is a rich gateway to information resources that can support your research needs. Students, faculty, and staff have access to a wide variety of articles, e-books, videos, data, and other resources that are not freely available online. However, it can be overwhelming to try to navigate the Libraries website to find exactly what you need for a particular project or research question.
The Libraries are offering the workshop, “Research Starting Points @ SU Libraries”, during Spring 2021. This session introduces participants to key research tools including Summon, the databases and research guides and provides some basic searching tips. This same workshop was offered multiple times in Fall 2020 to undergraduate and graduate students from a variety of schools and colleges.
The workshop includes a general introduction to Syracuse University Libraries’ services and spaces, followed by an overview of the Libraries website and live search demonstrations. Presenters show participants how to use the Summon search tool to find books, articles, and other items and how to refine a search to yield more targeted results. The interdisciplinary database, ProQuest, is also introduced as a tool for finding scholarly and popular sources on a variety of topics.
The specific sources highlighted, including research guides and subject databases, are geared toward participants’ areas of study as indicated on the registration form. For instance, last semester, presenters demonstrated a search in the ERIC database when participants joined from the School of Education, and they showed the Music and Entertainment Industry Research Guide when a student attended from the Bandier Program at the Newhouse School of Public Communications.
The workshop provides plenty of opportunities for participants to ask questions, and participants are reminded to contact the Libraries using any of our multiple options (phone, text, chat, etc.) with future questions about the Libraries or the research process.
“Research Starting Points @ SU Libraries” is for everyone from new students to those who need a refresher to those who haven’t yet had the opportunity to explore the Libraries’ resources. To learn more about this and other Libraries workshops, see Learn @ SUL.