Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Recearch Obstacles

Normally, I dont have a hard time at all finding resources for whatever research problem or question I am working, but normally I usually turned to articles and journals that I can find on the internet to help me with my research. This was not the case today when I was trying to find books on recruiting minority students to college campuses. It took me longer than usual to find some good candidates in the library. After a bit of tweaking using the advanced research database for books I was able to find three books that might be of use to me. One book was located in the multicultural resource center in the library which I didnt even know existed. I was pleasantly surprised to know that SCSU had a special section for multiculturalism, but I have to admit I was a little dissapointed when I went to retreive my book at the size of the section. It was so small, I would say less than a full walls space worth of books. It was kind of off tucked away in a little corner in the back of the library. But hey I guess a small section is better than no section at all. The other two books I was able to find easily in the basement of the library. I even found another book in the section that I wasnt even looking for that might be helpful. Overall once I was able to refine my search in the database for books, I didnt have to hard of a time researching possible books. Although I still prefer to use articles and scholarly journals.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Nadiea,

    I am happy to hear that you found the Multicultural Resource Center (MRC), and that you found three books for the price of one.

    The books available in the MRC collection are not all the Miller Center has on issues of race, multiculturalism, and people of color. The MRC features our newest books on these subjects. After a period of time, these books are added to our main circulating collection as newer books arrive.

    There are many challenges in locating books through the OPAC (the Online Public Access Catalog, which is what we call the database for books in the library). The biggest challenge is that not all catalog records for books include the table of contents. Not only that, but there are many different ways to express some keywords and phrases.

    Familiarity with call numbers helps. In my own research, I will often find one book in the OPAC that will help me, and then I will find a few more in that same call number range which do not always appear in the OPAC after my search. These books that I find on the shelf often use very different terminologies in their titles in place of the keywords I used in my original search.

    We will be doing some work with periodicals and databases within the next few weeks, and some of the database search strategies will blow your mind. Stay tuned!

    R. Wexelbaum

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