New to research papers

mybrowneyedgirl, BSN, RN · Sep 2, 2008

I would recommend going to the largest local library and very nicely asking the librarian for assistance.

They can be very helpful.

Good luck with your paper.

Home Health Columnist / Guide · Sep 2, 2008

learning how to find resources and professional literature sources can be daunting. here's my advice learned over the years.

a. check with schools library staff to see what resources available for students.

i'm from the days of dewey card catalog when you had to thumb though individual cards under topic in wooden file box or from cinahl book which listed every1-2months listing of most health and nursing journal articles. was greatly surprised when i took masters courses in 2001 this was obsolete! everything on electronic file. just needed to show college id to be setup for password & computer access to search college designated search engines and could do this at home by logging into college library website for free!

i was able to then print off articles or listings then obtain magazine/periodical from library. other times, college staff requested articels from another colleges collection/periodicals or helped me obtain access to articles.

b. understanding web searching

each web site on the internet has a name that is used to find that site. that name is called the url (universal resource locator) of the site and usually takes the form of http://www.domainname.extension

the extension of a url is a short abbreviation that can tell you about the site.... most common extensions are listed below with a simple definition of the type.

extension abbreviation of what it refers to

.com = commercial, used by businesses

.net = network, used by service providers initially, now also used by many businesses

.org = organization, used by non-profit organizations

.edu = education, used by universities, schools and related bodies

.gov = government, used by government departments and affiliates

.info = information, site is designed to provide information rather than sell products or services

.biz = business, used by businesses, although less common than alternatives above

often, you will see more letters after the three letter extension. these are usually an indication of where the site is based; a lack of a country code may represent the usa.

most countries, however, do have regulations in place about who can use their country code. a three letter code and the country code are both classed as an extension.

common country codes are as follows:

code country

.au australia

.nz new zealand

.uk united kingdom

.ca canada

.jp japan

.us usa (not often used)

.sg singapore

.it italy

.ie ireland

.my malaysia

.fr france

.ch china

.de germany

so site: http://www.google.de/ is google based in germany

http://www.nursingboard.ie/en/about_us.aspx is nursing board + in ireland +english+ about us+ aspx = web format

.com sites since business related may or may not be reputable: business may be highlighting its own product/ideals without full disclosure, or pear review.

most instructors/professors will accept sources with .org, .edu, .gov

look for articles from professional nursing and health care organizations, college publications and the federal government.

a great place to start is: medlineplus

from online journal issues in nursing(ojin):

information resources: medlineplus®: key resource for both health consumers and health professionals

barbara f. schloman, phd, ahip (march 7, 2006)

c. use combination of seach terms

to answer: how does dairy consumption differ in the us and other cultures?

search for main ideas = highlighted terms try

"dairy consumption us + global " (better term for other cultures)

"dairy consumption us + other countries"

"dairy consumption worldwide"

look for articles ending with .org, .edu, .gov first!

d. don't forget to include textbook info and sources posted at end of chapters as places to look for info.

good luck with your project.