Field - English 5 - How to Do Library Research - Research Guides at Saint Mary's College of California

Class #1: Finding the Questions

Today, we'll work on:

Using research to narrow your questions
- Advanced tips for choosing and combining keywords
Choosing a database appropriate to your subject
- Go to the Library website, look for the Find menu, and click Databases.
- Click the "All Subjects" menu and select the subject that most closely resembles your discourse community or topic.
- If you need more guidance on choosing a database, ask Gina, or go to the Research Guide for your subject and see what your librarian suggests.
Identifying peer-reviewed, scholarly journal articles
- Video explaining peer-review
Using Zotero or Mendeley to save your sources
- Citation managers guide

Zotero	Mendeley
Open source	Owned by Elsevier
300 MB storage for free	2 GB storage for free
Cloud, desktop, and Chrome/Firefox/Safari	Cloud, desktop, and Chrome/Firefox
PaperShip mobile app works w/ Zotero	Mendeley has a mobile app
Plugins for Google Docs and Word	Plugin for Word
Good at extracting metadata from a variety of sources	Not as reliable at extracting metadata from sources
Share articles with private or public groups	Share articles with a private group of 3
No in-app annotations	Highlight and annotate directly in the app
No research network	Research network