FAU Libraries - Library Online Tutorial

L.O.T INTRO
Catalog Contents
Getting Started

Introduction to L. O. T.

Have you ever walked into the library, needed a book or article for an assignment, and never knew where to begin?

This tutorial serves as an introduction, as well as a refresher, to doing research in the S.E. Wimberly Library on the Boca Raton campus. The tutorial is divided into five modules:

Catalog - How to look for Books
Databases - How to look for Articles
Scholarly vs. Popular Articles - Refereed, scholarly, academic...What do they all mean?!
The World Wide Web - Using the Web for research
How to Read a Call Number - What is a call number?

Don't know which module to use? Read on...

TUTORIAL CONTENTS

Module 1: How to Use the Catalog

The Catalog module teaches you how to search for books, videos, magazines, CDs, and more. You will learn how to do basic keyword, author, title, and subject searches, as well as some advanced searches.

Module 2: Using Databases

If you need to find an article from a magazine, newspaper, or journal, you should check out the Databases module. It teaches you how to perform searches in electronic databases so that you can retrieve articles from a particular subject area such as literature, nursing, education, or psychology.

Module 3: Scholarly & Popular Periodicals and Magazines

Let's say your instructor has handed out a writing assignment in which your ten-page essay must include scholarly and academic resources only. You gawk and ask, "What does this mean?!" Have no fear, the Scholarly vs. Popular Articles module is here to the rescue.

Module 4: The Pros and Cons of the World Wide Web

True or False: The Web contains valuable information that one can use for a scholarly research paper for a U.S. history course.

If you answered "false," you may want to look at the module on the World Wide Web. You will learn how to evaluate webpages and determine whether they'll help or hinder your research.

Module 5: How to Read a Call Number

You've looked through the catalog and found a few books that might interest you. The librarian has told you to write down the "call number" and go to the stacks to look for the book. If you need to know what a call number is, why some of them are so long, and where the stacks are, take a look at the module on Call Numbers.

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