Locating Information Resources

ENG 120
Mortola Library
Session Objectives
Help find resources for your research project:
 Find books in the Pace library catalog and
ConnectNY
 Find articles on your topic in library
databases.
 Locate newspaper articles and news reports
pertaining to your topic
 Optimize your searching on Google.
Finding Books Using the Pace
Library Catalog
 Use the library catalog to find out what we
have and where to find it.
 To find materials on a given topic, perform a
keyword search.
 To find books about a person, perform a
subject search for “last name, first name.”
 i.e., Morrison, Toni
 Also check in ConnectNY
Finding Relevant Reference Sources
 Gale Virtual Reference Library (database)
 Search the Pace Library Catalog…
 …by keyword for “[subject area] and encyclopedias”
 …by keyword for “[subject area]” with location
limited to “Mortola Reference”
 If you are unsure of the subject area that your
topic falls under, try a general source like
Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Search Tip: Boolean Logic
 Most electronic search tools allow you to combine
concepts using the Boolean operators AND and OR
 Use AND to combine concepts
 Water conservation AND drought
 Use OR to search for a single concept using
synonyms or related terms
 Drought AND (water conservation OR water
shortage)
Finding Articles Using Pace
Library Databases
 Databases provide access to articles (citations,
abstracts and/or full text) published in
periodicals.
 Use a database that is appropriate to the
subject area you are researching.
 Databases are subscription products available
on campus or from home with your MyPace
Portal username and password.
Databases to consider
 Academic Search Premier
 Research Library
 Many full-text articles
 May need to use to locate articles not
immediately available
 New York Times Archive
 Articles available from 1851-2006
 Lexis Nexis
 CQ Researcher
Optimizing Google Searches
 Searching news using Google News
 Use Advanced News Search to refine your search
 By news source
 By location
 By author

 Searching by utilizing Google domain searching

 Use Advanced Search to search by domain
 .org
 .edu
 .gov
Citing Your Sources
 When you build upon the ideas of others,
you always need to give appropriate
credit for those ideas.
 Failure to do so is considered
plagiarism!
MLA Citation Style
 MLA (Modern Language Association) style is
generally used in the humanities.
 See the MLA Handbook for Writers of
Research Papers (on reserve at the Mortola
Library Reference Desk) for more
information, or visit the guide to Citing
Resources on the Library home page.
Components of an MLA Citation
(Article from a Library Database)
Author(s). “Item Title.” Journal Title volume number.
issue number (if available). (Date): Page number range.
Database name. Web. Access date. <URL>.

Tolson, Nancy. “Making Books Available: The Role of

Early Libraries, Librarians, and Booksellers in the
Promotion of African American Children’s Literature.”
African American Review 32.1 (1998): 9-16. JSTOR.
Web. 5 May 2009.
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/3042263>.
Questions?
Mortola Library Reference Desk:
(914) 773-3505

Library Home Page:

http://library.pace.edu

Douglas Heimbigner
dheimbigner@pace.edu
http://librarypace.blogspot.com/