Welcome, chemistry students! This is Elisabeth White, Science, Technology, and Math Librarian at Towson. Since I am not able to meet you all in person this semester, I have converted my planned lesson to an online format. I will be teaching you the skills that you need to successfully complete your literature review assignment.
The front page of this guide (the page you're on now) contains all the material for your library instruction session. It is divided into sections, which I encourage you to work through at your own pace (please don't do it all at once unless you have an incredible attention span!). The other pages of this guide, which are linked on the left, contain a variety of resources that you can use to further help with this assignment.
Please reach out to me at any time if you have questions!
Elisabeth White, Science, Technology, and Mathematics Librarian
Contact Information: See bottom left of each page.
Step 1 (optional): Watch Welcome Message from STM Librarian Elisabeth White (YouTube video; 2.5 minutes). Online instruction can seem a little impersonal, so I recorded a quick intro message to help you get to know the person who planned this lesson.
Step 2: Take a moment to read your literature review assignment description for Experiment 7. It is posted on Blackboard, there is also a link to download the PDF below. This will provide context for all of the content in this lesson. Here's a basic summary of your assignment: you will be doing some background research on estuaries in order to determine the cause of a fish kill in a Chesapeake Bay Estuary.
Note: I am happy to answer any research or citation related questions you may have. If you have questions about how your paper should be formatted (eg: should it be paragraph form or is a numbered list of questions and answers okay?), please direct those to your lab instructor. I am not the one grading your assignment, and each instructor may have different preferences. Thanks!
Step 3: Watch Accessing Cook Library Resources from Off Campus (YouTube video; 4 minutes). Since the vast majority of you are currently off campus, you will need to log in to the library website in order to access materials from our databases. This video describes that process as well as how you can get research help from a librarian while you are off campus.
Step 1: Watch Which Type of Source Do I Need? (YouTube video; 10 minutes). This video explains the difference between background sources and scholarly sources to help you determine what type of source will work best to answer the different questions on your literature review. The corresponding PowerPoint slides are linked below.
Step 2: Take another look at your assignment description and identify which questions you think need a background source and which need a scholarly source. You can check your work by viewing Elisabeth's answers and explanations below.
Step 3: Watch Evaluating Sources (YouTube video; 11.5 minutes). This video describes which criteria you should consider when evaluating if a source is credible / appropriate to cite in your literature review. You can download the corresponding PowerPoint slides below.
Step 4: Try evaluating the following website: Is Fluoride in Drinking Water a Good or Bad Thing? Once you have decided whether or not you would be willing to cite this article in your paper, you can check your work by viewing Elisabeth's explanation: Website Evaluation Explanation (YouTube video; 5 minutes).
Step 1: Watch Finding Background Sources (YouTube video; 11 minutes). You can download the corresponding PowerPoint slides using the link below.
Step 2: Watch either Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) Demo (YouTube video; 2.5 minutes) or SAGE Knowledge Demo (YouTube video; 3 minutes). You're welcome to watch both if you'd like! You can access these databases from the Background Information page of this course guide.
Step 3 (optional): Watch Using Google Advanced Search to Find Quality Sources (YouTube video; 5 minutes). This video will demonstrate how you can use Google Advanced Search to help you find better search results by limiting your search to a specific site or domain (ie: websites ending in .gov, .edu, .org, etc.). This video will be most helpful to you if you're having trouble finding credible websites with Google.
Step 4: Practice on your own! Take a moment to try finding background information to answer one or more questions in your literature review. You can use reference databases like SAGE or Gale, Google Advanced Search, or the eBooks linked on the Background Information page of this guide. Email Elisabeth if you have questions.
Step 1: Watch Finding Scholarly Sources for Your Literature Review (YouTube video, 19 minutes). This video describes effective search strategies for finding scholarly articles. You may download the corresponding PowerPoint slides using the link below.
Step 2: Watch either the ScienceDirect demo (YouTube video; 9.5 minutes) or the Scopus demo (YouTube video; 12.5 minutes), or both if you'd like. I recommend watching ScienceDirect if you're totally new to database searching and Scopus if you already have some familiarity or are interested in trying something more advanced. You can access Scopus and ScienceDirect from the Scholarly Sources page of this guide.
Step 3: Practice on your own. Try using ScienceDirect, Scopus, or another scientific database on the Scholarly Sources page of this guide to find scholarly articles that will help you answer some literature review questions. Please contact Elisabeth if you have any questions. If you want to save the link to an article to come back to later, be sure to use the Proxy Builder to get a stable URL (if you don't, the database URL might not work the next time you try to access it).
Step 1: Watch ACS Citation Style Basics (YouTube video; 13.5 minutes). This video explains what ACS style is and some key differences between ACS and other citation formats. Pay especially close attention to the information about in-text citations. You can download the corresponding PowerPoint slides using the link below.
Step 2: Take a moment to familiarize yourself with the Cook Library's ACS Citation Style Guide.
Step 3: Watch Citing a Journal Article with ACS Style (YouTube video; 12 minutes). This video shows the process of creating an ACS citation for an academic journal article. You can follow a similar process to cite other source types: just find the corresponding page on the Cook Library's ACS Guide to find the right formatting.
Step 4 (optional): Practice citing a sources with ACS Style by completing this Microsoft Form activity. This is just for practice; it isn't graded. The correct answers will be displayed at the end.
This is not an easy assignment by any means, so please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions! My contact information is on the left. The easiest way to reach me is via email. You are also welcome to set up an individual appointment.
