Welcome to the Subject Guide called, How to Begin Research.
Please click on the appropriate tabs, or watch the tutorial video mentioned below to know where to go, and what to do.
If there is anything that isn't mentioned here, please feel free to contact me, Heather Shaw, the Reference Librarian (my contact information is next to my picture below) and you can now also find me on Microsoft Teams.
If you go the the Library's Youtube channel, and look at the video called, How to Find Research Resources at NTCC, click on the time stamp listed below to take you to a section of the video that pertains to the topic you have in question. (The video was a live session in Julie Ratliff's English 1301 class in the fall of 2019.)
However, to get a good grasp on this, I do recommend watching the full video.
0:35 Database username and password
0:51 How to find the library homepage?
2:18 Databases page
3:04 What databases are good for ANY class?
4:02 How to search multiple EbscoHost databases at once.
6:10 What is citation information and what is an abstract?
8:40 What to do when you find a source you like?
11:11 Julie Ratliff explains the subject terms within an article and how to use them.
13:36 How to quickly narrow results using only scholarly journals (with a definition) and a date range.
15:47 What is HTML? PDF? What is the difference?
18:30 Opposing Viewpoints in Context database (great for debates/argumentative papers/persuasive papers/controversial topics, and statistics)
19:28 How to get ideas for research topics.
24:18 Films on Demand database (think of it like Netflix for educational videos)
27:58 Science in Context (It's like Opposing Viewpoints, but more science based, and contains no viewpoints. There's some overlap of content between the two.)
29:11 Another way to get ideas for research topics.
30:52 Julie Ratliff explains using synonyms for search terms.
32:19 Segue into books and how to find them in the library catalog.
36:24 Library policies on checked out books, and what happens if you are past due.
39:08 How to use advanced search in the library's catalog.
