Library Research Tutorials

What does it mean to be a good scholar at the University of Minnesota? In this tutorial, learn the specifics of what is means to have academic integrity vs. scholastic dishonesty.

After completing this tutorial, you will be able to:

• Find ideas and language on a topic using online tools and techniques
• Use techniques like mind mapping, the 5W’s, and freeform writing to narrow a large topic

After completing this tutorial, you will be able to:

• Recognize a scholarly (versus a popular) source
• Understand how a scholarly source differs from other types of sources

After completing this tutorial, you will be able to:

• Recognize how scholarly research articles come to be published in peer-reviewed journals
• Use a library database to access it all

After completing this tutorial, you will be able to:

• Use meaningful keywords to find the best sources
• Apply search strategies like AND and OR to connect keywords

Improve your searches! This guide will help you be able to:

• Apply search modifiers AND, OR, and NOT to your database searches
• Recognize phrase searching and other advanced search techniques

After completing this tutorial, you will be able to:

• Identify what a library database is
• Recognize the two main types of library databases
• Know why you should use them
• Understand why searching a library database is different than searching the general internet

After completing this tutorial, you will be able to:

• Identify the components, or sections, common to scholarly research articles
• Recognize the importance of the information within each section

After completing this tutorial, you will be able to:

• Read scientific research articles
• Find the main points of articles
• Engage with articles by taking effective notes

After completing this tutorial, you will be able to:

• Understand what citations are
• Recognize why they are important
• Create and use citations in your papers and other scholarly work

In this tutorial you will learn:

• Journal articles include citations you can use to identify other relevant articles and books
• To use Libraries Search to find articles and books
• To contact the Libraries if you need help