Monday, February 16, 2009

Research Challenge

A challenge I have been facing in my research is narrowing down the sources to use. I can use as many sources as I want, but when there's too many it gets confusing and cluttered. I have been going through the resource results on OPAC and picking the one's that will be most beneficial to my research. It seemed like when I went to the library and was looking at all of the books related to my topic, there was a lot more then was OPAC returned to me. I think I will spend some time looking through all of the books down there that relate to LGBT people. 
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3 comments:

  1. RachelFebruary 17, 2009 at 5:46 AM

    Hi Sarah,

    What will help you narrow down your resources is if you are able to narrow down your topic. What was your original research question?

    I look forward to your response.

    R. Wexelbaum

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  2. Sarah GFebruary 17, 2009 at 9:00 PM

    My research topic is to find materials in the library that address LGBT people's needs and form a proposal for our "special population" collection on the library. I'm not sure how I would narrow it down, since part of my research is to see if the materials provided are adequate, I need to see how many there are.

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  3. RachelFebruary 20, 2009 at 11:51 AM

    Hi Sarah,

    Let's take a look at the original question from the handout:

    1. People of color and LGBT people often believe that there are insufficient materials in their public and/or academic library that address their needs. Focus on one “special population”, and find:
    a. Studies of user perception of library resources and services aimed at that particular population;
    b. Books and articles that address how public and academic libraries are handling this issue.
    After that, develop a research proposal for the Miller Center Library to determine if our collection is meeting the needs of students within the “special population” group that you have chosen.

    At this point, you want to take a look at points A and B: First, you need to find previous studies of LGBT user perception of resources within public and academic libraries. Next, you need to find examples of how other academic and public libraries have collected LGBT materials. You might also want to visit GLBT Services, as they have a collection of LGBT books that visitors can read.

    The question to be asked is not whether or not SCSU has LGBT materials--we do! After your background research, I assure you that you will come up with your question (or questions!).

    As your research topic involves LGBT students and libraries, which subject-specific databases do you think would be most helpful for your research?

    Please let me know if you have anymore questions!

    Sincerely,
    R. Wexelbaum

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