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Kaua'i Community College Library

Library Research Tutorials and Guides

Finding Books

As you discovered in the Information Cycle video, books take longer for authors/scholars to research, write and publish than other forms of communication. Good reasons to use books are:

  • Books can offer more in-depth analysis of topics/issues/subjects.
  • They can provide a broad overview of topics.
  • Scholarly books have bibliographies of additional sources that can be used for finding more information about the topic.

The Library website makes the University of Hawai`i Libraries searchable.  You can find books, maps, government documents and streaming media. 

There are 2 kinds of catalog records: one links directly to electronic resources such as books (>over 140,000) and the other record gives information (call numbers) on how books can be found on the library shelves (over 50,000 in the Kauai Community College Library and over 3.5 million in the UH System Libraries). 

You can search for books at the Kaua`i CC Library. You also have access to all the books from all the University of Hawai`i System.  Books will to be delivered to KCC and you'll get an email when the book is ready to be picked up.  (Attention:  During the COVID-19 emergency period, no books will be mailed between islands.)

 

Finding Articles

Good reasons to use articles from magazines, journals and newspapers are:

  • For current information, especially scientific topics and current events and social issues.
  • For some local topics, Hawaii magazines, journals and newspapers can provide information that is not available anywhere else.

The many magazine/journal databases range from multi-subject (such as Academic Search Complete) to subject specific databases. To locate databases by Subject and by Type (Book, Articles, Reference, Videos, News, etc.), go to the Database A-Z List at the top of the Find Articles page and click on View More Results link  and use the Subject and All Database Types drop down menus to select by subject and/or type.

 

 

 

Popular vs. Scholarly Sources

Often instructors request that you have to find scholarly resources for your assignments. What does this mean? What is the difference between popular and scholarly works?

The differences between scholarly and popular periodicals are explained in this short video from the Peabody Library at Vanderbilt University.

 

This next video, from North Carolina State University, clearly explains the peer review process in accepting or rejecting research articles, which are written for the purpose of promoting knowledge in academic research.