Thursday, October 2, 2008

Access to NYPL online databases

Library cards for New York Public Library are available at no charge to any resident of the state of New York. The card comes with access to the online databases of NYPL, some of which are not otherwise easily available in academic and public libraries. You can sign up for one online. Just click on the link "Apply for a library card" under the column for "The Branch Libraries--Circulating Collections.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Using Wikipedia

From Wikipedia's General Disclaimer :

"WIKIPEDIA MAKES NO GUARANTEE OF VALIDITY"

and from their "Researching with Wikipedia":

  • Always be wary of any one single source, or of multiple works that derive from a single source.
  • Where articles have references to external sources (whether online or not) read the references and check whether they really do support what the article says.
  • In all academic institutions, Wikipedia, along with most encyclopedias, is unacceptable as a major source for a research paper. Other encyclopedias, such as Britannica, have notable authors working for them and may be cited as a secondary source in most cases. For example, Cornell University has a guide on how to cite encyclopedias.

Finally from a response to a refdesk email last spring:

Wikipedia is a convenient place to get general info, but the site carries a warning that it is not an acceptable source to cite in a college research paper. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Researching_with_Wikipedia and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:General_disclaimer
In addition, I know several faculty that would refuse to accept a paper that cites Wikipedia.

Happily, we have easy access to a number of resources that you can use to verify the info from Wikipedia, and would be suitable for citation.
Encyclopedia Britannica is listed among our online encyclopedias
http://www.oswego.edu/library/resources/reference.html#encyclopedias
And Biography Reference Bank includes a number of online articles about Rosa Parks
http://www.oswego.edu/library/resources/reference.html#bi

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Welcome to History Research at SUNY Oswego

If you want to ask a question, share your success story, or submit a problem you have come across, please use the comment feature below. I will moderate and edit the comments and, at times, turn them into posts of their own with my own comments added.

I will assume that you have basic skills in seeking and using information. If you are unsure of your skill level, take a look at Penfield Library's information literacy tutorial, the Lake Effect Research Challenge.

At any time, you can get personal attention to your research needs by going to Ask A Librarian.