Research Springboard
To help get you started on your topic, below are some reliable websites and databases.
Using just a few keywords you can find thousands of resources online to help with your research.
Typing your keywords into Google will deliver you millions of results, but, not all the results will be accurate and from good quality sources. With help from the Frances Compton Library you have access to reliable, respected databases and websites that will help you with your research.
www.francescomptonlibrary.com
Our library website has a range of databases and websites you can use to find good quality, fact checked information. Look for the ‘Research Guides’ button on the front page (or click the link above) to browse all the databases available to you.
(Top tip! We recommend you start with Databases before using google as the content on EPIC and JSTOR has already been assessed for you)
Epic Databases
Username: cuthberts
Password: 42cuthberts
EPIC is a hub of many databases. You can type your search terms directly into EPIC, which will look through all the databases or you can use just one.
JSTOR
Username: stcuthbert
Password: research
JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million academic journals, articles, books and primary resources.
We also recommend:
The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
DigitalNZ
Ngā Taonga
The Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa
New Zealand History
For other sites you find on Google:
Remember to assess websites for reliability and accuracy - the CRAAP test is a great tool to use.
Keywords
Your keywords are important. Think about what you want to research, start with broad keywords for instance; are you looking at researching Springbok Protests? Use advanced search options in the databases. You can add extra words to limit your search (e.g Springbok AND protests AND 1981). Experimenting with different keywords can open many options for your research. If you use quotation marks “” around your search terms, (e.g “Homosexual Law Reform”) the search engine will only look for those terms and not terms related.
“ ” searches for an exact phrase (E.g. “Springbok protest Auckland”)
- excludes search results with a particular word or phrase (E.g. Kiwi - bird)
or searches for web pages that include either word ( E.g. Protests New Zealand or Pacific )
… numerical ranges (E.g. protests 1970 …1990)
site: searches only particular websites (E.g. Information literacy site:edu )
More tips available from the Information and Research Tools of www.francecomptonlibrary.com .
Dates
It’s a good idea to limit your data range of the resources you want to use. This will help limit your data to more recent, relevant material.
What sort of sources would you like?
You can select from academic journals, magazines, articles and other sources. What sources do you think would be relevant to your research?
Referencing & Citations
You can easily citatate your sources using the CITE button. Select the text you want to cite, click the CITE button, select APA as your reference style. You can then add the citation to your document.
For more information on referencing go to:
www.francescomptonlibrary.com/apa-referencing
Frances Compton Library MyCollege Page - in the Links box there is a clip on APA referencing.
All our librarians are available to help you with your research and reference questions.
Please contact us at senior.library@stcuthberts.school.nz
Typing your keywords into Google will deliver you millions of results, but, not all the results will be accurate and from good quality sources. With help from the Frances Compton Library you have access to reliable, respected databases and websites that will help you with your research.
www.francescomptonlibrary.com
Our library website has a range of databases and websites you can use to find good quality, fact checked information. Look for the ‘Research Guides’ button on the front page (or click the link above) to browse all the databases available to you.
(Top tip! We recommend you start with Databases before using google as the content on EPIC and JSTOR has already been assessed for you)
Epic Databases
Username: cuthberts
Password: 42cuthberts
EPIC is a hub of many databases. You can type your search terms directly into EPIC, which will look through all the databases or you can use just one.
JSTOR
Username: stcuthbert
Password: research
JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million academic journals, articles, books and primary resources.
We also recommend:
The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
DigitalNZ
Ngā Taonga
The Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa
New Zealand History
For other sites you find on Google:
Remember to assess websites for reliability and accuracy - the CRAAP test is a great tool to use.
Keywords
Your keywords are important. Think about what you want to research, start with broad keywords for instance; are you looking at researching Springbok Protests? Use advanced search options in the databases. You can add extra words to limit your search (e.g Springbok AND protests AND 1981). Experimenting with different keywords can open many options for your research. If you use quotation marks “” around your search terms, (e.g “Homosexual Law Reform”) the search engine will only look for those terms and not terms related.
“ ” searches for an exact phrase (E.g. “Springbok protest Auckland”)
- excludes search results with a particular word or phrase (E.g. Kiwi - bird)
or searches for web pages that include either word ( E.g. Protests New Zealand or Pacific )
… numerical ranges (E.g. protests 1970 …1990)
site: searches only particular websites (E.g. Information literacy site:edu )
More tips available from the Information and Research Tools of www.francecomptonlibrary.com .
Dates
It’s a good idea to limit your data range of the resources you want to use. This will help limit your data to more recent, relevant material.
What sort of sources would you like?
You can select from academic journals, magazines, articles and other sources. What sources do you think would be relevant to your research?
Referencing & Citations
You can easily citatate your sources using the CITE button. Select the text you want to cite, click the CITE button, select APA as your reference style. You can then add the citation to your document.
For more information on referencing go to:
www.francescomptonlibrary.com/apa-referencing
Frances Compton Library MyCollege Page - in the Links box there is a clip on APA referencing.
All our librarians are available to help you with your research and reference questions.
Please contact us at senior.library@stcuthberts.school.nz
Please note: Books from the National Library and our Senior Library Collection on this topic will be library use only.