Introduction to the Library for Veterinary Technician Students

1. Identify and define your topic.
   • Try turning your research topic into a question. This makes it easier to identify the main concepts and keywords, including alternate terms, for your topic.
2. Do some background reading on your topic.
   • This will deepen your understanding and help you identify the right search terms needed to develop an effective research question. 
3. Use Library Search to find print and electronic resources
4. Use databases like CINAHL, EBSCO, and Medline to find journal articles. 
5. Search for reliable and authoritative website resources. Always evaluate them before using the information in your paper.
6. Cite your sources. 
   • Citing gives proper credit to the authors of materials you use and allows your professors to verify your conclusions. 

Before you begin your research, have set of criteria in mind to use for evaluating sources you find. At first, evaluating web sources will seem tedious and time consuming, but if you do it often enough it will become a habit that comes with ease. There are many different models for evaluating sources, but two are listed below

• The CRAAP Test, Meriam Library, California State University, Chico
• Current Information, Authority, Purpose, Objectivity, and Writing Style

Current Information - evidence of how current the information is, date-stamped, last copyright update; are there any broken links?

Authority - who is the author of the site (individual/institutional, affiliation, organization); is there contact information (name, email, postal address); is the site promoting a product?

Purpose - URL type suggest affiliation:

• .edu (educational sites)
• .org (organizational sites) could be for-profit or non-profit
• .com (companies)
• .gov (government)

Objectivity - what is the purpose of the site; who is the intended audience; is information presented as factual, opinion, inform, or teach; does it disclose any sponsorship or underwriting?

Writing Style - information is error-free (spelling, punctuation)

Keyword searching is used by internet search engines, databases, and the library catalog. Select the most important terms, phrases, or concepts that pertain to your topic. Consider how to combine your keywords as you search by using Boolean operators. Boolean operators use words to remove useless information and build better searches.

AND= Used in-between terms listed; looks for all the terms listed 

• Animal genetics and nutrition

Or= will search for either term listed; include synonyms or other related words

• Cardio or heart

NOT= terms not to search or exclude

• vomiting ~anorexia 

"Quotation marks" - to search for an exact phrase

• "Feline infectious peritonitis"  

Truncation - use  * (Shift 8) symbol searches for variations on words 

• cardi*
  will find words cardio, cardiology

When combining searches, use parentheses () around different parts of the search.

• ("Feline nutrition*") and proteins