Hand them this easy-to-use, comprehensive guide to researching 100 popular research papers, and high school students will get off on the right track on their research papers. Designed by a reference and young adult librarian for use in her library, this guide saves both student and librarian time and is a shortcut to effective research. Each photocopyable guide will help the student to locate print and nonprint information about the topic, narrow the scope of the paper, and find related topics. This will reduce student frustration in the research process and introduce the student to the full scope of materials the library has to offer on the topic. Each guide serves not only as a map to library resources but as an outline of library research procedures.
From abortion to youth gangs, the 100 topic guides are organized into sections on science and technology, social issues, social studies, and biography. Each guide contains a capsule description of the topic, call numbers for shelf browsing, subject headings, pamphlet file sources, reference materials, book and CD-ROM periodical indexes, online databases, key words and descriptors to use in searching indexes and databases, a list of videotapes on the topic, fiction relating to the topic, organizations to contact for further information, suggestions for narrowing the topic, and suggestions for related topics. In addition to the guides, an appendix of aids to research will help students with note-taking, bibliographic citations, and electronic database searching. The book is thoroughly indexed for easy access of topic information by students and librarians. Once you use these topic guides you'll wonder how you and your students ever got along without them.
About the Author: BARBARA WOOD BORNE is reference and young adult librarian at the Wallingford, Connecticut Public Library, where she developed the prototypes for these research guides to help students with the research process. Before becoming a librarian she was a teacher in New Jersey, Indiana, and Connecticut, and an academic advisor at Michigan State University.
