Two Minute Tutorials (or less)
Using the Research Guides
Wouldn’t it be nice to ask an expert how to find materials on specific topics? Well, you can by using
A research guide is a manual created by librarians and other scholars to help users find the materials they need. Research guides can be general, e.g. general directions on how to search for a book, or research guides can be specific, e.g. a list of important reference books for medieval Italian art.
The AUR Library has made some tools that allow you to find the best research guides on the web. The tutorial will show you how to use them.
Click on Research Help ďƒ Research Guides on any page of the the AUR Library Catalog, or you can go through the AUR Library Wiki.
At this point, you can choose the guide you want. These are currently selected according to the courses taught at AUR. Here, we will choose Business.
At the top are the links to selected guides from other schools. In the lower left area, there is additional information that may interest you, such as suggested subjects to search in the catalog. In the lower-right area are the databases from CSI. Each frame can be resized. When you click a school at the top, the guide will load into the lower-left frame.
Resize the frames
Guides Load Here
AUR Databases
We have chosen the research guide created at Columbia University. You can read the information, and if you want to see if we have something, you can check our database list on the right, or click on Search in AUR to see if we have it in the catalog or through the journals list. Let’s look at an example. We choose Economic Indicators.
Search in AUR
AUR Databases
We find several items mentioned. One item is the Oxford Dictionary of Economics. Click on Search in AUR and a box will open up. Enter the title, select AUR Library Catalog and Find.
We may have it, or you can continue your search using the Extend Search function.
Here is how to find a database. Here, we have chosen the University of Chicago research guide for Annual Reports.
They suggest LexisNexis Academic, and just by looking in the other frame, you can see that we have access to it as well. You can click into it and use it. You may want to open it in a new frame (right-click) or resize the frames.
If you would like to go beyond the Library’s selection, you can click on Search Google for Other Guides, which will search Google in a highly specific way for you to find other, related guides.
Finally, you can try our Do-It-Yourself Research Guide finder which is designed to help you find more specific guides. Just enter the words and it will search Google for you in a highly-specific way. You may get some strange “Google” results, so be patient. To learn more about Google ranking, see the Wiki page. Here we have found guides dealing with Renaissance gardens.
There are no guarantees that you’ll find something, but it’s worth a try!
Remember that every library is unique. No single library in the world, even the biggest ones, can have every resource. If there is something you need that is not available at the AUR Library, you can always
Two Minute Tutorials (or less)
Using the Research Guides Go to:
AUR’s List of Research Guides List of Two-Minute Tutorials