Appendix F: Research with Pikes Peak State College Resources
While Chapter 5 gave you some basic information about conducting library research, this appendix was written specifically for Pikes Peak State College (PPSC) students with resources from the PPSC Library.
The Library Catalog
When arriving to the front page of the PPSC library, you’ll see four options:
You can use one of these specific options to search for books, e-books, and resources like audiovisual media and government documents owned by the library. If you are off campus, use your PPSC log-in to access these materials.
You can search the library catalog using keywords about your topic. The search results pages will show materials in all formats, and if you would like items only in a particular format, you may narrow the search using the facets on the left side of the screen. This “Refine my results” section also lets users narrow their search by date, author, subject, and more.
Each item listed on the results page gives you the information you need to access these sources. For items physically available in the library, “Get it” lets you know the location, call number, and item status. If you are trying to view an e-book or streaming media, “View it” provides links to full access. The library’s catalog has a variety of helpful features, including an integrated option to order books from other schools if the PPSC copy is checked out.
Academic Search Premier
Academic Search Premier is a multidisciplinary database containing full-text versions of publications. This database is a great place to get started on your research.
Most of the content in Academic Search Premier is articles from periodicals. Although the database also contains newspapers and popular magazines, for college-level research, it is best used for accessing academic journals.
Many students like to use Google Scholar to find journal articles, and it is a good source for finding the publication information, but often users can not actually access the full article because a subscription fee must be paid. You will not have that problem in Academic Search Premier.
If you are on campus, you will go directly to the Academic Search Premier page; if you are off-campus, you will have to sign in with your username and password for PPSC.
Not only can you find articles from multiple databases, you can access articles by searching individual databases, some of which catalog articles from journals in specific disciplines, such as psychology, education, medicine, or literature.
One database that many public speaking instructors like to recommend to their students is Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center (OVRC). This database covers hundreds of topics, the listing of which you can browse through to figure out which topic you’d like to research.
Even better, OVRC will provide articles from a variety of periodicals (magazines, newspapers, and academic journals) that explore both sides—pro and con—of current issues. For example, if you want to research the subject of raising the minimum wage, OVRC will provide articles on why it should be raised and why it should not be raised from moral, economic, practical, and political viewpoints. One of the values of OVRC is that when you are preparing your persuasive speech you will need to know the arguments of the “other side” so that you can bring them up in your speech and refute them.
To access Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center, use the “Databases A-Z” option on the main library page, then click on “O” and find it in the list.
Once in the database, you can browse the subject categories, or search by keyword. Note that many of the tools such as email, print, and cite, are available in this database.
As mentioned in Chapter 5, librarians are a valuable resource for researchers. Luckily, Pikes Peak State College has friendly librarians who are happy to help!
