Research Guides: First Year Seminar (FYS-101) Research Exercises: FYS Research Exercise 1

Welcome to FYS Research Exercise One!

Outcomes

When you finish this research exercise, you will be able to:

Describe the three main types of sources: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary
Access the Shapiro Library website
Explain what library databases are
Locate tertiary resources using the CREDO database

To complete this Research Exercise, you will take a quiz located under "Course Menu" and "Quizzes" in your FYS101 Brightspace course.

Types of Information Sources

This video explains what PRIMARY, SECONDARY, and TERTIARY sources are, and provides examples of each type.

In First Year Seminar (FYS101) you will be researching PRIMARY SOURCES for your final project. These are original documents (photos, laws, artifacts, letters, etc.) created at the time of an event or during a specific time period. You will use SECONDARY and TERTIARY sources written since then, as well as additional PRIMARY SOURCES from that time period, to understand your PRIMARY SOURCE better and to connect it to the present day.

What is a library database?

Check out this video from the University of Minnesota to learn what is meant by a "library database":

Getting to the Shapiro Library

Here are two ways to get to the Shapiro Library website:

Log in to my.snhu and click on the Shapiro Library link on your home page of my.snhu
Log in to any Brightspace course and click on the Academic Support tab and scroll down to the Shapiro Library link. Then click on the big, blue words: Shapiro Library. Click HERE for screenshots (images) showing these steps.

SPECIAL TIP! ***Once you are ON the library home page, you can access my.snhu and Brightspace from there too (at the bottom of the page)! So if you bookmark/favorite the Shapiro Library website in your browser, you will have one-stop shopping to all your SNHU needs!

Getting to the Library Databases

Here are the steps to get to databases on the Shapiro Library website

Click on the A-Z Database List in the Quick Links box on the library home page OR
Click on the "Find Articles, eBooks & More" tab across the top of the library home page

Once you are on the A-Z Database List you have options for selecting relevant databases:

All Subjects box - Scroll down to the subject area of your research topic
All Database Types" - Scroll down to the type of information your need (newspapers, primary sources, videos, etc.)
Alphabet - If you already know the database you want, click on the letter of the alphabet that your database begins with, then scroll down the list to click on the database you intend to use

Starting Your Research... with Tertiary Sources

Launch your research with the CREDO database

When beginning to research a topic, it is helpful to begin with TERTIARY sources to get an overview of the topic, key issues, important people and events surrounding it, etc. For FYS101, you will be researching a particular primary source (a law, a person, an artifact or a statistic/data point). Many of these sources may be looked up in a specialized encyclopedia or dictionary (tertiary source) so you can get an idea of what they are about. The library has databases of tertiary sources. We are going to focus on one called CREDO.

Credo Database

Watch this brief video to understand what is in CREDO and how to navigate it.

Go to Credo

From the Shapiro Library home page:

Click on the A-Z Database List in the Quick Links box OR in the "Find Articles, eBooks & More" tab drop-down menu
Click on the letter "C" in the alphabet across the top of the list of databases
Scroll down to click on CREDO This link opens in a new window

Search in Credo

Now let's see what CREDO has to offer on topics from this week's FYS101 classes:

Type in DAWES ACT This link opens in a new window into the CREDO search box. Keep this search up in a tab for when you take the Quiz for this Research Exercise.
Click on the title of the first entry in the results list.
- PermaLink - at the top of the page is a link icon you may use to return you to this particular page
- Cite feature - click on the quotation marks, select MLA to get a citation for this source; SAVE YOUR CITATIONS as you find sources
- Related Searches - lists other terms you might search for - when trying to connect your primary source to issues today, this might be a helpful tool
- Search Other Sites - click on Academic Search Ultimate and ProQuest Central to be taken to those Shapiro Library databases with your search term ("Dawes Act" in this case) already entered in those databases
Notice the MIND MAP
- If you click on any of the terms in the Mind Map, the list of results will change to those about that topic
- This is also a good tool to connect past primary sources to current events - Look for current topics in the mind map that is about the primary source you are researching for your final project
Articles is the default; Click Images
- Now you will get images of the topic you typed into the search box (Dawes Act)
- These images are FREE to use for educational purposes, so you may USE THESE in your final project website, so long as you include the citation they provide for you at the bottom of the page after you click on the image

Getty Images

Consider trying the CREDO database when you FIRST begin to research your primary source in your FYS101 team final project (or any paper/project you are assigned at SNHU). Most of them will have some related entry in CREDO to help you learn about your law, artifact, person or statistic, or the context for them.

FYS Research Exercise #1 Quiz

Please read these directions to access your quiz:

Click on the link below to be taken to Brightspace This link opens in a new window in a new tab. This page will remain open.
Select your FYS101 course
Select COURSE MENU from the course navigation bar
Select QUIZZES from the drop down menu that appears
In the list of Quizzes, select LIBRARY RESEARCH EXERCISE QUIZ # 1
You may use this page to answer the quiz questions.
You have 2 hours to complete the quiz which is designed to take 10-20 minutes