Subject Guides
Class Guides
Faculty - If you'd like a guide created specifically for one of your courses, contact aqlibrarian@gmail.com or use this form.
Guides by Subject
The most frequently-used databases
Enormous collection of full-text magazines and peer-reviewed journals for STEM, social science, and humanities research.
Complete full text archives of many core scholarly journals in the humanities, sciences and social sciences.
Free digital subscriptions are available to current AQ students, staff, and faculty. To create or renew an account, you must use a networked, on-campus AQ computer and use your AQ email address. Free subscriptions will have to be renewed yearly.
Covers of a broad range of subject areas including: art, business, education, health, law, psychology, sciences, social sciences, and culture.
Contains literature from an array of disciplines related to psychology such as psychiatry, education, business, nursing, and more.
Getting Started with Zotero
In order to use all features of Zotero, you must download to your laptop or PC. You may also want to install the Zotero Connector to your favorite browser and to add word processing extensions..
-
The Desktop software, which will run on Windows, Mac or Linux computers, will allow you to easily collect ,organize, and share your references. This software will also allow for advance features like creating timelines and citation mapping. You can find the free software here.
-
The Zotero 'Connector which will allow you to download bibliographic or 'metadata' from the Library catalog, library databases, and web pages. Zotero Connector can also be found here.
-
Finally: install the Zotero Plugin for MS Word, Google Docs, or LibreOffice so that you can insert dynamic references into a document. You can find more information about these and other word processing tools here.
Topics
Choosing a topic seems like the easiest part of doing a research paper or project. In fact, sometimes the topic is even assigned. Often, however, it is the topic that causes frustration and discouragement in the research process. Use these tips to ensure that your topic is not the culprit in your academic stress load!
Make sure your topic is not too broad. If you've been given an assignment to write a 5-page paper about the civil war, you will need to narrow that topic down! Whole books, and even encyclopedia sets have been written about the civil war. Condensing ALL that information into a 5-page paper will neither be interesting, nor will it do the topic justice. Instead, find an aspect about the civil war that intrigues you (or at least piques your interest). Researching the role of women in the war, or the influence of religion in a confederate soldier's life, for example, will allow you to focus your thoughts, direct your research, and steer your writing.
Make sure your topic isn't too narrow! If you find that you are unable to find any information that directly addresses your topic, it could be too narrow. While information about the affects of steroids on teen sports players may be plentiful, finding articles about the effects of steroids on asian students in 8th grade may not. If you are unable to find information about your topic, ask your professor or a librarian for help!
Lastly, try VERY HARD to find a topic that interests you. You'll be spending a large amount of time with a research project. Having a topic you actually care about will make that time seem shorter and even more enjoyable.