1. Where To Start? Guide Have an assignment due? Dont know where to start? Feeling information overload? Click your mouse or use spacebar to advance presentation

2. What have you been asked to research, explain, uncover? Example topic: uses of fungicides in preventing Sphaeropsis blight among pine trees The topic asks about the uses/implications of fungicides not the history of the blight Still not sure what the assignment is asking? Try turning the topic into a question and setting limits. What has been the impact of using fungicides to prevent the spread of Sphaeropsis blight among pine trees? 1. Analyze the assignment.

3. Do I need to limit the scope to a particular region, state, or time frame? Do I need a minimum number of examples? Does my instructor require different resources? If so, how many and what types? Do I need current or older information? What is my timeline? Is this due tomorrow? Is it due next week? At the end of the semester? 2. Focus on the assignment topic and start asking the following:

4. Try some of the following tricks to identify keywords: synonyms ( Home – house, estate, residence, dwelling) spelling variations (theater, theatre) root word variations (education, educate, educator) acronyms (World Health Organization, WHO) regional/historic/scientific variations (American Chestnut or Castanea dentate) broader/narrower terms (Soda – beverage industry, carbonated beverages) 3. Identify keywords that you can use for searching the library catalog, databases, and the internet.

5. Try some quick searches using: Subject searches in the library catalog Encyclopedias Dictionaries Almanacs For Dummies or The Idiots Guide books (depending on your topic) Wikipedia (purely for background info, not for direct quotes) 4. Collect background information on your topic.

6. Do I need books, articles, images, videos, or statistics? Do they need to be scholarly, popular, scientific, or opinion? Typical rule-of-thumb is 1 resource for each page in length. (Example: a 5-page paper should have at least 5 resources) 5. Finalize the type of resources you need and how many.

7. 6. Evaluate your resources. Do these resources help answer my research question? Are they too old, too new, not scholarly enough? Use the Evaluating Your Resources Guide to find out!

8. 7. Ask your Friendly Librarians. We have skills, information, resources, and random trivia you never knew existed! library@haywood.edu (828) 627-4550 Bill Kinyon Director, Library and Learning Resources Bill Kinyon Director, Library and Learning Resources Heather Gillette Librarian Heather Gillette Librarian