{"id":11562,"date":"2022-10-28T07:44:11","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T13:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/?p=11562"},"modified":"2022-10-28T07:44:11","modified_gmt":"2022-10-28T13:44:11","slug":"this-week-in-reference-happy-halloween","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.library.depaul.press\/full-text\/2022\/10\/28\/this-week-in-reference-happy-halloween\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in Reference: Happy Halloween!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Orange<\/a>Happy Halloween from the Research Help Desk<\/a>! Do you ever feel stuck when beginning your research for a paper or presentation? At a loss of where to look? Which database to search? What even is a database?<\/i><\/a> Here at the Research Help Desk, our librarians are able to guide you in the right direction, suggest an article or book, and help you navigate the many databases<\/a> that DePaul subscribes to.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s practice on the history of Halloween: A librarian may first send you to one of our Research Guides<\/a>. These curated subject guides are great starting points in tackling your research, because they offer relevant databases and background sources. In the case of Halloween, a librarian may suggest checking out the History Research Guide<\/a> and our Primary Sources Guide<\/a>. From there, they may recommend visiting article databases such as America: History and Life<\/a> and JSTOR<\/a>. Don\u2019t forget to check out\u00a0LibrarySearch<\/a> for finding books and book chapters as well!<\/p>\n

One thing to keep in mind when searching in a database, is avoid full sentences. Instead, you should search using keywords. A simple search like this: Halloween AND History will likely find a good selection of sources. To make it even better, you can add synonyms or related terms to some of the words. For example: Halloween AND (History OR Tradition OR Custom OR Practice OR Ritual). Don\u2019t feel frustrated if you can\u2019t find what you are looking for at the first place you search. Here are some sample search results you can get from each database: America: History & Life<\/a>,\u00a0 <\/span>JSTOR<\/a>, and\u00a0LibrarySearch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Search<\/a><\/p>\n

So, if you are ever hesitant about where to start with your research, please use our Ask a Librarian<\/a>\u00a0service or come visit us at the Research Help Desk<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Here are some examples of recent questions we have received over chat:<\/b><\/p>\n