1. Polish your literary research problem-solving skills to meet college entry-level standards.

2. Learn to use selected examples of the kinds of information access tools and reference sources you will need to do research in college.

Remember the 5 Keep-It-Simple Steps to
Successful
Information Problem-Solving

1. DEFINE. In this case, the assignment/information problem is to find literary essays on your poem.
   
   
2. LOCATE your information. Here are some recommended Information Access Tools:

   Internet/World Wide Web

   • GOOGLE using modifiers such as "phrase searching" and site:edu

   Catalogs

   Internet Access to our Castle Library collection

   iPac2.0 at the Hawaii State Public Library

   University (listed as examples only)

   MCC - an on-island example

   The Claremont Colleges

   University of California

   Harvard Libraries

   Magazine and Newspaper Indexes

   EBSCO Host. Search (1) NovelList and (2) All Databases

   Infotrac. Search the Professional Collection and Expanded Academic ASAP. (Thanks, B!)

3. PROCESS and EVALUATE the information as it relates to your topic.
   
   Pros and cons of the following websites:

   1. The increasingly popular Wikipedia.

   • Coverage is uneven.
   • No one is in charge; anyone can contribute.
   • Photos in Wikipedia are copyright free.
   • When done well, articles lead to excellent links, e.g., the entry on Martin Luther King, Jr. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr. (Note the warning at the top of the page.)
   • What does Wikipedia say about itself?

   2. 123helpme.com. Avoid sites like this like the plague. The author's qualifications cannot be determined, so quality is always questionable.

   Here are some recommended Literature Sources for this project: Authors and Artists for Young Adults* 46 volumes, Gale Group, in the library Modern American Poetry http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets.htm Literary Resources on the Net http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit Do a one-keyword search in the box. Author Webliography http://www.lib.lsu.edu/hum/lit/authors.html Use Command F/G (Mac) or Control F/G (pc). Contains sites not easily found on YAHOO or Google. Internet Public Library Criticism Collection http://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/ Browse by Last name of Author (don't use search box). Contemporary Literary Criticism, vols. 1-54, or Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism*, vols. 1-33, or Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism*, vols. 1-22 (all of these up -1989) all in the library

   
   Evaluate sources.

   See How to Evaluate Web Sites.

   Skim, read, organize, take notes, scan, download,
      highlight, synthesize, draw conclusions.
   
   

4. COMMUNICATE the results of your research. Create written projects, multimedia projects, visual projects, oral projects. Observe copyright laws. Cite sources using MLA formatting or the library's Samples for Works Cited.
   
   
5. ASSESS both process and product.

   Determine:

   • whether the information problem was solved
   • whether the process was efficient and effective
   • what you will do differently next time