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Use the Catalog to find books, videos, e-books, and other media
Search for online journal and newspaper articles, e-books, and streaming video
Guides for finding and citing sources in many different subject areas
Learn about the Library's spaces and services
Our Juvenile Collection contains fiction, and non-fiction books and graphic novels intended for readers from Pre-K through Grade 8. It includes titles that have won such literary awards as the Newbery Medal, Caldecott Medal, and Coretta Scott King Award.
The Periodicals collection contains current issues (published within approximately the last 1 to 3 years) of print journals and magazines and is located on the northwest side of the lower level. Older issues of our print journals are housed in our Bound Periodicals collection. The majority of our periodical subscriptions are available only in electronic format and can be accessed through our library databases.
The Bound Periodicals collection contains older issues of print journals and magazines and is located on the northwest side of the upper level. Current issues (published within approximately the last 1 to 3 years) of print journals are housed in our Periodicals collection. The majority of our periodical subscriptions are available only in electronic format and can be accessed through our library databases.
The HRAF is a microfiche collection of ethnographic materials, largely primary source text documents, covering all aspects of cultural and social life of 400 different cultural groups from around the world. The HRAF and related finding aids are located on the lower level, beneath the main staircase. For assistance navigating the collection, please visit one of our reference desks.
A microform viewer is located on the upper level in the northwest corner. Two additional microform viewers, from which you can print paper copies of microfilm, are located behind the Computing Support & Printing Services desk on the lower level.
Our collection of popular DVDs includes television series, feature films, and foreign films, all of which are arranged alphabetically by title. Additional films are available in our General collection.
Our circulation desk collection consists of books, videos, and other items set aside, due to high demand, at the lower level circulation desk. These items are available to students for 2 hour checkout periods or to faculty for longer periods of time.
Our course reserves collection consists of books, videos, and other items set aside by faculty for student use. These items are available for limited checkout periods (usually 2 hours) at the lower level circulation desk and are available for in-library use only.
The general collection, which appears in our catalog as "general location," contains the majority of our circulating materials. It contains books and videos which cover all academic disciplines at the College of DuPage. Both fiction and nonfiction materials are included.
Welcome! Click on a tab below to find books, articles, and websites for use in this course.
You'll need a College of DuPage Library card in order to use most of the resources below from off campus. If your card is not working, it may need to be reactivated.
Questions? Contact me (info to the right), stop by the Reference Desk, or contact us by email or chat.
The field of genetics can encompass anything from vaccines to food to human cloning. One of the best ways to find a research topic that interests you is to look at dictionaries and encyclopedias in order to figure out what studies in genetics are being done.
Gale Virtual Reference Library ONLINE.
A Dictionary of Genetics ed. by R. King, W. Stansfield, P. Mulligan
Encyclopedia of Genetics ed. by B. Ness and J. Knight
Try looking at current magazines and/or journals to see what types of research are being done in genetics. At our library, we have the following in print:
Once you know what keywords or topics you'd like to pursue, it's time to head to the databases in order to find good sources.
Best bet databases for this project:
Science Direct
Science Direct is a database full of scientific scholarly articles. In order to search, try putting in two keywords and selecting "Subscribed Journals" on the initial search screen. Confused? Click below.
Academic Search Complete.
Academic Search Complete is a database covering a wide variety of topics, with articles ranging from newspaper and magazine articles to scholarly articles. Therefore, you want to be very careful about looking at the results of your search to make sure that you have a scientific research article for class. Try using the same keywords you used in Science Direct, and then use the date and Scholarly (Peer Reviewed ) Journals limits to get started.
Worried that you might be reading a trade article from a scholarly article, or a review article from a scientific research article?
Start by looking for the distinctive markers of a scholarly article: are the authors' degrees or university affiilations listed? Do you see an abstract? How about charts, tables, graphs?
Once you are certain that you are looking at a scholarly article, make certain that your article is a scientific research article, by looking for the following distinctive sections:
Some of these sections may be merged with other sections, have slightly different names, or may not be labeled, but all should be present in one way or another.
Confused? Take a look at page one of a scholarly article below:
Notice the following:
Want to take a closer look? Cladophora (Chlorophyta) spp. Harbor Human Bacterial Pathogens in Nearshore Water of Lake Michigan is a research article found on PubMedCentral, the government-sponsored free article database. You can use this as a model scholarly research article.
Find directions about how to cite your sources on the library citation guide.
Most databases will have a Cite link that you can also click to get article citations.
Finally, you are welcome to use NoodleBib if you'd like to use a program to create and organize your citations. You must "Create a New Folder" when you use NoodleBIB for the first time. Click on "I am citing a(n):," choose the type of item you are citing, and then fill in the online form. Your bibliography will be formatted for you.
Further questions about APA style? Check out the APA Style Blog, which includes sample papers.
Stages of the Research Process
Students are familiarizing themselves with the assignment and considering possible topics. They should be reminded that uncertainty about what to do next is part of this stage.
Strategies
Resources that can help
Students decide on a topic for research, weighing choices against the following criteria: what's of interest to them? what does the assignment require? is there information available? how much time do they have?
Strategies
Resources that can help
Google topics
Review Wikipedia entries on the topic
