Search Guidelines
1. Get to know your subject
To get the basic information about the subject, read about it in encyclopedias. The encyclopedias will give you a summary and additional search words. The school has access to World Book Encyclopedia Online (in English) and Nationalencyklopedin (in Swedish). Ask the librarian for username and password for World Book Online, Nationalencyklopedin is available on school computers.
Go to World Book Online or Nationalencyklopedin.
2. Choose your course
What approach will you have to your subject? Note the words you want to search with.
3. Get deeper into the subject
Now when you have an idea of what kind of information you need, there are several kinds of information sources you can search in.
Books
You can search for books in several library catalogues. You can search on titles, categories and subject words.
Go to library catalogue list
Databases
The school has access to quality controlled databases. For example JSTOR that provides access to a trusted archive of important scholarly journals and Landguiden with information about countries in Swedish.
Go to database list
Newspapers and magazines
There might be information about your subject in magazines and newspapers, especially if you are working with a current issue. The library subscribes to various magazines and newspapers. The school also has access to Mediearkivet, a Swedish database with articles from Sweden's most important newspapers and magazines. To access Mediearkivet you log in to SchoolSoft and follow the link under Files and Links.
Internet
It is easy to find information on the internet, but it is harder to know what sources you can trust or not. It is a good idea to use the source criticism guide at EasyBib. It will help you evaluate the quality of the information sources you find.
Go to source criticism guide here
When you search in Google you often get many hits. Google rank the hits after the content of the page, number of visitors or number of links to and from the page. This means that the top hits might not be the best ones. Google does not have a quality controller that go through the content of the pages that they link to, so use the guidelines from EasyBib when you do your Google search.
Web pages
Organizations and authorities often have useful information on their web pages. For example, if you want to know more about the Swedish government, start with a visit to their website. If you can’t find the information you need, contact someone at the company or organization, you usually can find their contacts on the web page.
And of course, ask the librarian. I will be happy to help you find the information you need.