This page is designed to help students with any type of research project.  Resources are general in nature.  For specific projects, check the links on the library home page:  librarymhs.blogspot.com

General Resources

Library Catalog--See the OPAC on student computers in the library lab.  Instructions: Searching the Library Catalog.doc

Santa Clara County Public Library Databases:  Electronic resources that require a public library card. 

Google Books or Google Scholar:  Try using these features Click on "MORE" from the google page.  This will help limit your search to more academic information.

Find articles:  Good for current events.  Select "free articles only" for those that are full-text and at no cost to the user.  http://findarticles.com/

Directory of Open Access Journals:  Search by subject area for scholarly resources online http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=home

Librarian's Index to the Internet: Sponsored by the California State Library the websites indexed here have been examined for credibility, availability, uniqueness across a wide variety of tipics.   http://lii.org/ 

History Research:  A portal of websites for students and teachers doing history research  http://besthistorysites.net/Research.shtml

Science Research:  National Science Digital Library  http://nsdl.org/

The New York Times has made all of their articles since 1981 available online.  http://www.nytimes.com/

Websites Organized by Dewey:  Created by a New Hampshire librarian these sites are suitable for K-12 and cover typical school topics.  http://www.deweybrowse.org/

"When Wikipedia Won't Cut It: 25 Online Sources for Reliable, Researched Facts": Includes areas each source is best for http://www.collegedegree.com/library/financial-aid/25-online-resources-for-reliable-researched-facts

Public Domain Images--These sites provide images that have no copyright or limited rights for use.  http://edtechteacher.org/publicdomainimages.html

Searching Hints

Noodle Tools:  A wealth of ideas to help you get started in your search process.  http://www.noodletools.com/debbie/literacies/information/5locate/adviceengine.html

Google Tips:  Put together by a Google employee, these are tips to use their site more effectively.  Googletips.pdf

Search Engines:  An internet specialist, Phil Bradley, has put together a comprehensive list of search engines and which ones to use for which task.  http://www.philb.com/whichengine.htm

Research & Style Guides

A+ Research Guide--Internet Public Library general guide for high school students.  http://www.ipl.org/div/aplus/stepfirst.htm

MLA Style Guide at OWL--Purdue University has excellent resources for writing and citing papers.  They also have APA and ASA style formatting information.  Click on the Research and Citation Link at the right.  http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/

Citations

There are many citation generators out on the web.  Two of the best are:

Citation Machine which will give you the correctly formatted citation to view.  http://www.citationmachine.net/

Noodle Bib has a "free" version which only contains a few source types.  For a small fee you can have unlimited access to many different types of sources and your list will be kept for you to go back and add more sources.  http://www.noodletools.com/

Visitors Since: 2/11/08