General Help
Library Staff
Evaluating the sources found during research is very important. Evaluating helps to ensure you have reliable information for your assignment.
There are many methods you can use to evaluate your sources. The following is how CCA librarians recommend you evaluate sources.
A database is an organized collection of information, usually articles, that allow you to search and find the information you need. Most databases are paid by subscriptions. Please use the links below to access the databases (do not search Google and use that link as it will ask you to pay for access).
Where are the databases?
Here is an A-Z Database List for all of the databases available to you.
Choosing a database can be difficult when you start to do college-level research.
If you are unsure which database to use, you can search them all at once using the "Start Your Search Here" link on the library page. This allows you to search everything CCA has access to.
As you continue with your schooling, you will become more familiar with the databases that are specific to your major. For example, if your major is business, you will start to use databases like "Business Source Complete" and "Regional Business News."
There is also a Research Guide for nearly all CCA Majors and courses. In these guides, librarians have put together databases by subject so you can find them more easily.
Be sure to contact a librarian for help with your research!
A Search Strategy is a method of preparing to do research. Having a search strategy will help you find better sources faster. These strategies will work in any environment (Google or databases), but they work best in databases. Use the following steps to create a good search strategy.
Be sure to contact a librarian for help with your research!
A journal is a publication that is often dedicated to a particular subject, discipline, or career field. Some journals are called scholarly or peer-reviewed. That means that the research articles within that journal have all been reviewed by other experts in that field before the article and approved before they get published. This makes for a very reliable, credible article! Journals can be in print or electronic. Search the library databases to find journal articles for your research.
How is a journal different from a magazine? A magazine is also a publication that has articles within. However, these articles are not scholarly or peer-reviewed. These articles need to be evaluated further before using them in your research. Magazines can also be in print or digital form and can be found by searching the library databases.
Search all of the journals CCA can access.
Popular sources are from magazines, newspapers, YouTube videos, most websites, social media, and other similar methods of delivery. These sources have not necessarily been evaluated for accuracy, objectivity, and lack of bias. These may be sources you can use in your assignment depending on the specific criteria.
Scholarly or Peer-Reviewed sources are from scholarly journals and scholarly websites. To become a scholarly/peer-reviewed source, that source must have been reviewed and evaluated by experts in that field (the same field that the source is about) for accuracy, objectivity, and lack of bias. These sources are the most accurate and credible sources you can find.
Please contact a librarian if you need help finding your sources. If you are unsure if you can use a source in your assignment, please ask your professor for their opinion.
If you locate an article you wish to use, you can often email it to yourself. You do not need to use your CCA student email address. While on the article result page, you can often get the citation (APA, MLA, or Chicago Notes and Bibliography) by clicking on the "Quotation marks."
If you locate an article in a database or online and are either required to pay for access, or you cannot find the full text, here's what you can do!
Fill out this form and follow the instructions for requesting an article. Please give us a few days to obtain the article and email it to you.
What if you can't find a book that you want to use? Use that same form and follow the instructions for requesting an InterLibrary Loan (ILL). Please give us a few weeks to obtain the book for you. When it's ready, you will get an email so you can pick it up in the Hub.