This summary of the library research process is an overview of the basic steps involved in identifying and locating library and informational materials. Note that library research is an iterative process and not strictly linear as presented here. Also recognize that personal contacts play critical roles in acquiring information and keeping abreast in one's field, although these aspects of scholarly communication are beyond the scope of this introduction.

Library staff is available to assist you in any step of the library research process, for instance:
* In selecting databases or terminology
* In identifying reference tools
* In securing materials not owned by the library
* In verifying information
You may request assistance from any of the library's Reference Service Desks or from bibliographers who serve as the Library's subject specialists.

An Overview of the Library Research Process

1. Identify the research topic or problem. Identify the main concepts in your topic; these concepts will be useful to use as keywords or subject headings when you are searching for information.

2. Plan ahead and allow enough time to get the materials you need. Anticipate that there may be problems in retrieving the information. The book may be checked out of the library, the journal may be at the bindery, or the database may be down the week-end you planned to use it.

3. Do background reading on your topic. Often encyclopedias, handbooks, annual reviews, and other reference sources provide useful summaries of research and include bibliographies that cite the most important works on the topic.

4. Decide what additional information, literature, data or facts are needed for your research. Some possible factors to consider:
* What format of material will most likely contain the information you need? For instance, should you be looking in reference works, monographs, scholarly journals, statistical sources, newspapers, manuscript collections, etc?
* How important is time in your research? Do you need "up-to-the minute" information? Are there particular publishing dates for the materials you need? Are you looking for materials that cover a specific time period?
* How important is place in your research? Are you looking for materials covering a specific geographic area or published in a certain place?

5. Decide what tools or resources you will need to use in order to identify and locate your materials. No single resource, whether print or electronic, includes listings or indexing for everything. Most researchers need to use a variety of tools to identify the materials useful for their topic. You will probably be using library catalogs to locate books and periodicals, indexes and abstracting services to identify relevant literature in scholarly journals, and other tools for specialized materials such as statistical sources, news and government documents. Thus, you will need to decide which tools to use based on the information needed; i.e. does the resource cover your subject, the format of materials that you need, your time period, and your geographic area of interest. Many of the Library's subject pages include listings of reference and electronic resources to assist you in identifying the appropriate tool.

6. Plan your search strategy. Translate your information need into the language and structure of the particular index, database, or other reference work you are using. For printed materials, the introduction in the front often explains the scope of the work and how to use it. Many reference works have indexes in the back that you can check for specific subjects or names. For electronic materials, the "help" function usually provides information on the scope of the database and guidance on conducting the search.

7. Conduct the search utilizing the concepts you have defined and the tools you have selected. Save the useful results of your search by taking notes, printing records, emailing information to yourself, or saving to disk.

8. Keep records of which resources you have used and how you have searched them. This will save a lot of time in the long run because you won't be duplicating work you have already done, and you will have the necessary information if you need to return to a particular resource.

9. Evaluate the results of your searching. Is it relevant to your information need? Is it from an authoritative source? Did you retrieve enough information, not enough, or too much? Revise your search strategy if necessary, and repeat the process of searching and/or select another tool to use.

10. Obtain the materials that are needed from the Library.

11. Document all materials that you use with the publication details so that you will be able to appropriately cite them in footnotes and bibliographies.