English 161: Civic Engagement and the Environment  

Welcome to your English 161 Course Guide. Librarians have put this guide together for you to highlight some useful resources for this class. We also encourage you to explore the rest of the library website.

Create your own citation database and quickly build bibliographies with RefWorks.

On-campus access
Off-campus access

Librarians help with the following research-related activities:

• Narrowing down a topic
• Suggesting resources for finding credible background information on a topic
• Coming up with effective search terms
• Finding books and articles
• Figuring out which research tools are the best fit for your topic (there are over 350 choices!)
• Getting more (and better) search results
• Saving, emailing and printing articles
• Getting books and articles from other libraries
• Creating bibliographies with RefWorks

In addition to the search techniques covered in the "Doing Reserach Tutorial" above, the following techniques can improve your success with online searching, whether you're searching a catalog for books or a database for articles:

• Enter phrases in quotes:  "climate change" "global warming"
• Use truncation symbols to search for alternate word endings: In most databases, entering farm* searches for farms, farmer, farmers, farming, etc.
• If one term doesn't work, try a few others. Experiment with different vocabulary related to your topic. Brainstorm ideas for relevant keywords and use background sources such as encyclopedias for suggestions.

The reference desk is in the IDEA Commons on the 1st floor of the Daley Library. Reference Librarians are on duty at the following times:

Monday-Thursday: 8am-7pm

Friday: 8am-5pm

Sat: 10am-5pm

The desk is staffed by highly trained students during other times that the library is open.

Ask a Librarian

Daley Reference: (312) 996-2726

Email reference

More research help

IM Reference available
Monday-Friday 11am-4pm