•
A good place to start is to think about the
question and the type of assignment. Use general
reference sources, such as encyclopedias, to
find out more about the topic. (For instance,
try the print encyclopedias World Book and Encyclopedia
Britannica, or use the Access Science Encyclopedia.
Other online reference suggestions are in the
ENCYCLOPEDIAS and ALMANACS section of this website.
• When using the Internet be sure to use
worthwhile sites. For further information see
the sections GENERAL REFERENCE SITES, SEARCH
ENGINES and WEBSITE EVALUATION.
• If you find a useful site during your
research that you would like to share with others,
tell the librarian, and it can be added to the
appropriate lists here.
• Remember that different search engines
are organized differently and the search strategies
that you need may vary. Read their instructions
and use their Help menus. Often it is better
to use a category or subject menu on a search
engine than to use a keyword search.
• Researching a topic on the Internet
is not easy; if you need help, the librarians
are here to assist you.
Looking
for a good book? Check out the annotated reading
lists. The lists include both novels and works
of non-fiction, in English, Italian, and French.
 Click
on book to view the Recommended
Reading Lists
The
library subscribes to a number of databases (see
links below) as well as many print magazines that
maintain archival on-line databases (see list
in the library).
To learn the username and password for these sites,
please contact the librarians at library@ststephens-rome.com
, or look at the list in the Library Stuff folder
on MacStudent or read the library notice board).
Questia
www.questiaschool.com
A huge on-line library that offers full text books
and magazine articles. It also has helpful advice
on essay writing. You must sign up for an individual
access username and password. Ask the librarians
if you are interested.
EBSCO
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?authtype=uid
A collection of different databases designed for
particular purposes. Try The Literary Reference
Center to start with.
Informer
www.informer.it
An on-line magazine full of practical advice about
living in Italy.
www.encyclopedia.com
This site combines several on-line encyclopedias
and dictionaries. It is excellent as a quick reference
point.
www.visuwords.com
A visual dictionary that also shows links between
words.
McGraw-Hill
Access Science www.accessscience.com
The school subscribes to this comprehensive science
reference work. You need a password to use it.
The Catholic Encyclopedia www.newadvent.org/cathen/
This is a useful source for medieval history.
Fact Monster www.factmonster.com
An almanac, dictionary, encyclopedia, atlas and
more designed with the student user in mind. It
has useful advice on organizing your studies and
assignments, and on improving your test taking skills
in the Homework Center.
Infoplease www.infoplease.com
A good almanac with standard statistical general
information.
Economics
Dictionary http://economics.about.com/od/economics
glossary
The
WWW Virtual Library http://vlib.org
Large multilingual index, organized by subject,
with helpful links for research.
Library Spot http://libraryspot.com
Links to a wealth of current information from
poetry to the latest news from a variety of sources.
BUBL
Index www.bubl.ac.uk
10,000 links grouped by subject, using the same
Dewey Decimal organization as our library. Reviews
all sites it catalogues.
Virtual
Salt www.virtualsalt.com
This site reviews and links to different search
engines and directories, bookstores, news sites,
graphics, reference sources, and more. It also
has a good section on critical thinking.
| Bibliography
& Citation Guides |
To
access the St. Stephen's Guidelines
to Giving Credit to Sources click here
Easy Bibliography Guide www.easybib.com
One of the most user-friendly, helpful bibliography
guides available. Compiles citations for you but you
will have to edit them slightly to conform to the
School’s Guidelines (see above)
Long Island University Guide www.liunet.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citation.htm
Offers not only very good help with MLA-style bibliographies
and internal citation, but also gives the choice of
other bibliography/citation styles, such as Turabian
and APA. Also links to many interesting sites from
the library homepage.
Duke
University Guide www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/within.htm
Excellent help for how to do internal citations.
Università
degli Studi di Padova , Biblioteca della
Facoltà di Scienze Statistiche http://biblioteca.stat.unipd.it/bibliografia_come_fare.htm.
A guide in Italian. It is the same as MLA.
ABYZ
News Links www.abyznewslinks.com
Newspapers and news magazines from all over the world,
everything from large national newspapers to very
local news.
Magazine
Portal www.magportal.com
BBC
News (British) http://news.bbc.co.uk
CNN
(International edition) http://edition.cnn.com
Corriere della Sera www.corriere.it
Financial
Times www.ft.com
International
Herald Tribune www.iht.com
New
York Times www.nytimes.com
The
Onion www.theonion.com
U.S. satirical online newspaper.
Timothy
McSweeney’s Quartley Concern www.mcsweeneys.net
Literary magazine with a difference.
MapQuest
www.mapquest.com
Specific street maps available from exact addresses.
National Geographic Maps www.nationalgeographic.com/maps
Excellent quality maps of various types.
Public
transport in Rome http://www.atac.roma.it
Detailed maps of Rome and it will also calculate bus
and metro routes from one place to another.
Quotations
Page www.quotationspage.com
Quoteland www.quoteland.com
| Grammar,
Usage & Writing Style |
Dictionary.com
Guide http://dictionary.reference.com/writing
A guide to grammar, usage, and style.
Library Spot www.libraryspot.com/grammarstyle.htm
An excellent collection of basic grammar and writing
guides with their online links.
One
World Italiano www.oneworlditaliano.com
Improve your mastery of the Italian language.
| Specialized
Subject Sites |
CIA
world fact book www.cia.gov/cia/publications/the-world-factbook/index.html
Encyclopedia
Mythica www.pantheon.org/mythica
An encyclopedia of mythology, folklore, and legend,
including Greek, Roman, Asian, aboriginal, and more.
Europa:
Gateway to the European Union http://europa.eu
IMF:
materials for students www.imf.org/external/np/exr/st/eng/index.htm
International
economics study center http://internationalecon.com
Internet History Sourcebooks Project
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/
Excellent source for primary material.
National
Center for BioTech Information www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Human Genome Project info, and more.
Periodic Table www.chemicool.com
Periodicals
in the library. Most periodicals maintain
a website (see above under Subscription Databases).
RFE
http://rfe.org
Extensive guide of economics-related information on
the web. Sponsored by the American Economics Association
Google
is not the only way to search the Internet. There
are many other search engines available. Some access
a collection of other search engines simultaneously.
These are called mega or meta search engines. Search
engines do not all work the same way or give the same
results. To use them effectively read the “Help”
page provided by each search engine. Below are some
links to different search engines and directories.
For
further information see :
Major search engines and directories by
Danny Sullivan which links to his How
search engines work page. http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2168031
Infopeople
Best search tools http://infopeople.org/search/tools.html
Gives a selection of search engines and subject directories
with a helpful chart (see bottom of the page) which
gives a profile of each one.
• Some Mega/Meta
Search Engines (access many engines at once)
Clusty.
http://clusty.com
This meta-search engine does something original and
helpful: all your search results are placed into clusters
by sub-topic. Try it and see.
Dogpile
www.dogpile.com
Excite www.excite.com
Has versions in many languages (see bottom of the
page)
To
use the Internet effectively requires a combination
of knowledge and skills, but most of all it requires
you to THINK about what you are looking for and why.
For more information on searching see the section
SEARCH ENGINES. The section WEBSITE EVALUATION links
to sites that help you judge what you have found.
Below are links to tutorials that give practical guidance
in both these areas as well as helping you THINK about
the research process.
Internet Detective www.vts.intute.ac.uk/detective/index.html
My all time favorite on-line tutorial. It is comprehensive
and fun to do. It takes about an hour to complete
but does not need to be done in one go.
Links to a wide variety
of tutorials and information about the Internet.
|
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