Research

It may sound scary, but research is what you do every day.

Research is the process of:

• finding a question you need to answer
• looking up basic information on the topic so you know what you need to find out
• determining keywords that will help you locate information in library catalogs, search engines, webpages, books and other resources
• identifying resources that will have information to answer your question
• evaluating whether these are sources that you can understand, that have the right information at the right complexity and are trustworthy
• writing down the citation information for your resource
• locating the information to answer your question in the resource
• figuring out when you need more information and where else to look
• figuring out the important points in your resource and recording them in note form
• taking your notes from different sources and combining them
• proof-reading
• presenting your results to your teacher/classmates/community/the greater world.

Sometimes you will focus on just one of those points; eventually, you will put all of these skills together.

The library is always here to help you with any part of the process!