ENG 102-Holland

Hello Ms. Holland's students! I'm Susan Gregg, an Instruction and Reference Librarian at CSN. I'm based on the NLV campus and you can find me there most days of the week. Please see the CSN Library Hours page for open hours for each campus and the online library help hours.  I've listed some of the library resources that will work best for your conspiracy theory research. Dr. Holland has excellent examples of each type of paper that you are required to submit in Canvas so be sure to take a look at them. Please see her announcement regarding conspiracy thoeriestatements v. mysteries

 I will help you navigate the library's website and find credible information from books and ebooks, films, and articles from databases. I'll also explain how to use the tools found in databases so that you can limit results, print the articles, and get an MLA formatted citation.

If you have any questions about using library resources, please email your question (please allow 24 hours for email responses during the week and 48 hours on the weekend). If you need help quickly you can use our Online Chat service to get help M-F, 8:00am to 10:00pm most days.

If you need help with organizing or writing your paper please use Brainfuse to get help. The link is available in the menu in your Canvas Course.

Here is a list of library databases that will work best for your assignments. If you are working off campus you will have to log into the library as you click on a database or electronic resource. Use your Canvas login and password. A database is a collection of records that links to books, articles and films. You can search all the databases at one time by using the large search box on the home page. Or you can go to an individual database that specializes in a subject area. All databases have tools to print pages, email articles, or get formatted citations.

Starting from the CSN Library homepage:

Use the large search box on the homepage to try out searches and see what kinds of results you might get. There may be books, articles, or films in the list coming from several different databases. In this search you can use longer phrases and keywords; use advanced search to separate keywords with connecting words such as "and" "or" "not". Use "conspiracy theories" to get results for this broad subject. You may want to use terms to reflect why people believe in conspiracy theories such as: conspiracy theories and belief. Maybe even try: conspiracy theories and "why people believe".

Use the Find Books button to look for print books to check out in the library and e-books to access from home. Use the filters on the left hand side to limit by print (available in the library) or ebooks (full text online). You can also limit by campus or publication date. Find Articles and Find Films work the same way. The results come from several different databases and you can use the filters on the left-hand side for publication date and scholarly articles. 

Click on Browse Databases to find an alphabetical list of databases for different subject areas and topics. Choose ones that relate to your topic.

Use Gale Virtual Reference Library (Gale Ebooks) to find a basic overview of your topic, including the definition, history, and important persons. Use keywords "conspiracy theories" or "conspiracy theory and pizzagate".

Use ProQuest and EBSCO to find scholarly articles along with newspaper and magazine articles. Click on the Full Text option and put your search terms in the search box or use Advanced Search to separate terms with AND, NOT, OR . Add your topic terms and "conspiracy theory" to the search terms. You can use the filters on the left hand side of the page to narrow the list of articles. Click on the article to see the full text and use the tools provided to print, email the article, or get a formatted citation.

What's the difference between popular and scholarly articles? and How do I evaluate a website? are some FAQs that will help you understand what type of information you are finding and how to make sure the information is credible when searching the Internet.