From K-State Libraries Wiki

Real World Research

When your need for information continues after you graduate, where can you go?

K-State Libraries' Alumni Services:

Use this page to learn about and to access:

• Free online  and open access journals (including academic and professional journals)
• Databases through the State of Kansas (accessible to anyone in Kansas)
• How to checkout books from K-State Libraries
• Ask a Librarian for help
   

Other Libraries

Find and visit your local library.  Libraries in larger communities will often offer databases, journals, and other resources to their citizens and those who live in their surrounding areas.

• Kansas
• Colorado
• Missouri
• Nebraska
• Oklahoma

Excellent Free Research Tools Online

• Yahoo! Finance
• Google Books
• Google News
• Google News archive
• Google Scholar
  Note: Many are not available for free.  BUT, look for any entries with a bright green arrow (►) pointing to a link.  Those are links to free copies of article.  The article may be free for a variety of reasons, including:
  • it's a preprint
  • it's an open access journal
• Internet Archive 
• Librarian’s Internet Index

 Excellent Open Access (Free)  Academic Research Online

• BioMed Central
• Chemistry Central
• ERIC (Education Resources Information Center)  Limited access to full text articles
• PhysMath Central
• Public Library of Science
• PubMed Central

How to discover the information you need

1. Search for professional associations in your field.  Best way to search?  Use the site search in Google like this:
   

   early childhood education site:.org  

   The "site.org" tells Google to only find websites from organizations.  Many professional associations have resources and data--some free to anyone, others available to members.

   You can also limit your Google searches to .edu or .gov websites.

2. Subject Guides: Librarians at K-State Libraries have created webpages to help K-Staters in every department on campus do research.  These subject guides frequently include links to free internet resources.  Find your subject guide now!
3.  Get more power out of Google.  There are amazing ways to search Google, waaaaaaay beyond typing in some words.  Checkout the GoogleGuide by Nancy Blachman.

 

 Tools to Organize and Cite the Information You Find

• Cite It!  Plug in the information about your book, article, webpage, etc . . .and we'll format the citation for you in MLA or APA style
• Zotero  Download Zotero to your computer. It's an addon to your browser and will pull citation information from the websites you are viewing, store them, and create bibliographies from that information.  There's a learning curve, but if you are writing a lot, this may be the tool for you!