This and other research guides are on the ACC Library web page under
Research Guides & Tutorials: http://library.sunyacc.edu

Adirondack Community College, 640 Bay Road, Queensbury, NY 12804
(518) 743-2260

Books | Reference books | Articles | Web sites

At any point in your research, please consult a reference librarian. Librarians are available whenever the library is open at (518) 743-2200 ext. 2462. Library hours are listed on the ACC Library's home page: http://library.sunyacc.edu.

Finding Books:

To find books or multimedia items, search the ACC book catalog (ACC Library web page > Finding Books > Catalog):

• Reference books, on the library’s main floor, don’t leave the library, so are always available.
• Circulating books, on the upper level of the library, may be checked out for four weeks.
• Videos, DVDs and music CDs may be borrowed by faculty. Students may use equipment near the video/DVD shelves.

Search tip: Start with a keyword search. When you find an interesting book, look for the subject headings in the book's online description. Click on any that refine your search best. Here are some subject headings to consider using:

- For a sharper search, use Boolean logic “and” to overlap your terms, and and truncation (using a wildcard symbol, *, to find all endings of word), such as: comput* and network*

- Most college libraries use the Library of Congress call number code (not Dewey Decimal) to shelve books by subject. Books about computers are mostly in the QA (mathematics) call number section or TK . (electronics and electronic engineering). Books about businesses, such as Microsoft or Cisco, are usually in the HD call number area (industries/businesses). Search the online catalog first to save time.

Reference Books:

Reference books, on the main floor, can help you select a research topic. They also offer quick background information and overviews on subjects.

Gale Virtual Reference Library:

You can search thousands of full-text chapters from more than 250 reference books published by Gale Cengage Learning. The ACC Library owns many of these books in printed format also. The Document Title search will search for your term in the chapter titles, giving you full-text chapters from the reference books. The content is the exactly the same as the original printed books. Find this database with these links: ACC Library Web page > Finding Books > Reference > Gale Virtual Reference Library. (Note: This is a subscription database. ACC students, faculty and staff may log in from off-campus with their campus network user names and passwords.)

Finding Articles:

Journal articles offer current and specific information and research. Search for journal articles by subject through any of the ACC Library's dozens of article databases. Many but not all offer full-text links to articles. Ask a reference libarian find the article though another database, print sources or interlibrary loan. Article databases are subscription-only products. ACC students and faculty may search these from home by following screen directions. To get your ACC student username and password, see Lookup Account and Password on the Student Portal page. For a full list of journals ACC Library receives, see the online Periodicals at ACC list or check the card file at the Circulation Desk.

From the ACC Library Web page, go to Finding Articles. Then, choose either:

• General Databases to find articles on a current, popular or multidisciplinary topic and need a mix of newspapers, magazines and scholarly journals; or
• Subject Databases to find specialized articles on one subject only, such as business, science, literature, nursing, etc.

Among the General Databases are:
● EBSCO's Academic Search Premier: Over 8000 journals; about half are full-text.
● JSTOR: full-text; 117 journals covering the arts, sciences and social sciences.
● New York Times: Current (1980-present) and historical editions (1851-2003).
● WilsonSelectPlus: Completely full-text; 1+ million articles from 1400 journals.
● New York State Newspapers: includes New York Times full-text.
● Opposing Viewpoints, CQ Researcher, more.

Under the Subject Databases > Sciences, you’ll find these extremely useful for computer science research:

The ACC Library subscribes to these journals, located on the main floor:

* Smart Computing's Web site offers a very good "Tech Support Center" page, with answers to common computer problems written in clear language.

More journal and magazine articles are available full-text in our article databases. Also try these computer magazines' sites:

Web sites:

Here are some recommended Web sites. Of the billions of Web sites in the world, these are more appropriate for college-level research.

Subject Directories:

These Web pages are subject directories, organized lists of high-quality sites chosen by subject experts: 

University at Albany’s Computer Science resource guide offers dozens of current, computer-related Web sites: http://library.albany.edu/subject/computer_main.html

 Librarians’ Internet Index (http://lii.org). Type in a search, such as “computer networks,” or browse. Under Computer Topics (http://lii.org/search/file/computers) are lists of quality Web sites on operating systems, device drivers, Linux, software, statistics, and much more.

Google Web Directory: Click on Computers page and explore topics.

 
Search engines:

Google: Use the Advanced Search mode. Use it to sharpen your search by using phrase searching, domain name and document type limits, etc.

Scirus (www.scirus.com) is a search engine searching only science-related Web sites, such as online journals, patents, conference papers, etc.

For more information:

Consult a reference librarian at any point in your research. You may also want to see other online ACC Library research guides.

Also see other research guides on the Library’s Web page: How to Search the Web; Finding Information on Companies & Annual Reports and Finding Information on Ethics & Bioethics

Updated June 2008/MG/DO/JM