Ask a Librarian

Identity and success are two big, complicated ideas that might seem simple at first, but quickly become difficult when you try to find sources about them.

Before you start trying to find some sources, take some time to think about how you will define success, and what aspects of identity you would like to explore in this assignment.  For example, someone might research a religious identity (such as being Jewish), and how that impacts attitudes about higher education.  A search for a topic like that might use words like Judaism and Education and Identity and Success.  That's just an example.  Someone else could write about being an immigrant and success in the workplace, or being Irish and having successful interfaith marriage, so on.

Also consider if the assignment is asking you for your personal opinion on the relationship between identity and success, or if you've been asked to write about research that has already been done on the topic.  In either case, how will you use your source?  Do you just want to find an example of how someone's identity impacted their success?  In which case a newspaper or magazine story about a celebrity or politician might be useful.  Or do you want scholarly research that gives you theories, or data, about the role of identity and how it impacts someone's success?  That would more likely come from an academic, peer-reviewed journal.

Still not sure you understand what you want to say about identity and success yet?  Here are two readings that might help you. Identity.  Success.  Maybe you also read some things in class or had class discussions about identity and success.  If so, review your notes or talk to your classmates for more ideas.

When you're ready, then you can try using the library's search tool which is called Summon.  You would do the following.

1. Log in through the CCP portal and navigate to the library website from there

2.  Once on the library website, scroll down to the big search box.  You can put a simple search such as "jewish AND education" in there, but you may get a lot of results that aren't as relevant as you want them to be.  If you have time and want to get better results, go on to the next step.

3.  Click on the "advanced search" link that is just under the search box. Using the advanced search page can help you structure your search by using multiple boxes.

4.  Enter your search words in the boxes using the approach that I'll share with you later in this email.  You can add more boxes by clicking the plus sign to the right of the boxes.  Try using one concept per box.  If there's more than one word for a concept, put OR (in capitals) between the words.  So, for example, if the concept is a specific religious identity, such as Muslim, you might put "Muslim OR Islamic" in one box. 

5.  Be sure to check off the Full Text Online option once you're looking at the page of results.  It is on the left side of the screen.  That will help you save time.

6.  Look over the results and decide which sources look useful.  Read the short abstracts instead of trying to read the whole artilce when you're still searching.  If a result looks useful, you can print it, or email a link to yourself.  Now is the time to make sure you select the kinds of sources that meet the requirements of the assignment.  Did your assignment specify that you should only use academic sources, or can you use popular sources like newspapers and magazines.  You can narrow the results down by type of source.  If you only want to see academic journal articles, select that source type from the options on the left side of the page.  You can also select magazine articles, newspaper articles, or see only ebooks in the results list.

7.  Keep redoing your search, changing your search words as you explore different aspect of your topic. Maybe your next search will be broader.  In our example, that would be something more like "religion AND academic success," or you can get even more specific, such as "Jewish teenagers AND college attendance."  The more specific you get, the fewer results you'll get, but they will probably more relevant they will be to that specific topic.  Keep trying until you find the sweet spot.

Here is a picture of a search, showing how each concept can go into a box, with the different words for that concept separated by OR.   

Here is a link to the results for that search, so you can see how it works.  

Results for "(jewish OR judaism OR jew) AND (education OR academic) AND (success OR achievement) AND (identity)" - Summon (serialssolutions.com)

If you'd like help in real time while you're doing the search, CCP librarians can help you online via chat (just use the chat link on our website), or you can meet a librarian at the service desk.

It can take a lot of practice to develop the skills to find reliable sources and understand how to pick the best sources for your assignment.  Ask your class professor to arrange a visit from a librarian so you can all learn more about it together.