[nabs-l] research methods

[Ashley Bramlett]

Serena,

Research is a struggle for me.
You say you used librarians to find books.  Did you have to meet one to one 
for this?

Books are hard copy sources and require readers.  I am finding I had to use 
books as well for my senior paper on child obesity.  Articles will focus on 
one thing and one study whereas books have a little of everything: causes,
prevalence, and treatment.
So once you have the book(s) how do you direct the reader to get what you 
want?  I've asked them to read contents and headings so far but its so 
challenging.  For instance we read ten pages of a chapter before I realized 
it wasn't going to be useful.

Ashley

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Serena" <serenacucco at verizon.net>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 9:09 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] research methods


>I used the library data bases.  Proquest Direct and Ebscohost are pretty 
>accessible.  If the articles were relatively short, I read them all the way 
>through with Jaws, but if they were really long, I used readers.  The 
>librarians often helped me find books.  That often helped, so I wouldn't 
>have to use readers for that.
>
> Serena
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Ashley Bramlett" <bookwormahb at earthlink.net>
> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, October 29, 2008 9:14 PM
> Subject: [nabs-l] research methods
>
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I wanted some more ideas on this.  Then I'll have a sheet with ideas for 
>> myself and others wo ask me.  I am about to begin a big research paper 
>> for my senior class.  All seniors do this to demonstrate critical 
>> thinking, organization and writing skills.  Research has been quite 
>> challenging.  I use readers a lot but its hard to communicate what I am 
>> looking for.  Much research is at the library and books and some other 
>> matterial is not accessible.  So my questions.
>>
>> Do you use your school's databases?  What ones are jaws friendly?  Its 
>> been my experience that databases are not very accessible.  There are 
>> lots of boxes and info before jaws reads the titles of articles.  In an 
>> article I'm sure you read the abstract first to determine relevance.  I 
>> do as wel.
>>
>> How do you skim the article for relevant info?  Or perhaps you read it 
>> all?  Scholarly articles are big, about twenty pages long on average from 
>> my experience. With jaws or a reader, skipping info is hard since I don't 
>> know what I'm looking for exactly.
>> How do you cite pages?  Does someone read you the page numbers as well? 
>> This has been problematic for me.  I write notes but don't know later 
>> what page it was on and cannot skim the article for that info.
>>
>> Have you used the librarians for help?  If so, what role did they play? 
>> Did you ask them to search for you and they read you the titles of 
>> articles/books?  I have used them and they pointed me to the right 
>> databases and card catalog for books but also served as a reader sort of 
>> as we gathered info.
>>
>> I find research frustrating when you think something sounds great and 
>> read it but then its not so good.  I think this happens to all students, 
>> but since it takes longer for us its more frustrating.
>>
>> Any ideas are appreciated.
>>
>> Ashley
>>
>>
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