CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, LONG BEACH

GEOG 140: Introduction to Physical Geography
How to Use the Library's Electronic Journals

So, you finally created a password for access to the library (which is different from your BeachBoard, MyCSULB, and campus e-mail passwords) and you're sitting at home trying to figure out the research review article assignment? Okay, here's a walk through.

First, get to the library web site: http://www.csulb.edu/library/.

Then, under "Research Support," pick "Locate Specific Journals by Title." This takes you to a "Title/Journal Title Search" page. On the second row of fill-in boxes, next to where it says, "Title begins with," type in your journal's name, in this case, "Scientific American," and then touch the "Search" button.

That takes you to a list of four possibilities, each of which has 2-4 links, which is a little bewildering. Select the top one, for plain ol' Scientific American and then click either of the bottom two options, "MAS Ultra -- School Edition" or "Military & Government Collection." These are the EBSCOhost databases our library subscribes to, which give access to the most current issues of Scientific American.

When you click on either of these, you land in the login page. This is where you enter your CSULB ID # and then the password/PIN you picked for library access purposes. Hit "Login" and there you are, in the EBSCOhost page for our subscription to Scientific American. At this point, you should know the year and issue of the article you'd like to look through while "shopping" for the paper you'll do your report on. Click on that year.

That opens a list of issues available for that year. Pick the right issue. Now you can see all the articles, letters, news items, and so on. You look for the article you were interested in opening up, which may entail going through more than one page (page numbers for your article will give you an idea which screen to try, probably screen 3 or 4). Once you're on the right screen and have found the article, you can view it as HTML Full Text or, in some cases, as a PDF. The PDF looks just like the paper version of the journal. The HTML version keeps you from needing to deal with the Adobe viewer.

Repeat as necessary, until you find an article you think you'd be interested in reading more carefully and analyzing and which won't overwhelm you. You might want to save two or three of them, just to be on the safe side.

That's all there is to it! The nice thing is, once you log in on a particular computer, your access to the library stays on until you shut it down, so you only need to log in once each day.

Once you've gotten your article (and have an electronic skill that will serve you well during your college education), make sure to give yourself enough time to read the article at least twice. I've tried to pick more accessible articles, but students often find that these can be a tough slog (for reasons that should make sense after you read Lecture 2). Read it once to get an idea of what it's about and how the author(s) went about it. Set it down for a day or so and then re-read it and take notes. Then, using your notes, put your analysis together and write it up. And, then, grade yourself as harshly as possible (or get a friend you trust to be blunt to grade you). And, then, revise. This is exactly how professional scientists write, by the way: A good writer is a good re-writer and graceful recipient of constructive criticism!

This document is maintained by Dr. Rodrigue
First designed: 06/09/07
Last Updated: 02/10/08