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Hello! Ey swayel!
My name is Janelle and I am a librarian here at UFV.
I grew up in the Fraser Valley and did my undergrad at UFV before doing my Masters of Library and Information Studies at Western University. I've studied Biology, French, History, Adult Education, and more topics so I am happy to support you in your own research. I live in the valley with my husband (who is also a UFV alumni) and two cats. As a settler, I am grateful to live and work on the lands of the Halq'eméylem speaking Stó:lō peoples (people of the river) known as Stó:lō Téméxw. My approach is to help you expand and improve your research skills. If you have questions - please feel free to send me an email or book an appointment (links on the left under my profile).
Thank you. Kw'as hó:y.
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Before you dive into doing research for your assignment - check out our website homepage to learn about all the services the library has to offer including:
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Review Assignment Instructions How many sources will you need? What types of sources will you need? Not sure about what types of sources exist - check out our Evaluating Sources Library Guide (link below). If you have any questions make sure to contact the library for help. Questions about the assignment - check with your prof. |
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Choose a Topic Based on assignment guidelines, how can you narrow or focus the topic into something you can research? It's ok if you do not have a clear picture of this yet - try some searching with your overarching theme and narrow based on what you see. If you have any questions make sure to contact the library for help. e.g. Overarching theme = Artificial Intelligence Narrower theme = AI in post-secondary education |
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Develop Keywords Take your research question or topic sentence and pull out the keywords. These are the terms you will use to search the library databases. Keywords can be titles, authors, or themes (make sure to think of synonyms as well). If you have any questions make sure to contact the library for help. e.g. RQ = How are university students using AI for their assignments? Keywords & Synonyms = University Students/College Students/Post-Secondary Students; AI/Artificial Intelligence; Assignments/Homework/Projects |
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Develop a Search Strategy Looking for academic articles or books - use the UFV Library Find It Search. Looking for government, company, non-profit websites - try a Google search. Make sure to go to the best source for that type of information. Use the features of the search interface to work for you. When the search results appear, take your time reading the titles, subjects and abstracts to determine relevant sources. If you are not finding helpful results, try switching up your search terms. If you have any questions make sure to contact the library for help. |
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Search, Read, Tweak, Repeat We recommend searching and saving PDFs and/or citation information for sources you are interested in when possible. Having this information for the reading and writing stages will save you time. Don't worry if you try a search and it doesn't work, try switching your search terms or even your topic. You can also try a different database/source. If you have any questions make sure to contact the library for help. |
If you need more help or have questions, make sure to contact us via email, phone, in-person at the desk, online via chat, or book an appointment (see links in the left side menu).
It can be helpful to reflect on what steps of the research (and writing) process will take more time and effort for you. Everyone is at a different place in their learning journey and what is most important is that you take the time to create a plan to be successful. If you want, check out our assignment planner to break up your project into steps to ensure you complete your work by the due date.
