Blume Library: Organizing Research Projects: Home

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Workshop Topics and Links

This guide links to resources to help you organize your research and describes some conceptual ideas around organization. It includes links to, online tools, instructional videos, other library guides, and etc.

Note: This workshop was created by Necia Wolff. It was used in the EN3301 and the Graduate Center for Excellence.

Note Taking

Evernote
Note taking program, competitor to OneNote.
Microsoft OneNote at St. Mary's
Students and employees have access to OneNote, both online and for download, via Gateway. You will have to login to Gateway to use this link.
Microsoft OneNote
Link to free service online. Use after you graduate.

Keeping Up To Date

Discover This link opens in a new window Blume Library's primary search tool. This robust feature helps scholars find scholarly journals and articles, books, eBooks, music, videos, government information, and more. Input the keywords of your research to generate a results list full of articles and items covering the topic. Use boolean phrases (AND, OR, NOT) and other limiters to focus a search or modify a results list. This tool searches most of the Blume Library holdings including the Library Catalog of physical items and eResources. Learn more about this powerful resource: DISCOVER Reach out to a Blume Librarian for research assistance: RESEARCH ASSISTANCE

Login to MyEBSCOhost via Discover
Go to the "Sign In" link near the top of the screen. Create or sign in with the account you create for yourself.
MyEBSCOhost Personalization Tutorial A 3-minute YouTube video tutorial on setting up the MyEBSCOhost account, saving articles, persistent links to searches, saved searches, search alerts and more. This account can also be used to download EBSCO eBooks.
Creating a Search Alert in EBSCOhost video
EBSCO Help video, on YouTube, describing how to create a search alert.
Setting up Google Scholar Alerts
Short video, on YouTube from another library, showing how to create a Google Scholar search alert.

Citations

Citation and Documentation Guide
Guidelines and examples of citing information using other citation formats, e.g. APA, MLA, Chicago, etc..
Mendeley
Software to manage citations and network with similar researchers. Commercial. Offers a free version.
Zotero website
Zotero website. You can download the program and browser plugins, create an account, and find support materials.
Zotero Citation Software guide
Blume Library guide describes the free Zotero citation management program with instructions on how to install and use Zotero to easily manage and cite sources.

Collaborative Writing & Development OR Writing Solo

Dropbox
To share files and to backup your files
Google Drive
Features of Google Drive including Google Docs, Sheet, Slides, Forms, and more
Google for Scholars
Blume Library workshop to learn how to use and evaluate sources found with Google's products.

Inspiration

GradHacker
Blog about graduate studies, written by graduate students. Freely available from Inside Higher Ed.
How I Work
Lifehacker long running series of short interviews with CEO, artists, authors, and others about how they organize their day and the tools they use.
This is How I Work
PhD Talk blog series of interviews with graduate school students, PhD candidates, and others. Focus on their research process, tools, and methods of working.