Home > Research Guides > Speech/Communication
Background Research
COD Library Reference Collection
Use reference sources like subject encyclopedias to find a topic, narrow your topic, find keywords and get background information before you even start your research. Learn how to find subject encyclopedias and reference eBooks.
- Credo Online: online subject encyclopedias
- Gale Virtual Reference Library: great for medical and health topics
- Discovering Collection: great for biographies, history
also:
- Wikipedia: great for understanding the scope of your topic, keywords, references
Find Books in the Library
- Use the Library of Congress handout to find your subject area on the shelves
- Do a Subject search in the library catalog
- Found the perfect book? Use Subject Headings to find more like it
- Use interlibrary loan to get books that the C.O.D. Library doesn’t have
Find Information about People
- American National Biography— for dead Americans/American icons only
- Discovering Collection
- Literature Resource Center— for writers
- Marquis Who’s Who— basic data on notable individuals
- Academic Search Premier— easiest to use for finding articles on people; Search for your person and narrow results by clicking SUBJECTS
- Academic OneFile- click Browse Subjects and search last name first (e.g. Lincoln, Abraham)
- Newspaper Source— hundreds of papers from across the country and around the world
- ProQuest Newspapers— New York Times, Washington Post and others
Find Information about Jobs and Careers
- Career Information System
- regional, state and national information
- Discover
- information about careers including interest inventories.
- O*Net
- Detailed information on over 950 occupations
- Vocational Biographies
- A collection of 'day in the life' stories of people in a variety of professions.
Find Information on Medical and Health Topics
- Consumer health— information from articles written for the general public
- Health Source Consumer Edition
- Medline Plus Consumer Health
- Professional/technical sources— information from articles for practitioners
- Health Reference Center Academic
- Health Source Nursing/Academic
- CINAHL
Find Statistics
- Statistical Abstract of the United States
- Reference HA202.U5 S93 and online
- Social Trends and Indicators USA
- Reference HN60 .S62 2003
- Statistics Reference Sites
- http://codlibrary.org/Reference_Sites:_Statistics
- More Statistics Sites
- http://codlibrary.org/Speech_Web_Resources#Statistics
Authority/Credibility: Who wrote this information and are they experts?
Purpose: Is this source informational or persuasive?
Currency: Is this source up-to-date?
Accuracy: Is this information correct? Is it based on fact or opinion?
Cite Your Sources
- Citing Sources
- http://www.cod.edu/library/research/citenet.htm
- NoodleBib
- It does the hard work for you
Learn Tips and Strategies
Research Fundamentals
Ask Your Librarian
Librarian: Jennifer Kelley
Office: BIC 2814e
Phone: (630) 942-2383
E-mail: kelleyj@cod.edu
Informative Speech Research PDF version
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