Tutorials & Handouts 

• research steps and database searching tips,
• finding books,
• using the library's Web page
• searching specific article and reference book databases,
• searching the free Web effectively and more.

This short slideshow will save time: learn quick strategies for finding books and articles! (To see it full-screen, view it on Slideshare and click the "Full" option.) Produced by SUNY Adirondack Reference and Instruction Librarian Joyce Miller.

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Your Research Tool Box - This site from the University of Kentucky Libraries offers 10-minute videos on starting your research and more.

LibCasts - These video/handout tutorials from Dalhousie University in Canada offer well-explained introductions to research and databases. Try the Research Basics one, though you will not be able to take the quiz at the end. The handout version is also very good.

Library Research Tutorials For more about databases and research strategies, from Drexel University.

The Research Process, a Step-by-Step Guide - From Johnson & Wales University.

General Library Research Tutorial - From Bloomberg University of Pennsylvania. Detailed information about each step of the research process.

Library Research Guide - This Web page was created by librarians at Stony Brook University Libraries. 

EMPOWER -  Information literacy tutorials from Wichita State University. Starting your research, choosing and evaluating sources, avoid plagiarism, more.

IRIS 2-4 - Collection of research tutorials customized for two-year college students; Information & Research Instruction Suite from Clark University in  Washington State.

ACC Library's tutorial offering suggestions on evaluating Web sites, and offers a four-step approach to effective Web searching. (Click "full" to see this show full-screen.)

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Briskly done tutorial on evaluating web sites by librarians Patricia Watkins and Suzie Roth from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University's Prescott Library in Prescott, Arizona. Three minutes long. We found this using TeacherTube!

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Click the ToonDoo cartoon book to see it full-screen!

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Click the tabs above to see SUNY Adirondack's:

• Library Virtual Tour
• online catalog video (books and more)
• library's Web page video

Mouse over each handout for a description. You can print these PDF documents, written by ACC instruction librarian Joyce Miller. Click tab above for more. See boxes nearby for more tutorials.

Reference books offer a balanced overview of your topics. Reference databases contain full-text chapters from reference books.  Here are tutorials for our most popular reference databases:

Gale Virtual Reference Library: This narrated tutorial shows how to find printable reference books chapters from more than 250 online reference books. Good place to start for most research topics. (Note: ACC Library reference books with a large blue "e" on the spine are full-text in this database.)

Credo Reference Library: This page links to descriptions and tours of the Credo Reference Library database, which offers more than 3 million reference book chapters from 500 titles from 60+ publishers; offers advanced search, concept map for visual searching. Good for overviews of subjects.

CQ Researcher: This two-page sheet describes the main search features of this database. which offers lengthy reports on current "hot topics" in the news.

To link to the reference databases themselves, click here.

Note: Most databases will create a citation for you. For the EBSCO databases, ion an article's description page, click the icons (Print, Email, Save) then choose the citation style (MLA, APA, etc.)

EBSCO Database Tutorials:   Listen to this 6-minute tutorial for time-saving tips on searching the library's many EBSCO article databases, such as Academic Search Complete, Business Resource Center or CINHAL. For EBSCO's Integrated SearchSee EBSCO's Integrated Search database tutorial, or this written version with screen shots. For PowerPoints and more, see EBSCO's Tutorials link. 

ProQuest Tutorials: These are designed for specific ProQuest databases such as ABI/Inform, but shows the various feastures common to all proQuest databases, including the New York Times, New York Times Historical, and ProQuest Central. Narrated with a charming English accent.

WilsonSelectPlus: Try these Basic and Advanced tutorials created by the Alliance Libary System of Illinois. Offers good general search tips.

JSTOR Help - This links to help sheets.

CQ Researcher: This two-page sheet describes the main search features of this database. which offers lengthy reports on current "hot topics" in the news.

Links to these databases are on the General Databases page.

Clearly done short video by a librarian at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. For more, see the University Library's Research Tutorials. Or, see SUNY Adirondack's Center for Reading and Writing pages!

Searching the Web: Entertaining animated, narrated cartoon tutorial from Colorado State University Libraries.