Research Tools 

Doing Library Research

The Doing Library Research guide takes you through the whole research process, including how to develop a "search strategy."

Information Foraging Worksheet

Use the Information Foraging Worksheet to help plan your search strategy. This handy worksheet provides a convenient way for you to keep track of your keywords, subject headings and search history.

Is Your Journal Scholarly?

Use this handy checklist to help identify if the articles you have found are from scholarly journals, popular magazines, or from trade/professional periodicals.

Is Your Web Site Credible?

Finding information on the World Wide Web is one thing, trusting it is another. You must be a critical consumer of materials you find on the Web. Quality and validity are not guaranteed when anyone can publish anything, anytime, without the benefit of scholarly peer review. Use this guide to analyze the web sites you find.

Information Literacy Tool Kits

Explore this self-guided, teaching-learning component of Helmke Library's Web site, which we have designed as an Integrated Information Foraging Environment.  Learn how to make the most from your amazing, resource-rich information environment at IPFW.

Course Guides

Course guides are customized to support specific courses offered at IPFW.  Created by the librarian specializing in the subject, course guides recommend search strategies, key reference books, and the best databases for finding journal articles for a particular course or assignment.

Here are some additional links that can help you discover more valuable information available via Helmke Library.

Need Books?

Provides access to IUCAT Catalog (Indiana University's online library catalog), IUCAT is the main tool for locating books, government publications, music CDs, videos, and other library materials available at Helmke Library and at other IU campuses statewide.

Need Articles?

Use this quick link to Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost), Helmke Library's most frequently used, multidisciplinary online database. Search for articles in nearly 8,000 periodicals and conveniently retrieve the full text of many articles.

Need Web Sites?

This quick link leads to Google, a search engine that can help reduce some of the difficulty of finding high-quality information on the Internet.

How Do I

These guides answer many of the frequently asked questions involved in doing library research.  Do you need help in starting your research? Handling the information you find? Using electronic resources? Librarians have created the How Do I pages to explain some of the tasks researchers undertake.

Find Resources By...Subject

Use subject pathfinders to orient yourself to a specific subject area, academic discipline, or IPFW degree offering.