Research Skills: The Basics

Library Books 

The library has a wide range of fiction and non-fiction reading material. Go to the Library Catalogue  to search for books - you can sign in with your Compass details to see what you have on loan, renew items and reserve books you want to borrow.

You can borrow up to 10 books at a time (2 week loans), and 2 magazines (1 week loan), and you can renew each item two times.

Non-fiction books

The non-fiction collection is along the back wall of the library. Non-fiction books are organised by subject using the Dewey Decimal classification system -  search for the book or subject you are looking for on the Library Catalogue to find the Classification number. Talk to library staff if you need help finding resources.

What is a search engine?​

Web platform allow you to search the WWW  (World Wide Web) Example : Google, Internet Explorer, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Bing ​

What is a  database?  ​

A collection of information, often by subject, selected by experts and peer reviewed to ensure the information is accurate, up-to-date and complete ​

Wikipedia – Online encyclopedia ​

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia, created and edited by volunteers around the world and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation.​

Define the task
Understand exactly what the question is asking, so you know how to answer it really well.

Locate information
Find great resources quickly and easily with some simple search techniques.

Select resources
Learn how to choose the best, most reliable information to use in your assignment.

Organise notes
Turn your information into a good set of notes that will make the writing process quicker and easier.

Present the ideas
Plan the points you want to make, and decide how you want to make them.

Find more information at ERGO - State Library of Victoria

Use these tips to make the most of your searches:

• Use AND and OR to combine your keywords
  • ​AND finds results that include both keywords, e.g. women AND sport
  • OR finds results that include either keyword, e.g. women OR female
• Use truncation to search for several variations of a keyword, e.g. sport* would find sport, sports or sporting
• Use quotation marks to search for an exact phrase, e.g. "team sports"
• If you are getting too many results, use more specific keywords, e.g. basketball instead of sports
• ​If you aren't getting many results, try broader keywords, e.g. "leisure activities" instead of sports

• A primary source provides direct or firsthand evidence about an event, object, person, or work of art.  These include historical and legal documents, eyewitness accounts, results of experiments, statistical data, surveys, pieces of creative writing, audio and video recordings, speeches, and art objects.

• In contrast, secondary sources describe, discuss, interpret, comment upon, analyse, evaluate, summarise, and process primary sources. Secondary source materials can be articles in newspapers or popular magazines, book or movie reviews, or articles found in scholarly journals that discuss or evaluate someone else's original research.