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University of Southern Maine
Libraries & Learning

Adult and Higher Education

Key Resources in Education

These resources contain basic overview information that can be useful for terms and definitions when you're just beginning your research.

The following websites are great places to find current events in higher education. You may find other sites. Be willing to share when you find them!

Searching Tips and Tricks

Once you have a good understanding of your topic and have selected a few keywords, LibrarySearch is a great place to start your research! LibrarySearch is a convenient way to search almost all of the library’s resources (books, peer-reviewed articles, videos, and more) using a single search box. 

LibrarySearch

Library Catalog

Advanced Search

Tips for using LibrarySearch:

  • If you find a book that is relevant to your needs, look at the "Subject" area of the book's record. Click on a few of the subjects to find other similar books.
  • In many of the book records, you can look at the table of contents - click the link under the "Inside This Book" heading. This can help you determine if a book is right for your research.

To Request a book or article, follow these steps:

  • From LibrarySearch use the GET IT and then REQUEST links. button on the left side of the screen..
  • MaineCat, use the  button in the middle of an item's page.
  • From a database:
    • Select the item you want and find and click the "Search for Article" or "Find it" button (the placement on the page will vary by database).
    • If the library does not have access to the item, find and click the "Submit an Interlibrary Loan Request"

There are many databases to choose form, which will provide you access to a wide variety of research on many topics. To explore databases on a specific subject, check out our Databases A-Z List, linked above, and select your subject from the drop-down. You can also limit your database search by resource type (Data, Images, Videos, Maps, and more) which will help you find the best database for your research.

Tips for searching in databases:

  • Most databases allow for searching with Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT).
    • Use AND to focus your search and combine different aspects of your topic
    • Use OR to broaden your search and find sources that use different words for the same concept.
    • Use NOT to omit certain terms from your results.
  • Use an asterisk (*) to truncate words if you want to search for all words with that root. For example, “environment*” would search for environment, environmental, environmentalism, etc.
  • Put quotes around a phrase that you want the database to search as a phrase, rather than as individual words.
  • Group synonyms inside parentheses using OR between each one

Example:

Below are just a few of our databases useful for adult & higher education research. For more databases with education content, check out our Databases A-Z List, linked above, and select "Education & Human Development" from the drop-down.

Primary sources in the sciences are first-hand accounts of original research or projects, written by the researchers themselves.

Secondary sources in the sciences analyze, summarize, or discuss information from one or more primary sources.

For example, a journal article written by a group of researchers about their experiment would be a primary source. A newspaper or magazine article summarizing the journal article for a non-scientific audience would be a secondary source. A book or review article that summarizes the researchers' journal article plus many others about similar topics to draw broad conclusions would also be a secondary source.

Confusingly, primary and secondary sources are often found in the same databases, so you have to apply a little thoughtful analysis to the item you are looking at to determine if it is a primary or secondary source.

Examples of Primary Sources:

  • Journal articles reporting on original research
  • Conference papers
  • Interviews
  • Lab notebooks
  • Patents
  • Technical reports
  • Theses and Dissertations

Examples of Secondary Sources:

  • Books
  • Review articles
  • Textbooks
  • Stories in popular media (newspapers, magazines, television) that summarize one or more research studies

Journals

Below are a few of the "top" journals in engineering by the number of times their articles have been cited. To see many more journals in engineering, including sub-specializations, use the above link, LibrarySearch (Journals by Title) and select "Adult & Higher Education" from the subject drop-down. On the results page a variety of sub-disciplines are listed.

Books