Counseling - Research Guide

Even a small library, like the one at Doane University, contains a lot of information on topics that you will cover in this course. You just need to figure out how to get to it! This guide was created to take a little of the mystery out of using the library's resources as you begin to do research on topics in the field of counseling.

If you're starting from scratch and don't know much about your topic, finding a good reference article can get you started in the right direction. It also might help you narrow the focus of your topic. Of course, Wikipedia can be helpful as a starting point but as a professional counselor you'll want to go beyond a questionable resource such as this.

This list of electronic psychology reference resources are just some of those available to you through the library. Use the catalog to locate more -- OR go to Gale Ebooks, Ebook Central (ProQuest), or EBSCO eBooks to do topic searches throughout the entire collection of electronic books, which include reference works.

Here are a few tips to expand your research success:

• Try synonyms for your topic, and explore broader and narrower concepts.
• Pay attention to key terms and other subject headings in the databases.
• Always take a look at a work's references. Notice if there are authors that appear time and again; those are the experts on the topic.