The Student Learning Center (SLC) provides a variety of services to Ringling College students, including writing assistance, test preparation and study skills instruction, help with English as a Second Language and time management.
Welcome to the WRIT151 Research Guide. Feel free to contact the library for assistance at any point in your research process, whether you're just starting a project or you're hitting a dead end.
Chat services and librarian contact information can be found on the left side of this page.
Search the collections at the Alfred R. Goldstein Library, including books, journals, DVDs, eBooks, video games, artist's books, and more!
Students have a three-week loan on books, one one-week loan on video games, and 3-day loan on DVDs.
Current periodicals circulate for 3 days; bound periodicals circulate for 5 days. You can can check out up to 40 materials at a time.
Except for Course Reserves, library materials are not due back on weekends or when classes are not in session.
There is an outside item return box near the bicycle racks for your convenience.
Books - Traditionally published books provide in depth information or details on a certain topic. Chapters provide breakdowns on the topic being discussed or go into detail on subtopics.
Scholarly Articles - Academic journals (where scholarly articles are published) are like magazines where scholarship relating to specific academic disciplines that has gone through the peer review process is published. These articles and journals are meant for the presentation, scrutiny, discussion, and promotion of research.
Websites - Websites provide information in a digital format on specific topics or organizations - similar to books. Web pages, like book chapters, provide breakdowns on subtopics under one domain.
Magazines & Newspapers (Periodicals) - Magazines and newspapers are print publications released at regular intervals over time. The information published within these materials are usually current and updated as stories develop.
Encyclopedias - Encyclopedias are sets of books that provide information on many aspects of one topic in alphabetical order. Encyclopedias can be subject specific or multidisciplinary. Some can be found online digitally.
Videos - Videos can provide information in recorded format such as documentaries, tutorials, and training materials.
Remember: no resource is perfect.
Materials should be evaluated based on your information needs and the credibility of the organization, or expert, publishing the information.
Both primary and secondary sources are useful and can help you learn about the past.
Primary sources are items that provide first-hand accounts of the events, practices, or conditions you are researching. These documents were created by the witnesses or first recorders of these events at about the time they occurred and include personal letters, diaries, patents, or other documents such as the magazine fashion plate on the right. Primary sources can also include photographs, jewelry, works of art, architecture, furniture, household objects, clothing, and other artifacts, as well as materials documented later, such as autobiographies, memoirs, and oral histories. However, the most useful primary sources are usually considered to be those that were created closest to the time period you’re researching.
Secondary sources are those which are written ABOUT events in the past. They usually interpret those events through the lens of the time period in which they are written. New discoveries are made and attitudes change over time causing understandings of past events to change. Writers produce secondary sources like scholarly books, textbooks, articles, encyclopedias, and anthologies because they help explain new or different positions and ideas about the primary sources.
It’s all about perspective.
Whether something is a primary or secondary source often depends upon the topic and its use. An art history textbook would be considered a secondary source since it describes and interprets the history of art but makes no original contribution to it. On the other hand, if the topic is art education and the history of textbooks, textbooks could be used a primary sources to look at how they have changed over time.
How do you find primary sources?
Of course, if you can see an artwork or piece of clothing in person, great! If you can’t, primary source materials of all kinds are available in reproduction. Primary sources are characterized by their content, regardless of whether they are available in the original format, in digital format, or published on paper. You can find them in books, journals, and magazines, as well as in online databases such as ARTstor, and museum and/or university online collections.
If are having trouble finding sources: ask a librarian for help, or look at one of our LibGuides.
