FYS 120F: Practicing Democracy

Welcome to the Library Research Guide for FYS 120: Practicing Democracy: Language, Identity, and Election Engagement! It includes information and resources designed to aid you in locating research and managing sources for your assignments this semester.

For research questions:

• Email me at schaez1@stolaf.edu or schedule a research consultation if you have any questions!

For writing help:

• Make an appointment with the Writing Desk for assistance with organizing ideas and improving your writing style.

Slide 1: First-Year Seminar 120F
Practicing Democracy: Language, Identity, and Election Engagement

Library Research Workshop
Ann Schaenzer
Fall 2025

Slide 2: 

Ann Schaenzer
Research & Instruction Librarian for Social Sciences and Data Literacy
schaez1@stolaf.edu

[Image: photo of Ann Schaenzer.]

Slide 3:

[Image: photo of Ann in a shark costume with other colleagues from Library & IT at the Safety Carnival in Fall 2024.]

Slide 4: Goals for today

• Learn about source types: primary, secondary, and tertiary 
• Learn the difference between scholarly (peer-reviewed) and non-scholarly (popular) sources 
• Learn how to search for your topic in library databases
• Play around in the databases!

Slide 5: Library sources required for your assignment

• 1+ background source 
• 1+ popular source 
• 1+ peer-reviewed scholarly source 
• 2 additional local sources of your choice

Slide 6: Let's warm up!

[Image: four cats in yoga poses.]

Jot down some keywords or search terms related to your topic.

Free-write for a few minutes!

What do you already know about your research topic?
What do you still need to find out?

Slide 7: Reference Sources

• Encyclopedia
• Atlas
• Dictionary

[Images: covers of each of the reference source type examples listed on this slide.]

Slide 8: Primary Sources

• College Yearbook
• Interview
• Poster

[Images: images of each of the primary source type examples listed on this slide.]

Slide 9: Secondary Sources

• Popular Magazine
• Scholarly Journal
• Scholarly Book

[Images: covers of each of the secondary source type examples listed on this slide.]

Slide 10: 

[Image: the St. Olaf library website homepage.]

Slide 11: Now you try!

Find an online reference entry related to your topic. Paste your citation in the Google doc. 

Slide 12: 

[Image: Infographic describing the differences between scholarly articles and popular articles.

• The authors of scholarly articles are researchers and scholars such as university professors, and the authors of popular articles are staff writers such as journalists and freelance writers. 
• The audience of scholarly articles are professors, students and other researchers, and the audience of popular articles is the general public. 
• The purpose of scholarly articles is to present and share original research or experiments, and the purpose of popular articles is typically to inform, entertain or persuade the general public.
• The language in scholarly articles is formal, technical, and specialized, and the language in popular articles is everyday language.
• The references in scholarly articles are presented in footnotes, endnotes, a bibliography, or suggested reading, and popular articles typically have few or no citations.]

Slide 13: Now you try!

Find a popular or scholarly source related to your topic. Paste your citation in the Google doc. 

Slide 14: Now you try!

Pick one source that feels interesting/relevant to your research. Tell the person sitting next to you:

1. What source you chose
2. Why you felt like this source was credible/relevant

Slide 15: Local Sources

Bring your topic “home” with local sources, such as local and college newspapers.
How local? St. Olaf, Northfield, Twin Cities, Minnesota?

[Images: covers and logos for various St. Olaf, Northfield, and Twin Cities sources.]

Slide 16: Now you try!

Find local sources related to your topic.

Slide 17: What did we cover today?

• Learned about the three types of research sources: primary, secondary, and tertiary 
• Learned the difference between scholarly (peer-reviewed) and non-scholarly (popular) sources 
• Learned how to search for your topic in library databases
• Played around in the databases!

Slide 18: Questions?

[Image: dogs and cats with question marks over their heads.]

Slide 19: 

• Connect at stolaf.edu/library 
• Meet with a Writing & Research Tutor
• Make an appointment at go.stolaf.edu/appointment

Slide 20: Database tips to FOCUS your search

• Use Boolean operators to connect search words together to either narrow or broaden your search results
  • The three basic boolean operators are: AND, OR, and NOT
  • ie. race AND gender
• Use truncation (stemming) to broaden your search to include various word endings and spellings
  • ie. rac* = race, racial, racism, racist
• Use quotation marks to search for phrases
  • ie. “asian americans”