Getting Started

This guide is your introduction to the tools and techniques, sources and strategies that will help you find the information you need as a communication studies student at BC.

Here’s what you’ll find on these pages:

• Background Information: Locating Yourself in the Communication Information Landscape
  • Introductions & Overviews
    
  • Dictionaries & Encyclopedias
    
• Finding Books & Articles: Conducting a Literature Review
  • Key Communication Databases
  • Quest, the Boston College Libraries Catalog
  • Searching in Other Disciplines
    
• Sharpening Your Skills: Becoming a Good Researcher
  
  • Search Tips & Strategies
  • Tools for Managing Your Research
  • Citation Styles
  • Getting Help
    

You won’t find everything you need here. When it comes to your particular research, check to see if there's a guide for your course or contact me for indivdiual help in person or by e-mail, IM, Facebook, phone (552-2183), skywriting, smoke signals, whatever – hey, I am the Communication Librarian, after all.

Good luck, and let me know what I can do to help.

- Ken Liss