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For individual research help, schedule an appointment to meet with a librarian.
Using this Guide
This guide is designed to help you find the information you need to successfully complete your Research Paper Assignment for this course. The guide is divided into three sections:
- Career Research: Here you will find resources that you can use to answer the Career Questions outlined in your assignment.
- Evaluating Sources: This section provides three different frameworks you can choose from to help you quickly and reliably evaluate information.
- Using APA Style: In the APA section, you will find links to guides to help you accurately format your paper and cite sources in APA style.
You can access each section at any time using the navigation section on the left-hand side of the guide. You will also find a "Need Help?" box under the navigation on each page. Here you can find answers to frequently asked questions about the library, video tutorials, and access to our chat reference service which is available any time day or night to get help with any questions you may have.
Answering Career Questions - Free Online Resources
- Occupational Outlook HandbookThe Occupational Outlook Handbook is a publication of the U.S. Dept. of Labor. It provides information about specific jobs, educational requirements, average income, and future potential.
- O*Net OnlineComprehensive occupational descriptions and data for use by job seekers, under the sponsorship of the US Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA).
- Virginia Career ViewJob and career information, related specifically to Virginia. "Explore Career Clusters" for job and career information.
Answering Career Questions - Library Databases
The following resources are library databases that you have access to as a NOVA student. You will be prompted to log in with your VCCS username to access the materials.
- Ferguson's Career Guidance Center This link opens in a new windowIncludes information on job and industry profiles, job-hunting and workplace skills, career and industry resources, and college planning and financial aid. (NVCC)
- Salem Press Careers This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
A full-text database of articles to assist students and job-seekers to learn more about today's most popular careers (NVCC).
Reference Entries
Searching the NOVA Libraries catalog for reference entries can be a great place to start. When thinking about selecting your keywords it's important to keep in mind the ways in which WHERE you are searching will influence the results. For instance, if you are searching in the Occupational Outlook Handbook, you wouldn't need to use "career" as a keyword, because all of the results returned in that database will automatically relate to careers. The library catalog is different.
After watching the video below, use the technique shown to search for one of the following career paths:
- information technology AND career
- accountant AND career
- nursing AND career
The AND in the search is what is known as a boolean operator. Operators tell the database how you want your keywords to interact. There are three primary operators:
- AND: when you use AND, you will get results with BOTH keywords
- OR: when you use OR, you will get results with EITHER keyword
- NOT: when you use NOT, you will get results with the first keyword, but NOT the second.
Most library databases and the library catalog use boolean operators. Google defaults to an AND search. When you are searching using Google, you can use the other operators by going to the advanced search option in the settings.