Reference Librarians are available at all of our locations to help you find the resources you need.

General reference requests can also be submitted by email or through our online form.

Specialized research requests are accepted for review and are subject to library service fees. Learn more about specialized research requests.

Searching online can provide a vast, and sometimes confusing, array of research results. It is important to understand how to decide if information is reliable, accurate and up to date.

To evaluate online sources:

1. Ask questions about authorship and publication when you're evaluating online resources.
   
   
2. If it's unclear who exactly created or published certain works online, look for About pages on the site for more information.
   
   
3. Search for exact quotations from the text in Google (using quotation marks “xyz”) to see if you can find other places where the work has been published.
   
   

Your LBPL library card provides free access to many online databases to find up-to-date information for research projects..

Visit our Digital Library to explore reputable resources.

University of California Berkeley's Guide to Evaluating Resources
A guide to help you decide if a particular source is a good fit for your research project.

Media Literacy Tips That You Can Do In 5 Minutes
The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) provides these tips to help every internet user develop the skills needed to evaluate and interpret online sources.

FactCheck.org® 
A non-profit organization that provides a service aiming to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. Search your questions in their database.

 Using a Research Database
Information literacy is the ability to discover and use various types of information. It's an essential skill for navigating the information age. Watch this course to learn about strategies for finding information—from a library, archive, database, or the Internet—and the ethics of using it. Librarian Elsa Loftis discusses different types of resources and explains how to evaluate their usefulness and trustworthiness. She also shows how to avoid plagiarism and copyright infringement, and accurately cite sources.

Artist or designer? Elsa explains how creative professionals can use informational searches for inspiration and professional development. Whatever your background, this course is designed to help you become a better, faster, and more thorough researcher.

Topics include:

• Understanding the information cycle
• Working with books, periodicals, databases, and web resources
• Identifying your information needs
• Choosing search terms
• Evaluating resources
• Citing sources

This online course is free for LBPL cardholders through our Digital Library's Lynda.com resource. Access this course by logging on with your library card number and PIN.

Writing a Research Paper
Have to write a research paper? Learn tips for writing an A+ paper that will wow your professors. In this course, author and Kelley School of Business faculty member Judy Steiner-Williams shows you how to prepare for, and write, polished research papers for high school and college classes. Discover how to brainstorm, select your best ideas, collect and categorize research, and write the paper, while following along with Judy's practical, real-world examples.

Topics include:

• Understanding the different types of research papers
• Researching the topic
• Brainstorming your focus
• Developing a thesis statement
• Writing topic sentences
• Composing a title
• Using a style guide
• Formatting your paper

This online course is free for LBPL cardholders through our Digital Library's Lynda.com resource. Access this course by logging on with your library card number and PIN.

Research Methods for Writers
This six-week online course teaches the best methods for mounting a search on any subject. You'll take a virtual guided tour of the library and learn how to maximize its precious resources, and you'll discover how to access public records, conduct successful Internet searches, and explore other similar treasure troves of information.

Personal interviews, public reports, surveys and polls, and historical research are introduced and dissected. A special lesson on Guerilla Research reveals secrets for the undercover researcher. As a plus, detailed instructions are offered for getting organized before embarking on research and getting the most out of information once it's gathered.

This course will give you modern research techniques needed for any writing project: fiction, nonfiction, business, term papers, and dissertations. 

This online course is free for LBPL cardholders through our Digital Library's Gale Courses resource. Access this course by logging on with your library card number and PIN.

It is important to give credit to the sources you use for your research when you are writing a research report or working on a project. The MLA format is a widely accept standard for citing your references.

MLA Citation Format

(MLA Handbook, 7th ed., section 5.6.1)

Structure for Citing Web Publications

1. Name of the author, compiler, director, editor, narrator, performer, or translator of the work

2. Title of the work (italicized if the work is independent; in roman type and quotation marks if the work is part of a larger work)

3. Title of the overall Web site (italicized), if distinct from item 2

4. Version or edition used

5. Publisher or sponsor of the site; if not available use N.p.

6. Date of publication

7. Medium of publication (Web)

8. Date of access

9. URL (in angle brackets) – optional
   
   

Last name, First name. “Section of Website.” Title of the Web site. Version/Edition. Name of publisher or sponsor. Date of publication. Web. Day Month Year of access. <opt. URL>.

Example:  Lib. of Cong. U.S. Govt. Web. 10 February 2012. <http://www.loc.gov/>.

See more examples of how to cite MLA style references.