Search String

The specific database I chose was JSTOR by going to the St.Cloud Library website and browsed through the Databases A-Z and just chose one that looked good.
I found that Academic Research Premier brought more relevant results for my topic.
You can narrow your search in Academic Search Premier by being able to chose document types, language, scholarly journals, full-text date range ad cover story. Though in JSTOR you can chose date range, language, publication title and article type.
My search string worked the first time.
I Academic Search Premier I found 324 results with most of them being relevant to my research and with JSTOR I found 2,456 results and they seemed to be relevant also to the ones I looked into.
All my articles were available in full text because I clicked that box to narrow how many results I got in Academic Search Premier.
My search string question has changed many times because, some of the keywords you use will get you a lot of results and sometimes not many. Changing it multiple times I think I now have a good search string to work with and it has gotten better every time.
The hardest thing for me is figuring out what to use for my search string and trying to figure out what i actually want to know about my population. I am still figuring it out as I go and am getting closer to what I need.

Getting Ready to Use Academic Search Premier

I have never used the Academic Search Premier before but I thought that it was fairly easy to use and operate. It looked a lot like the OPAC search engine the only difference is the we are looking to find articles and magazines instead of books. My overall impressions of this database were pretty good, it is easy to use and not overwhelming at all. I have never used Academic Search Premier in another class yet. In other classes I don't necessarily use a specific database I mostly type whatever I need to find out in google and go on from there. The main fear I have about using this database is that I may not be able to find what I am looking for on here right away.

Your Population

Since I have started my research about homeless people and reading about this vulnerable population in books, online articles and from others resources. My assumptions about this population have changed. I have been mostly looking into why are most people homeless people homeless and do they try to change that. From what I thought was that most people are homeless because of the poor economy and cannot locate a job. While this is true for some people there are other reason like; wasting money away on alcohol and drugs.

I don't have any questions about my population right now.

The information I have gathered so far is just basic information that most people know or assume about homeless people. I have to still go into depth with my resources. I am still trying to locate an encyclopedia and another book so once I do I am hoping to find new information that I can use.

Encyclopedia vs. Wikipedia

When it comes to using encyclopedias the pros of using them is that the topic you are researching thats all you will be reading about. They provide you with a lot of valuable information that is useful and reliable. Also, they are filled with so much information that can be dated many many years back. Though there are cons to using encyclopedias especially the fact that they are so long, and that so much new information is always being found the information in them gets out dated very fast. Wikipedia's pros are that its on the internet you can access it very easily and almost anywhere, it also it updated constantly so the information is up-to-date. The big fall back of using Wikipedia is that anyone can access its information and change it which makes it hard to know if it's reliable.

While searching for an encyclopedia article on my topic I was unable to find any results. I went to the Miller Center Library homepage and used the advanced search option. From there I typed my topic homeless people in the first box and encyclopedia in the second box. And there were 0 results found. I just may not have been doing it right but I couldn't locate any print encyclopedias or E-encyclopedias. 

Since I was unable to locate any encyclopedias I wasn't able to read any information about my topic.

My Research Project

The topic that I have chosen to research is the homeless. I am looking for both basic background information and a more specific topic that I would like to know about. I would like to know more about how they survive with the little that they have. The way I found my book was by going to the SCSU website then clicking on the Library link, next in the search for a book box I put homeless people and got 43 results. Then I used the advanced search and looked just for book no e-books and got 20 results and then narrowed it down from there and found a book that I could use. When I looked for an e-book there were 3 available through OPAC. I am not really interested in reading through e-books just because I like to have actual books and have it in my hands. I would try it once and see how it went, but I don't think I would like it. The 3 e-books that were available for my topic weren't what I was looking for really so I only looked at one and it was different reading from a computer. I prefer to have a traditional book print in my hands. When I went to the Great River Regional Library I was unable to find a book about homeless people. I seem to prefer the Miller Center Library OPAC over the Great River Regional Library just because it seemed easier to find and locate a research book at the Miller Center rather than a leisure book.

What Do You Assume To Be True About _________?

Throughout our IM 204 course I would like to learn more about the vulnerable population of those that are homeless. I chose this group because I'm curious about how they live, how most of them got to be homeless, how do they make money and just what they do to stay alive. What I assume to be true about homeless people is that "most" have lost their job in the poor economy and are fighting to put food on the table and provide for themselves, families, etc. I have learned this from just basic knowledge like listening to the news, reading newspapers, magazines and hearing others talk about this topic. The most difficult part of doing research on the homeless population would have to be if the information is valid. Because, most information would be from people who live that way and if they aren't telling the truth your information is not valid then.

What is Critical Thinking?

My personal definition of critical thinking is thinking deeply about somethings meaning and figuring out what it means by using what you know and an open mind. Everyday we think critically about everything. I have heard this term before many places in english classes and in philosophy class. According to Dictionary.com the definition of critical thinking is; disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded and informed by evidence. On Dictionary.com they do not identify a specific process you must engage in to think critically. The connection between critical thinking and IM 204 Research Strategies is that in order to research about something we must think critically about what we are going to research, what sources that you will actually use as valid sources and that you think critically everyday so we must use it in this class.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/critical+thinking