Research Reflection

I chose America: History and Life, as my subject specific database. I had more results than from Academic Search Premier .Both of the databases that I compared had the same features and both allowed me to narrow in terms of time, Geography, Scholarly reviewed. Infect, both have exactly the same features. My search string did work for the first time.

I found three articles on Academic Search Premier of which only one had a full text available and had one on Findit. On the other hand, I found four articles on America: History and Life database of which there was only one in full text and the other three articles were available in Findit.

My research question did not changed so far. My biggest challenge has been limiting my search string and by now, I know how to get accurately what I am looking for.

LGBT Population

I am interested and want to learn more about the Transgender population with in the LGBT community. I assume that most of the transgender people identify themselves as fameless rather than male or neither. Since I don’t know more about this particular group of people, I just created my own perception.

I think the most challenge I will face during my research will be the sexual orientation question. The stigma  associated of being transgender, by the societies we live in today, may render oneself hide their sexual identity.

Popular Magazine Vs Scholarly Journal Articles

I have found one scholarly journal article on my topic and The APA works cited format is;

References

CHONG, J. L. (2009). Cultural Practices and Spiritual Development for Women in a Native American Alcohol and Drug Treatment Program. Journal Of Ethnicity In Substance Abuse, 8(3), 261.

I have also found a popular magazine article on my topic and The APA works cited format is;

References

FENSKE, L. J. (2011). Winnifred Olsen At the Forefront of Bringing Minority and Native American Studies into Puget Sound Area Classrooms. Columbia: The Magazine Of Northwest History, 25(3), 10-13.

 The magazine I read about my topic had more of an opinion than researched facts about the topic at hand. It is more suitable for general readers. It does not have references, appendix and notes

While on the on the other hand the scholarly article was well written by experts on the field, had an abstract and of course had references and the works the author used.

For my research, I would need both.

Getting Ready to Use Academic Search Premier

After learning about the academic search premier and doing the troubleshooting for Academic search premier exercise I am impressed in how the academic search premier is organized and it  has a more in-depth feature than the OPAC experience we had used before.
I have never used the academic search premier before but I have had a 30 minutes training where the academic search premier was introduced to me. I never used any other type of database for any of my classes.

I don't think I have much fear about this database but getting many results would be one.

Encyclopedia vs Wikipedia

One of the main advantages of Wikipedia is that it is more convenient, free and editable by anyone. But the fact that it is editable by almost anyone raises an alarm. That is; facts can be easily manipulated and changed. On the other hand, Encyclopedias contain almost all subject matters that you are interested in, but since most of them are labeled as 'References" in bookshelves makes them hard to be checked out. In that sense, you can only use them in libraries unless otherwise you have one at home.

 I found out almost six different copies of Encyclopedia that cover my topic. I wrote “Encyclopedia AND Natives AND Minnesota AND Tribes" in my search string. I also used "Native Indians  AND       Encyclopedia AND Indians AND Minnesota AND Tribes".

When I was searching for E-Encyclopedia I typed “Electronic AND Encyclopedia AND Natives AND Minnesota AND Tribes" in my search string and found one E-Encyclopedia.

After locating and reading an encyclopedia and Wikipedia entry on my topic I am liking more on Encyclopedia than the Wikipedia because I think Encyclopedias contain more solid information than the Wikipedia, but I will be using both for my research presentation.

My Population

I narrowed down my topic to The Chippewa Tribe in Minnesota. So far I have not delved much into the topic and because of that, my assumptions on this specific tribe did not changed.

My main questions that I want to investigate about this population are;
1) What is their history and culture of this population?
2) What are the challenges and stereotypes faced by this community?

I have learned that the Chippewa community is consisting of six reservations that are all recognized by the federal government and there are the Bois Forte, Fond du Lac, Grand Portage, Leech Lake, Mille Lacs, and White Earth reservations.

I have also learned that they are very organized and their organization covers a wide range of aspects of life ranging from education through finance cooperation to human service.