The Research Tips site is an online guide designed to help you perform research in the University at Buffalo’s University Libraries. This guide will help you understand basic research skills . Check out the new videos which will briefly demonstrate how to:

Choose a Topic

Find Books (and other materials)

Find Articles from Databases and E-Journals

Find Scholarly Information

If you need to familiarize yourself with one or more particular aspects of research, such as citation styles or evaluating resources, you can use the Research Tips site index to go directly to that particular page.

Trying to decide what to write about is often the most difficult and frustrating part of research. Whether your instructor has given a pre-assigned topic or expects a self-chosen topic, it is up to you to decide from what angle to approach the topic.

Rule#1: Choose a topic that will interest you. If the research assignment is unrestricted, try to relate the topic to some personal experience or issue of personal relevance. If there is no personal interest in the assigned topic, try to pick a topic from some angle of the subject for which there is slight curiosity. Below are some ideas for finding topics of interest:

Google News– Browse through the latest news articles and look for stories that spark your interest.

CQ Electronic Library– Browse through a database like CQ Electronic Library available through our website at library.buffalo.edu. CQ Researcher, one section of this database offers extensive reports and articles on current and controversial issues.

Best Basic Resources–The “Selecting a Topic” section of the Best Basic Resources page on the libraries website offers a host of useful databases that cover current events, controversial topics, issues, and debates.

Remember: Avoid cliched arguments and write about interesting topics that matter to you! For more information about how to select a topic visit the Research Tips page.

Buffalo native and Indie comix artist Spain Rodriguez will be honored starting Friday October 23rd at  “Road Vultures and Rumbles: A Career Retrospective of Buffalo’s Spain Rodriguez, Underground Comix Pioneer,” an exhibition and symposium presented by the UB Libraries Special Collections. The exhibition will be held Oct. 23 to Dec. 31 in the Libraries Special Collections Research Room, 420 Capen Hall, UB North (Amherst) Campus. The exhibition will kick off with two presentations:

“Big Bitch and Wonder Woman Mudwrestle in Heaven: Graphic Femininity and the Rhetoric of Sexual Liberation.” Cait Keegan (Ph.D. Candidate, American Studies) and “A Tragic Overview of Underground Comix.” Tim Bryant (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of English)

Plus, there will be a Q&A session with Spain Rodriguez who will be in town for the Buffalo Comicon,  held on Oct. 25 in the Buffalo Niagara Marriott, 1340 Millersport Hwy., Amherst.

For more information check out the News Release from the UB News Center.

These websites provide concise and up-to-date information about the H1N1 flu, prevention, and treatment.

UB Alert H1N1 Information
http://emergency.buffalo.edu/h1n1.php

Center for Disease Control
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

Influenza Evidence-Based Information Portal
http://www.ebscohost.com/flu/