Research Tools & Resources

The Library Learning Commons at LWTech is your center for research on campus. We provide services and tools that can help you start your research assignment and also fortify your research skills in general. View our individual pages to get the help you need, and never hesitate to contact us if you have additional questions or would like to schedule a one-on-one tutorial with a librarian.

Database Tutorials

There are a variety of ways you can get help with using research databases. We highly recommend using official tutorials when available (listed with links below). We also have several in-house video tutorials created by librarians, available to view on our YouTube page. If you need additional help with a specific research database, please contact us and we will be more than happy to provide you with training.

• Artstor
• Credo Reference
• CultureGrams
• EBSCOhost
• Health Reference Center
• Lexis-Nexis (Flash required)
• ProQuest
• ScienceDirect (Flash Required)

Web Evaluations

Do you know who made that website and why? The LWTech librarians are committed to bringing you the tools and support students and faculty need to understand how to properly evaluate web resources in the 21st century. Please check out our web evaluation matrix sheet below.

• Web evaluation matrix
• Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers - practical techniques to guide web evaluation

Lynda.com Instructional Videos

Lynda.com is an amazing resource providing video instruction on countless tech-related topics. LWTech students and faculty have access to Lynda.com by association with the college. Follow the directions below to create your Lynda.com account.

1. Visit lynda.com/email-signup.
2. You will arrive at a screen prompting you to type in your email. Type in your lwtech email address and Submit. (ex:doe@lwtech.edu)
3. After you Submit, you will see a Welcome prompting to go to your LWTech email box.
4. Go to your LWTech email and find the “Create your lynda.com profile” email. In that email, click on the “Follow this link”.
5. The “Follow this link” will take you to the following screen, where you will click “No, I’ve never had an account.”
6. Type in your first name, last name and create your own password. As the box states, it must contain at least six characters and a number. Click Create My Profile.
7. You are one click away from browsing the lynda resources! Click “start exploring the library”. You can now browse the lynda.com resources by selecting from the dropdown menus to search by Subject, Software, Author. Or, type in the Search box a topic you’d like instructional videos on.
8. Just remember to logout upon completion of your session.

Note: On your next login to lynda.com, you will be prompted to select from the “Program of Study” box. Students: Select your program from the list, or select “Other Program” if not listed. Staff/Faculty: Select LWTech Employee

Need Additional Help with Lynda.com? Contact the IT Help Desk.

Openly-Licensed Content

The following online resources are great places to find openly-licensed, multimedia content to use in a project, presentation, report, or other creative document. Please note that limitations for use of the content vary depending on the site.

• The Noun Project provides "nearly a million curated icons, created by a global community." Integration with Microsoft Office and multiple Adobe products exists as of 2017. Note: icons may be used with CC licenses if you provide the correct attribution; in many cases, you may pay to use the icons without attribution.
• Flickr is a hub for proprietary and open photos and other images. It is "home to 13 billion photos and 2 million groups." Note that a special search filter exists for accessing openly-licensed content.
• CC Search provides a central access point for numerous collections of open media. As described on the Creative Commons website, this search tool "is not a search engine, but rather offers convenient access to search services provided by other independent organizations. CC has no control over the results that are returned. Do not assume that the results displayed in this search portal are under a CC license. You should always verify that the work is actually under a CC license by following the link. Since there is no registration to use a CC license, CC has no way to determine what has and hasn't been placed under the terms of a CC license. If you are in doubt you should contact the copyright holder directly, or try to contact the site where you found the content." The following resources are available through CC Search as of 2017: Europeana, Flickr, Google, Google Images, Jamendo, Open Clip Art Library, SpinXpress, Wikimedia Commons, YouTube, Pixabay, ccMixter, and SoundCloud.
• Wikimedia Commons: provides "a collection of 40,896,269 freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute." These files are divided into three main categories: Images, Sounds, and Videos.
• Internet Archive: a robust an incredibly-expansive hub, providing "millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more." Note: the Archive also includes the "Wayback Machine" for viewing historical snapshots of millions of websites.
• Free Music Archive: offers a wide spectrum of recorded music discoverable via genre and curator, and is described as "an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads directed by WFMU, the most renowned freeform radio station in America. Radio has always offered the public free access to new music. The Free Music Archive is a continuation of that purpose, designed for the age of the internet. It was launched in 2009."
• CCMixter is a unique platform for openly-licensed audio content that bridges musicians, singers, and remixers.