Physical Education & Sport Studies

When you go to the library webpage - sunybroome.info - you will see a "Quick Search" box.  This looks very much like Google, and works the same way!

The tabs across the top of the search box give you options to limit your search from the beginning by material type.

• "Everything" is exactly what it says - you will search across all the materials in the catalog.
• "Articles" will return just articles from magazines, newspapers, and journals. 
• "Books and Media" searches books INCLUDING EBOOKS, as well as videos.
• "Reserves" are course reserves.  (This collection is primarily textbooks located at the library circulation desk, and probably NOT a limiter you will be using for this assignment.)
• "Journals" searches journal TITLES, not the contents of the journal.  For example, if you want to see if we have access to Runner's World magazine, you would enter the journal title here.  If you want to find an article about marathon running, you should use the "Article" search.
• The "Other Libraries" tab will expand your search across SUNY.  While we can get materials from other libraries, it will not be immediate, so if you need to use this option, plan ahead!  The option to expand your search can also be found within your search results, so this librarian recommends seeing what is locally available first.

Once you have entered a search, your results are displayed within our library platform.  Your search terms are in a box at the top of the page that LOOKS very similar to the search box on the library homepage - and it IS a similar tool.  HOWEVER, the drop-down options allow you to make slightly different selections, and the "Advanced Search" text is clickable and will open a new search screen with more options.

This assignment will require you to put together information from multiple sources - there is not one book, article or website that will provide everything you need.  Below you will find some ideas that the librarian tested to locate relevant material.

1. What sport are you focusing on?  Starting with a broad and basic search like "football workout" (minus the quotation marks) may get you surprisingly close to useful material.
2. Searching for terms like plyometrics, progressive overload, or other more specific and scientific language may land you in the realm of more research-based studies.  This isn't necessarily bad, and these articles might be worth skimming to see if there is material you can include in your explanation of how you built  your training program. However, you probably won't find as much about technique and examples in these articles.
3. Using the limits on the left-hand side of the screen can make a large list more manageable and relevant.
   • Limiting to the resource type of "magazine article" can remove the more scientific/specific research articles - while these ARE valuable information, they aren't what you need for this kind of assignment!  So filter them out.
   • Click the little "down" arrow next to "Subjects," and you will see a list of subjects.  Remember these are assigned by the journal publishers and database builders, so there may be some overlap in terminology.  The librarian used the "Methods" subject limiter after searching for "football workout," and got a list of 27 interesting articles.  Within the first 10 - which is the first page - were titles like "Get some springs: keep your flag out of reach this weekend with a football-specific speed and agility workout." 
     
     You will need to scan articles like these for mention of the topics and conditioning principles that you need to include in your assignment.