Criminal Justice Research Guide

First, what is a book? 

A long-form, written work. That's it! For our goal in academic research, we should note that books have several variables, which make them more or less useful, depending on our topic. Books may be popular or scholarly, self-published or formally published, general synthesis or a deep dive into a single topic.

They are good at...

• Broad overviews -- there is time to give a history and review of a topic, and many academic books are written with those overviews in the first chapter or at the beginning of each chapter. Some book formats (encyclopedias, handbooks) are specifically written to give you an excellent overview and starting point.
• Historical information -- particularly for information that doesn't change much over time.
• Reliability, depending on the publishing process -- self-published books have an unclear editing and fact-checking process, but books published through formal organizations will have some editing procedures, sometimes quite extensive.

     To browse for book titles in the library:

         ✦ type in a general search term, either Keyword or Subject

         ✦ use the filters at left of the landing page 
              --> under the Held by Library menu click UMass Lowell Libraries
              --> under Format click e-book, (or book)

         ✦ once you find one good book, read the abstract, title, and subjects for even better search terms;