Colorado Heights University

The library is also one of the technological hubs of the University. The Learning Resources Center has 15 computer data ports with direct access to the Internet. There are two advanced technology classrooms with state-of-the art multimedia presentation capabilities.

________________________________________________________________

Critical Thinking 101
Critical thinking involves skilled, active, objective, unbiased interpretation and evaluation of observations, communications, information, news, culture, translations, research, data, and argumentation.

Finding Resources

Students and researchers should be familiar with a wide variety of education databases; such as ERIC, Academic Search Premier, Hoover's, LexisNexis, PubMed, Reference for Business, and so forth, as well as numerous websites such as Ancient World History, and library systems. Large public and academic libraries, offer a variety of resources that, when combined, can provide comprehensive research strategies. Here are some links to several resources and tutorials that can optimize your search skills, develop your tool set, and expand your overall approach to research:

Librarian Prepared Resources Available at the CHU Library

Evaluating Research Sources
Here are some top criteria for evaluating resources:

Citation
Students should always provide a bibliography (reference list, or resources page) and cite any sources of information used in their work. A bibliography is a systematic list of books and other works such as journal articles. Bibliographies range from "works cited" lists at the end of books and articles to complete, independent publications. Bibliographical works are almost always considered to be tertiary sources. Researchers should always use both some print and some electronic sources in every project.

Citation Machines: Citationmachine.net | Bibme.org/
Citing Net Sources Online Tutorial: http://liblearn.osu.edu/tutor/les7/guide.html

Plagiarism and the Internet
Plagiarism is an issue for students and researchers that can not only disinvalidate their work, but also cause them to fail their academic programs. Several websites discuss the scope of this problem such as:

What is Copyright Infringement?
The law of copyright indicates that copyright protection applies to works of authorship including but not limited to literary works, musical works (including any accompanying works), dramatic works (including any accompanying music), motion pictures and other audiovisual works and sound recordings. The owner of copyright has exclusive rights to, among other things, reproduce the copyrighted work and distribute copies of the copyrighted work to the public by sale or other transfer or ownership, or by rental, lease or lending.

What is Fair Use?
It is not an infringement of copyright if works used fall under the "fair use" exception of copyright law. Fair use extends to the reproduction of copyrighted material for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship or research. Factors used in determining if copyrighted material falls under the fair use exception includes, but are not limited to, whether the material is used for educational rather than commercial gain, the nature of the copyrighted work, how much of the entire work is used and the potential value of the copyrighted work.

Scholarly News Sources

Local News Sources

Librarian Recommended Research Links

Local Public Libraries

Accessing Downloadables: e-Media and e-Books
CHU Library actively shares local resources and encourages local community borrowing and lending by researchers, faculty, and students as well. There are major public libraries just 2 miles from campus, for example the Hadley Branch of the Denver Public Library (DPL) is within walking distance and on local bus routes. If you have a local public library card, you already have access to downloadable media, such as hundreds of textbooks and other great business resources! These include educational books, videos, documentaries, and news items which are available freely 24/7 for public library card holders with a desktop, laptop, Smartphone, iPod/iPad, PDA, or other device. The OverDrive Media console software (freely downloadable from public libraries) allows the check out of e-books. The DMCA (the Digital Millennium Copyright Act allows these items to be downloaded for a time period (in terms of general circulation for library patrons, see borrower restrictions at each major institution for details) and then they disappear or expire from the storage device or CPU memory. It is easy to use for those already familiar with Web 2.0 technologies and social networking sites. NetLibrary is a very popular tool for educational material and textbooks. It is freely available to most public library card holders.

Take Stock! (Business, News, Ecomony, Trade, Investing, and Market Research Links)

This Virtual Library is always open! AskColorado is a free online information service provided by Colorado libraries. Anyone can use the website, www.askcolorado.org, to ask questions anytime day or night. This is one library that's always open! Real librarians in real time answer your questions, help you find information, or point you in the right direction to get what you need.