Research Ate My Brain: The Panic-Proof Guide to Surviving Homework

Lisa Arsenault is a high-school English teacher who is involved in
several ministry campaigns to increase literacy.

The most effective way to find the best information for school research
projects and how to most efficiently use library resources (books,
magazines, newspaper archives, videos, databases, etc.) is the thrust of
this book.

It opens with the basics for beginners: how to distinguish between
fiction, non-fiction, and reference books; how to find audiovisual
resources; the difference between primary and secondary sources; and how
to distinguish good information from bad. It then goes on to describe
print indexes, e-books, multilingual collections, and the differences
between various kinds of libraries.

After “hard copy” has been dealt with, searching in cyberspace is
the next source for information: identifying search terms and search
features; trying advanced searches; and refining search results. Tips on
finding expert-approved websites and accessing the “deep web” are
given, as are a number of good subject-based sites and portals. Valuable
advice—such as “tapping into sound and video can increase the
quality of the product”—is offered. This is a handy little manual.

The “street smarts for cyberspace” section has important strategies
for evaluating information on the web and for staying safe from online
predators. How to avoid plagiarism, how to use quotation marks
correctly, and how to cite both electronic and non-electronic sources
makes this useful as a refresher.

Research Ate My Brain is a fine research tool, with one cavil: the text
is larded with comic-strip vignettes that presumably are intended to
clarify the text but that I found distracting and unnecessary.
Nevertheless, the book is recommended.