FLIP It! (TM) was developed by librarian and educator Alice H. Yucht as a set of reflective questions to guide learners throughout the information research process. It serves as a clear and concise framework upon which to structure the basic student research task.This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services to the Texas State Library and Archives Commission under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act.

The four modules in this collection will lead you through this four-step process and introduce you to free online tools and services that can aid and enhance your research pursuits. These Web 2.0 advances give today's students new ways to formulate, organize, collaborate, attribute, preserve, and share their research.

As you move ahead in the FLIP It! process in your research, your next steps fall under "L" for LINK and LOCATE. You and your group members are busy choosing and locating the types of sources you need - whether these are print or electronic. You have been searching library catalogs and online journal databases and in the process, you should have been finding appropriate keywords and subject headings for your topic that you can use to search more effectively for material to fit your topic. By reading the Help or Search Tips areas within library catalogs and databases, you are learning to formulate effective searches using various search methodologies. You are discovering the differences and relative strengths and weaknesses of keyword vs. subject heading searching.

Web 2.0 means that today's online environment includes tools designed to provide you with a wide variety of reputable, high- quality research resources. You have probably done some research by now using print resources - books, magazines, and newspapers. You may have researched some topic online using popular search engines such as Google or Yahoo. You might have been frustrated by the large amounts of information these searches gave you. In library orientations and instruction classes, you might have learned that library subscription resources such as databases of journal, magazine, and newspaper articles can save you time and trouble when you are searching for research sources to support your ideas and arguments. There are several online resources available to you that will help you understand what sources would be best for your research project and give you techniques for finding them.

Click on the image below here to view a video demonstrating some of the resources that can help you LINK/LOCATE.

As you are introduced to these online sites, services, and tools, there are some important things to keep in mind. There may be alternatives to each that you prefer over the tools presented here. If you use others and find them effective, by all means keep using them! Also, an effort was made to include only free services, but pricing models can change. Features can evolve and change. None of these tools should be relied on without your involvement, understanding, and input. Be critical of these tools and rely on your own knowledge of your assignments as well as that of your fellow students and instructors. There are times when your research can benefit from face-to-face resources rather than online/virtual options. Web 2.0 is about choice and we hope to present you with some here that can enhance, not replace, methods and tools that you already use or that your instructor requires.

Now, it is time to try some of these tools yourself! Click on the suggested activity link for login information and suggestions of tasks to try.

Now, you are ready to move on to the next module - Part III - INPUT/INVESTIGATE/IMPLEMENT.