COMP 194: Introduction to Computer Science through Computer Vision
Research & Instruction Librarian
Using this Guide
This guide is to help you find sources and get support for writing your extended essay for COMP 194: Introduction to Computer Science through Computer Vision (Fall 2025, FYC).
Developing your search strategy
Research for this project can cover an extensive range of topics and intersect with numerous other fields. When you start to explore sources, it can be helpful to consider these search elements:
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Keywords: write down a few key words, phrases, names, and dates that might relate to your topic. You should also consider different ways of talking about things, like "AI" or "Artificial Intelligence."
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Source Types: think about what types of sources you're looking for. Primary research articles? Reviews? Popular sources? Government reports?
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Databases: identify which databases include the kind of sources you're looking for. Often you have to think more broadly than your specific report, trial study, or other reference work in order to find relevant sources—where might you find related works?
Quick Links
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Library Session SlidesGoogle Slides for both library sessions of COMP 194: Computer Vision (FA2025 FYC).
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Extended Essay Writing GuideA Google Doc guide to writing your extended essay.
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Extended Essay RubricA Google Doc writing rubric for understanding how your extended essay will be graded.
Research Article Databases
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JSTOR
Large collection of scholarly journals and books from all disciplines, with stronger coverage for the humanities and social sciences. Current issues from journals (the most recent 3-5 years) are generally not available in JSTOR.
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Academic Search PremierInterdisciplinary resource with popular, scholarly, and peer-reviewed articles and citations. Includes speeches, newspapers, and polls.
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Google Scholar
Search across a wide range of scholarly literature from around the world. This custom link for Google Scholar includes the Macalester Library code and will display a "MACLINKS FULL TEXT" link next to resources available from Macalester Library. You will also see MACLINKS if you are logged in to the on-campus network. If you are off campus and don't use the above custom link, you can configure Google Scholar to display MACLINKS by customizing your library links settings.
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ScienceDirectDatabase of research covering 4 main areas: Physical Sciences and Engineering, Life Sciences, Health Sciences, and Social Sciences and Humanities. Article abstracts are freely available, but access to full text requires a subscription or pay-per-view purchase.
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Scopus
An abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature with tools to track, analyze, and visualize research.
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ACM Digital LibraryArticles, reviews, etc, published in the Association for Computing Machinery's (ACM) periodicals and proceedings. Information on ACM periodicals and works published by affiliated organizations, as well as Tables of Contents for ACM Newsletters published since 1985, available.
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Communication and Mass Media CompleteAccess to research in areas related to cultural studies, communication and mass media studies, rhetoric, speech, and digital, electronic and new media.
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Nexis Uni
Credible source for news, legal, and business sources that is updated daily. Includes access to print and online journals, television and radio broadcasts, newswires and blogs, as well as local, regional, national, and international newspapers, legal sources for federal and state cases and statutes, business information on U.S. and international companies and executives. For Business Nexis Uni covers company and industry news, detailed company financial data, and includes major accounting journals. In Law, the database provides texts of federal and state court decisions, federal and state agency regulations, and law journal articles.
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Access World News: Research Collection
International, national, regional, state, and local newspaper articles and video clips. Includes over a thousand international news sources from scores of countries on six continents, translated into English when written in other languages.
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Project MUSEAccess to journals in the humanities and social sciences, covering literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, and economics.
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Philosopher's IndexProvides indexing and abstracts from books and journals of philosophy and related fields. Topics include ethics, aesthetics, social philosophy, political philosophy, epistemology, metaphysic logic, and philosophy of law, religion, science, history, education, and language.
Schedule a Meeting with a Librarian
Have questions about the research process? Don't struggle, reach out to a librarian for help! Students interested in research support can book a meeting with a librarian to:
- Narrow down research topic ideas
- Find background information
- Save time getting started with your research
- Use the library’s collections as well as worldwide and web resources
- Choose databases for discipline-focused research
- Learn more efficient searching method
To make an appointment, reach out to a subject librarian specializing in your topic.