Librarian
Room 1024
711 Capstone Dr
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487
Investigating a Career Path
How do we know if a career is right for us? What are the major issues affecting a job or career I want to work in? How is a particular company or the wider industry as a whole handling difficult challenges?
These are all questions you want to consider when exploring a career path! By using search strategies and library resources like databases, you can become more knowledgeable about issues that are impacting your field of interest.
- Career Path HandoutWe will be using this worksheet to guide your research experience in class today.
Conducting Background Research
- Occupational Outlook HandbookThe Occupational Outlook Handbook is the federal government's premier source of career guidance featuring hundreds of occupations—such as accountants, human resource specialists, and financial analysts. Revised every 2 years, the latest version contains employment projections for the 2020-30 decade.
Using Reference Sources
Reference sources, particularly encyclopedias, can be helpful when you're trying to find out general information about a potential topic. Although you shouldn't primarily rely on encyclopedias or cite them as a scholarly source, they are a great starting point for your research.
- WikipediaWikipedia is a free content, multilingual online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers through a model of open collaboration, using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia can be a good place to start gathering background information on a topic, but like other encyclopedias, it should not be cited directly as a secondary source.
- Britannica Academic Online This link opens in a new window
Britannica Academic contains both the Encyclopedia Britannica and the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, as well as magazine and journal articles written by Pulitzer Prize winners and leading experts, a world atlas, country data, and timelines. This resource is freely available to all residents of the State of Alabama. Please contact the AVL helpdesk for any assistance.
Industry Trends
- IBISWorld This link opens in a new window
Analyses for 700+ US industries. Includes global & specialized industry reports, risk rating reports and business environment profiles.
Connecting Careers to Social Issues
- Opposing Viewpoints (Gale In Context) This link opens in a new window
Access to viewpoint articles, topic overviews, statistics, primary documents and websites on social issues.