UN1001: Perspectives on
Instructor: M. Anderson mieander@mtu.edu andersm@pasty.com
Librarian: Amanda Binoniemi; abinonie@mtu.edu, 487-1814
The Reference Collection is a good place to collect background information on an issue or to start your research. The collection is arranged by subject matter, using the Library of Congress classification system (call numbers.) Try the following:
New Encyclopdia Britannica AE5 E363 2002 REF
Historical dictionary of the French Revolution DC 147 .H36 2004 REF
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers LB 2369 .G53 2003 Ref Desk
Current Biography (1940- ) CT 100 .C9 REF
Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism PN771 .G27 REF
Dictionary of Literary Biography Series PQ area in REF
Finding Older Periodical & Newspaper Articles
The Print Indexes are also on the second floor arranged by Library of Congress classification. Use the print indexes to find articles dated earlier than those found through the online databases. Try:
Readers Guide to Periodical Literature (1900-1991) AI 3 .I6 INDEXES
Use the Library of Congress Classification Subject Headings to browse the collection:
French Literature;
American Literature
Resources on the Librarys Web Page - www.lib.mtu.edu
MTU Online Catalog contains records of materials owned by the MTU Library.
Two search interfaces, Basic and Keyword allow the user to search for items by author, title, subject, call number, ISBN/ISSN, or keyword(s.) Catalog records include bibliographic and location information for items retrieved in your search. Use the Location, Status, Call Number information to find an item in the Library Collections.
Databases: E-Resources :
Access to electronic indexes/abstracts, online books, e-journals and selected websites. From E-Resources & E-Alerts select listings by alphabet, topic or provider (e.g. FirstSearch or Thomson Gale.) E-Resources are also searchable by name or very general keyword(s.) Use the index databases to locate journal articles, newspaper articles, or reviews on your topic. Some indexes or collections of indexes especially useful for this course include but are not limited to:
FirstSearch:
This database provides access to over 50 indexes. They include:
Worldcat, a comprehensive database for all types of material cataloged by OCLC member libraries. This does NOT index periodicals at the article level;
Wilson Select Plus, A full text database comprised of articles represented by selected citations from Readers Guide Abstracts, Social Sciences Abstracts, Humanities Abstracts, General Science Abstracts, Education Abstracts, and Wilson Business Abstracts. May have resources for criticism.
AHSearch (Arts & Humanities): Indexing for more than 1,150 of the worlds leading arts and humanities journals. Also includes relevant items from over 7,000 of the worlds leading science and social sciences journals.
Essay and General Literature Index: Collected works in humanities & social sciences
Humanities Abstracts: diverse subject areas of the humanities
Periodicals Abstracts: Periodical abstracts from general and academic journals
Thomson Gale:
A comprehensive multi-index database including:
Expanded Academic ASAP :Gives access to arts and the humanities to social sciences, science and technology scholarly journals, news magazines, and newspapers - many with full text and images! May be of use to find criticism;
General Reference Center Gold: A general interest database that integrates a variety of sources in one easy-to-use interface. Use General Reference Center Gold to find articles from newspapers, reference books, and periodicals, many with full-text and images. May have some good sources for criticism.
LexisNexis: Academic provides full-text documents from over 5,600 news, business, legal, medical, and reference publications with a variety of flexible search options.
*MLA Bibliography, Indexes, serials, books, dissertation, etc., published worldwide in literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore. [Note: No longer under FirstSearch databases now CSA Illumina]
JSTOR:
Database of scanned images of back issues of over 100 scholarly journals in a variety of academic disciplines. Titles currently available are from the fields of: African-American Studies, Anthropology, Asian Studies, Ecology, Economics, Education, Finance, History, Literature, Mathematics, Philosophy, Political Science, Population Studies, Sociology and Statistics. The Language and Literature section is a good source for this class.
Database Keyword Search Tips: http://www.bio.mtu.edu/courses/bl447/persp/skd/73fl/sect57.htmhttp://www.bio.mtu.edu/courses/bl447/persp/skd/73fl/sect57.htm
E-books:
There are a variety of databases with full-text books available. They include:
netLibrary:Through the librarys main page. Digital full-text versions of books such as reference works, scholarly monographs, literature and fiction.
Websites:
Identifying Research Articles & Refereed Journals: http://gateway.library.uiuc.edu/lsx/tutorial/section3.html
Evaluation of websites: http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/webeval.html - Cornell University Libraries Research Skills -One of the best sites on evaluating information found on the Internet.
USA.gov: www.usasearch.gov. This is the official government portal that searches over 87 million sites. Advanced search gives the most flexibility. All sites linked are evaluated for accuracy and authority.
Internet Public Library: Subject Collections http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/ Good starting place for a research-oriented approach to a variety of subject areas. IPL Emphasis is on education rather than entertainment.
Interlibrary Loan (
Requests are made through ILLiad, the personalized online ILL account system. After your initial registration is complete, use ILLiad to request books and articles. ILLiad also allows you to track the status of your requests and cancel requests.
ILL requests may also be made directly through some database providers such as FirstSearch
and Thomson Gale. Follow
the HuskyFetch menu options and select "Get Item from
another Library via ILLiad." Please be
sure to check the JRVP Library holdings before submitting a request directly
from a database.
Note: The ILL process can take time (longer than 10 days in some cases.) Plan your research time accordingly.
For Assistance
For individual assistance or instruction from a librarian, contact the Reference Desk (487-2507), e-mail reflib@mtu.edu, or use the Ask a Librarian button on the Librarys web page