Perspectives on Inquiry MTU Library Resources

Origins: Geological Dating Methods UN1001, Section R05 T. Lockhart

Librarian: David Bezotte (dbezotte@mtu.edu, Phone 487-3041, Library-Room 203)

 

Guide to the Library -http://www.lib.mtu.edu/about/MTU_Library_Guide.pdf

Answers your questions about the basics of using the MTU Library.

 

For Assistance

For individual assistance or instruction from a librarian, visit or phone the Reference/Information Desk (487-2507), e-mail reflib@mtu.edu, or use the Ask a Librarian button on the Librarys web page.

 

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) access to items from other libraries.

Request items using an ILL form available at the Circulation desk, or online by selecting Interlibrary Loanon the Librarys web page. Some index databases also allow ILL requests through their sites.

 

Locating Books & Periodicals

Books are located on the Third Floor in the Main Collection, shelved by Library of Congress call number.

Periodicals are shelved by Library of Congress call number in these locations:

CURRENT JOURNALS (1^st Floor): Recent issues kept here until bound or reissued in microfilm/fiche.

SERIALS COLLECTION (Garden Level): Bound periodicals.

MICROFORMS AREA (2nd Floor ): Microfilm & Microfiche cabinets located on west side of 2nd floor.

E-Journals: The Library subscribes to an increasing number of journals which provide electronic versions of their publications online. Access them under E-Resources on the Librarys web page.

 

Reference Collection - 2^nd Floor

The Reference Collection is a good place to collect background information on an issue or start your research. The collection is arranged by subject, using the Library of Congress Classification System (LCCS) call numbers. An outline of the system is available at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/lcco.html.

Cambridge Encyclopedia of Archaeology - CC 165 .C3 1980b REF

Encyclopedia of Evolution - GN 281 .M53 1990 REF

Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology - GN 307 .E52 1996 REF

McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology - Q 121 .M3 2002 REF

Encyclopedia of Geology - QE 5 .E516 2005 REF

Earth Sciences - QE 28 .E12 2001 REF

Encyclopedia of Geochemistry - QE 515 .E48 1999 REF

 

Magazines for Libraries - Z 6941 .K2 REF DESK (Provides reviews and evaluations of over 6,850 periodicals.)

 

Resources on the Web

FirstGov: www.firstgov.gov - Portal to federal and state government information. All sites linked by FirstGov are evaluated for accuracy and authority.

 

Evaluating Information Sources - Consult these sites provided by other institutions:

Identifying Research Articles: http://gateway.library.uiuc.edu/lsx/tutorial/section3.html

Identifying Refereed Journals: http://gateway.library.uiuc.edu/lsx/tutorial/section3_1.html

Identifying Scientific Journals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_journal

Evaluating Web Sites: http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/webeval.html

 

Citation style guides: http://library.concordia.ca/help/howto/citations.html- A site on citation styles produced by Concordia University Libraries.

 

Resources on the Librarys Web Page - www.lib.mtu.edu

JRVP 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.

 

 

Periodical & Newspaper Indexes

To find citations to recent articles from journals, conference proceedings, and other publications, go to the Librarys web page and select E-Resources & E-Alerts. The resulting screen offers four search options for finding databases or electronic journals: (1) Keyword search of database titles and/or descriptions, (2) E-Resources A-Z to browse an alphabetical list by title (3) Search by Subject Headings, (4) Search by Provider. Here are some recommended databases:

 

FirstSearch

WilsonSelectPlus Full text articles from over 1400 periodicals covering research in the Social Sciences, Humanities, Business, Education and General Sciences.

Article 1^st - contains citations for items listed on the table of contents pages of over 12,600 journals in all subject areas.

GeoRefS - Covers the worldwide earth science literature back to 1785 with descriptive index terms and abstracts for journal articles, books, maps, and reports.

Humanities Abstracts - Covers English language periodicals in all areas of the humanities, including archaeology.

Social Science Abstracts - Covers periodicals in anthropology, economics, geography, law and criminology, political science, social work, sociology, and international relations.

 

InfoTrac / Thomson Gale

Expanded Academic ASAP Scholarly and popular research on a variety of academic subjects. Includes full text.

 

JSTOR - Back issues of over 100 scholarly journals dated from with 2-5 years of the present, back to their beginnings. Research in political, social, economic sciences cove

 

LexisNexis Academic Wide range of business, legal, medical, and current affairs information. Extensive U.S. newspaper coverage. Updated daily.

 

Quick Reference for Databases

For more databases, see http://www.lib.mtu.edu/reference/tutorials/databasekeyword.aspx

Collection/ Database	Boolean	Proximity/ Phrase	Truncation/ Wildcards	Full Text	Retrieve Results
FirstSearch accesses about 50 databases, mostly periodical indexes with abstracts.	AND, OR, NOT	Wx - same order within x words of one another Nx - either order within x words of one another	* multiple-character # single-character + singular or plural only (s or es) ? any number of characters	Some	E-mail, Disk, Print
InfoTrac / Thomson Gale Includes access to an academic, a general interest, and a health science periodical index.	AND, OR, NOT	Wx - same order within x words of one another Nx - either order within x words of one another	* multiple-character ! single-character ? exactly one character	Some	E-mail, Disk, Print
JSTOR accesses back issues of over 100 scholarly journals from within 2-5 years of the present, back to their beginnings.	AND, OR	NEAR keywords occur in the same sentence (within 10 words) or in the same paragraph (within 25 words)	+ retrieves singular or plural in English only	Yes	Disk, Print
Lexis-Nexis Academic accesses news, business, legal, medical, and reference information	AND, OR	Phrase is system default W/n - either order within x words of one another W/p - either order, same paragraph W/s - either order, same sentence PRE/n First word precedes the second by n words	! multiple-character   * single-character	Yes	E-mail, Disk, Print