Perspectives on Inquiry-MTU Library Resources

The Work of the First Amendment: Instructor, Susanna Peters

Librarian: Joan Goodbody: email; goodbody@mtu.edu: phone; 487-2698

MTU Library Catalog:

Use the catalog to find items that the library owns: Searchable by author, title, subject or keywords. Also after using an index to find a paper/article that you want, youll need to use this catalog to determine whether we have the journal that the article appeared in. Articles from journals we do not have or books we do not have can be ordered through Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Many of the databases now have a direct ILL link.

 

Paper Reference Materials:

CQ researcher (issues):

H35 .E2. REF: This is a multi volume (by year) publication that is put out to help the members of congress and their staff understand public issues. There are some on the Parks, Saving the Parks, National Forests, and Museums. Index is in the front of the newest notebook. The Index is also available at: http://library.cqpress.com/researcher_index.pdf

 

Black's Law Dictionary (legal definitions past and present)

KF156 .B53 1999 Reference

This is the definitive source for legal definitions. The 1999 edition is the newest. The library also owns the 1933 and 1979 editions if someone is interested in looking at any changes in definitions.

Databases:

LexisNexis:

Academicprovides full-text documents from over 5,600 news, business, legal, medical, and reference publications with a variety of flexible search options. 

Congressional provides a comprehensive online resource from Congressional hearings, public issues, legislation, history, and legal research.

FirstSearch: This database provides access to over 60 databases. 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.

Infotrac: 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!;

InfoTrac OneFile, A one-stop source for news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics. Millions of full-text articles, many with images. Updated daily;

LegalTrac,Use this database to find articles in all major law reviews, law journals, specialty law and bar association journals and legal newspapers.

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.

 

Websites:

Firstgov.gov: www.firstgov.gov This is the official government site that searches over 87 million sites. Can search for just federal, federal and a specific state, federal and all states, all states, or a specific state. Advanced search gives the most flexability.

Supreme court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/ This is the official site of the US Supreme court. Has decisions, court cases, and other links that are about decisions.

U. S. Court of appeals. Each court of appeals has its own page,

 

United Nations: www.UN.org Items on international issues of justice, law, and conflict can be found on this site.

 

Department of Justice: http://www.usdoj.gov/ This is the homepage of the US department of Justice. They have many electronic publications that are authoritative on many ranging justice issues.

 

Legal sites

http://www.law.cornell.edu/ - Legal information through a law school website. Designed especially for law students.

http://www.hg.org/ - Hieros Gamos, legal information including news, resources, etc., in over 50 languages.

http://www.oyez.org/oyez/frontpage - The OYEZ Project provides access to more than 2000 hours of Supreme Court audio. All audio in the Court recorded since 1995 is included in the project. Before 1995, the audio collection is selective.

 

First Amendment Sites:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/first_amendment.html: This is the Legal Information Institute at Cornell University. This site has links to numerous federal, state, international, and private sources on the first amendment.

http://www.freedomforum.org/about/: The Freedom Forum is a nonpartisan foundation dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people. The foundation focuses on three main priorities: the Newseum, First Amendment freedoms and newsroom diversity.

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/: This site provides coverage of key First Amendment issues and topics, a unique First Amendment Library and guest analyses by respected legal specialists. The site is operatied by The First Amendment Center, at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and Arlington, Virginia.

Suggested by instructor:

http://w3.trib.com/FACT/: First Amendment Cyber-Tribune http://www.ifas.org/: Institute for First Amendment Studies
http://www.fair.org: Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting http://www.aclu.org: ACLU http://www.ifea.net: Internet Free Expression Alliance http://au.org/: Americans United for Seperation of Church and State
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org : First Amendment Center http://www.splc.org/default.asp: Student Press Law Center http://www.freedomforum.org: Freedom Forum
http://www.rcfp.org: Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
http://www.ffeusa.org: Feminsts for Free Expression
http://www.cspc.org/irf: Individual Rights Foundation http://www.ala.org: The American Library Association:   http://www.abffe.org: American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression http://www.cdt.org: Center for Democracy and Technology
http://www.cdt.org/legislation: For federal legislation affecting the internet (speech, email, privacy, encryption etc) see. http://www.becketfund.org: The Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty

WRITING WEB SITES (there are many more, so choose your favorite if you have one you like to use)

University of Victoria: http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/Pages/EssaysToc.html
Purdue University: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/
Sarah Hamid: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/hypertext/ResearchW/
Capital Community College: http://webster.commnet.edu/mla/index.shtml

The following sites describe and show the student how to use APA citations. Print is available at the MTU Library Reference Desk, Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. BF 76.7.P83 2001 REF DESK

APAs Electronic Reference Formats: http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html

Online!: Using APA Style to Cite and Document Sources: http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite6.html

 

Using American Psychological Association (APA) Format

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_apa.html

 

APA (American Psychological Association) Citation Style Guide: http://www.isr.bucknell.edu/research/apa.pdf

 

 

EXTRA Information: Annotations vs. Abstracts:

Abstracts are the purely descriptive summaries often found at the beginning of scholarly journal articles or in periodical indexes. Annotations are descriptive and critical; they expose the author's point of view, clarity and appropriateness of expression, and authority.

Annotated bibliography:

An annotated bibliography is a descriptive and evaluative list of citations for books, articles, or other documents. Each citation is followed by a brief paragraph - the annotation - alerting the reader to the accuracy, quality, and relevance of that source.

Composing an annotated bibliography helps a writer to gather one's thoughts on how to use the information contained in the cited sources, and helps the reader to decide whether to pursue the full context of the information you provide.

Annotations vs. Abstracts:

Abstracts are the purely descriptive summaries often found at the beginning of scholarly journal articles or in periodical indexes. Annotations are descriptive and critical; they expose the author's point of view, clarity and appropriateness of expression, and authority.

Examples: This example uses the APA Citation Style.

Goldschneider, F.K., Waite, L.J., & Witsberger, C. (1986). Nonfamily living and the erosion of traditional family orientations among young adults. American Sociological Review, 51(4), 541-554.

The authors, researchers at the Rand Corporation and Brown University, use data from the national Longitudinal Surveys of Young Women and Young Men to test their hypothesis that nonfamily living by young adults alters their attitudes, values, plans, and expectations, moving them away from their belief in traditional sex roles. They find their hypothesis strongly supported in young females, while the effects were fewer in studies of young males. Increasing the time away from parents before marrying increased individualism, self-sufficiency, and changes in attitudes about families. In contrast, an earlier study by Williams, cited below, shows no significant gender differences in sex role attitudes as a result of nonfamily living.

[This example is from the Cornell Library site]

The Diary of Edward Magawly Banon, Klondike British Yukon. Compiled by Mrs. Edward M. Banon, Newport RI: Privately printed by Ward Printing Company, 1948. 20pp.

May-June 1897. Full, interesting entries of the Klondike gold rush by a young Irishman who became an explorer of the Yukon and Alaska and a well-known mining engineer; activities at Dyea, the rigors of hauling supplies over Chilkoot Pass in the Elias Range; good details of the logistics and hazards of the undertaking.

[This example from American Diaries, Vol. 2]