Perspectives on Inquiry MTU Library Resources

Leadership in Daunting Times UN1001, secs. 13, 30 P. Heslin

Librarian: Curt Allred callred@mtu.edu 487-3118

 

Resources in the Reference Collection - Second Floor

The reference collection is a good place to begin exploring an unfamiliar subject. The resources found here can give you definitions of terms and background information on your subject, along with help identifying specific issues within your broad subject area to explore in more detail.

 

Dictionary of American Biography CT101.D5 REF

Dictionary of American Military Biography U52.D53 REF

The McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of world biography CT103.M27 REF

Current Biography CT100 .C9 REF

The International Who's Who CT 101 .I6 REF

Facts on File D 410 .F3 REF

Facts on File Yearbook D 410 .F3 REF

 

Government Documents Collections - Multiple Locations

Government Documents are a valuable resource, especially in the area of U.S. Military studies and presidential research. Most government documents in the MTU Library are cataloged in the Online Catalog. There is a Core Collection of documents located on the first floor of the Library. See the Government Documents section of the MTU Library page (www.lib.mtu.edu) for information on locating and accessing additional government documents.

 

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

MTU Online Catalog contains records of materials owned by the MTU Library. To use the Librarys Catalog, go to the home page and click the Catalog button.

Two search interfaces, Basic and Keyword, allow the user to search for items by author, title, subject, call number, ISBN/ISSN, or keyword(s).

Most books are located in the Main Collection on Third Floor.

Some possible Library of Congress Subject Headings to use in a Basic Subject search:

 

Leadership

Elite (Social sciences)

 

E-Resources access to electronic indexes/abstracts, online books, e-journals and selected websites.

From the E-Resource menu select listings by alphabet, topic or collection (e.g. FirstSearch or InfoTrac.) E-Resources are also searchable by name or 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 research in this course include:

 

E-Resources

Access to electronic indexes/abstracts, online books, e-journals and selected websites.

To find citations to recent articles from journals, conference proceedings, and other publications, go to the Librarys web page at http://www.lib.mtu.edu/ and select Electronic Resources.

E-Resources are searchable by name or keyword using the box at the top of the screen, or by subject area or collection using the pull-down menus lower down on the screen. Here are some of the databases that may be useful for this course.

InfoTrac

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

 

FirstSearch

FirstSearch is a family of many databases. Suggested FirstSearch indexes include:

WorldCat International catalog of books, periodicals, papers, websites.

ArticleFirst Indexes over 12,000 journals. The drawback is that almost no articles are full-text.

Alternative Press Index Interdisciplinary and international in scope.

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

Wilson Select Plus Fewer journals than ArticleFirst, but almost all articles are full text. Also, each entry has subject headings which improves searching strategies.

 

JSTOR A database specializing in the Humanities. Includes journals in History and Social Studies.

 

Inter-Library Loan (ILL) - access to items from other libraries.

Request items using an ILL form available at the Circulation desk or online (From the MTU Librarys main page, select Interlibrary Loans.) Many index databases also allow ILL requests through their sites.

Note: The ILL process can take time (longer than 10 days in some cases.) Plan your research time accordingly.

 

Resources on the Web

Information on evaluating information sources (from Cornell University Libraries):

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

JRVP Library Michigan Technological University Sources for Citation Style Manuals:

http://www.lib.mtu.edu/reference/tutorials/citationstyle.pdf

 

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 Library's web page.