Perspectives on Inquiry MTU Library Resources

Perspectives on the U. S. Supreme Court UN1001, Section R44 J. Tuoriniemi

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

 

For Assistance - For individual assistance or instruction from a librarian, visit the Reference & Information desk on 2^nd floor, phone 487-2507, or use e-mail or instant messaging by clicking Ask a Librarian on the Library's website.

 

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.

 

Reference Collection - 2^nd Floor - The Reference Collection contains dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, directories, standards, codes, catalogs, etc.,and is a good place to find 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.

CQ Researcher (1959-present) H35.E2 REF

Reports on timely issues. Provides an overview, history, impact, positions and resources for further study. A comprehensive index is available at http://library.cqpress.com/researcher_index.pdf.

Supreme Court of the United States, 1789-1980: An Index to Opinions Arranged by Justice - KF101.6 .B57 1983 REF
West's Encyclopedia of American Law - KF 154 .W47 1998 REF

Historic U.S. Court Cases: An Encyclopedia - KF352.Z9 H57 2001 REF

Mass Media and the Constitution: An Encyclopedia of Supreme Court Decisions - KF2750.A59 H58 1989 REF

Encyclopedia of the American Constitution - KF 4548 .E53 1986 REF

The U.S. Constitution A-Z KF 4548 .M33 2002 REF

Constitutional Law for a Changing America. Rights, Liberties and Justice - KF4748 .E67 2003 REF

Encyclopedia of Constitutional Amendments, Proposed Amendments, and Amending Issues, 1789-2002 KF 4557 .V555 2003 REF

American Bench: Judges of the Nation - KF8700.A19 A47 1989

Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States - KF8742.A35 O93 2005 REF

Supreme Court in Conference, 1940-1985: Private Discussions Behind Nearly 300 Supreme Court Decisions - KF8742 .S917 2001

Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court - KF8742 .W567 1997 REF

Justices of the United States Supreme Court, 1789-1969: Their Lives and Major Opinions - KF8744 .F75 REF

 

Locating Books & Periodicals

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

Periodicals in 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): Older volumes in print format.

MICROFICHE & MICROFILM AREA (2nd Floor, west): Older volumes on microfiche or microfilm.

Electronic journals are found under E-Journals on the Librarys web page.

 

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

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) To request material not available at the JRVP Library

To request books and articles from other libraries, complete an Interlibrary Loan Request Form, available by selecting Interlibrary Loan on the Library's website or visiting the Circulation desk.

 

JRVP Online Catalog

Contains records of materials owned by the MTU Library, including books, periodicals, videos, CDs, maps, government publications, and microformat materials. Two search interfaces, Basic and Keyword, allow the user to search for items by author, title, subject, call number, ISBN/ISSN, or keyword(s). Use the Location, Status, and Call Number information to find an item in the Library collections. To search for a periodical article, search by Journal Title for the title of the periodical (sometimes called the "Source"), rather than searching by article title or author.

 

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

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

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

 

Government Information on the Web

FirstGov: www.firstgov.gov - Portal to federal and state government information.

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.

 

Citation & Style Guides

Concordia Universitys site: http://library.concordia.ca/help/howto/citations.html

 

Databases (Periodical & Newspaper Indexes)

To find citations to articles from journals, conference proceedings, and other publications, go to the Librarys website and select Databases. The resulting screen offers four options for finding databases:

(1) "Search for Databases" to search database titles and/or descriptions,

(2) "Databases A-Z" to browse an alphabetical list by title,

(3) "Search by Subject Headings" to view databases grouped by subject, and

(4) "Search by Providers" to view databases grouped by publisher/provider.

 

To select the databases that best meet your needs, look at the database descriptions and consider

Topics covered (General news? Engineering? Social sciences? etc.)

Time period covered (1980-present? Most recent year? Last ten years? etc.)

Types of publications indexed (Periodical articles? Newspapers? Books? etc.)

Levels of publications indexed (Popular/news? Academic/research/scholarly? Trade/professional? etc.)

 

For Database Keyword Search Tips such as using truncation and Boolean & proximity operators, go to http://www.lib.mtu.edu/reference/tutorials/databasekeyword.aspx or select Tutorials on the Library's website.

 

Many databases include some articles in full text. If you're viewing an article citation from a database and see the Husky Fetch symbol , click on it for options for locating the article. Most of these databases may be accessed by MTU students/faculty/staff from off-campus by entering your ISO/Husky Mail user ID and password.

 

Here are some databases recommended for this course:

 

Thompson Gale

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

InfoTrac Custom Newspapers - Collection of newspapers from around the country and the world.

LegalTrac - Articles in all major law reviews, law journals, specialty law and bar association journals and legal newspapers. Included are articles on Federal and State Cases, Laws and Regulations, Legal Practice, and Taxation. Also included are: British Commonwealth, European Union and International Law.

 

FirstSearch

The Wilson indexes (marked with * ) allow a Reviewed Journal Phrase field search for peer-reviewed journal.

*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.

*Education Abstracts- encompasses all areas of educators, including administration, teaching methods and curriculum.

*Humanities Abstracts - covers English language periodicals in all areas of the humanities, including ethics.

*Index to Legal Periodicals & Books - indexes legal journals, yearbooks, law reviews, and bar association publications, etc., originating in several English speaking countries of the world. Includes book reviews.

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

*Wilson Business Abstracts - provides complete and accurate indexing and abstracting of 345 leading business magazines

 

LexisNexis Academic Wide range of business, legal, medical, news and current affairs information. Includes legal news and law reviews in full text. To search for cases, select "Legal Research" from the Academic Search Forms list on the left side of the screen.