Perspectives on Inquiry MTU Library Resources

Abraham: Father of Strife or Father of Peace?

UN1001, Section R R38, R46, R62 Victoria Bethel

Dave Lepse, Librarian (JRVP Library, Room 202, dlepse@mtu.edu 487-1443)

 

 

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 through 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.

 

Suggested reference materials

Encyclopedia of World Faiths BL80.2.E495 1988 REF

Eerdmans Handbook to the Worlds Religions BL80.2.E35 1982 REF

The New Encyclopedia of Judaism BM 50.E63 2002 REF

Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World BP40.E525 2004

The Interpreters Bible BS491.2.I55 REF

New Catholic Encyclopedia BX 841.N44 1967 REF

Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East & North Africa DS 43 .E53 2004

Dictionary of the Middle East DS 43 .H57 1996b REF

Middle East and North Africa DS 49 .M6 REF

 

 

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.

 

 

Journal, magazine, and newspaper article databases

 

Database Keyword Search Tips - http://www.lib.mtu.edu/reference/tutorials/databasekeyword.aspx

 

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:

 

Article1st

Contains bibliographic citations for items listed on the table of contents pages of over 12,600 journals in all subject areas.

 

Expanded Academic ASAP

Access to arts and the humanities to social sciences, science and technology scholarly journals, news magazines, and newspapers - many with full text and images.

 

Google Scholar

Web search engine designed specifically to locate scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports across broad areas of research.

 

JSTOR

Contains scanned images of over 200 scholarly journals in a variety of academic disciplines covering African, African-American, Anthropology, Archaeology, Asian Studies, Classics, Ecology, Economics, Education, Finance, History, Latin American, Literature, Mathematics, Middle Eastern, Philosophy, Political Science, Population Studies, Slavic studies, Sociology, and Statistics.

 

LexisNexis Academic

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

 

Arts & Humanities Citation Index and Social Science Citation Index

Web of Science access to ISI Citation Indexes (Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index and Arts and Humanities Citation Index), which contains multidisciplinary, high quality research information from the world's leading science, social science and art and humanities journals. Only 3 simultaneous users at any one time are able to use this resource.

 

Social Sciences Abstracts

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

 

Windows Live Academic

Web search engine designed specifically to locate scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports across broad areas of research.

 

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

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.