Perspectives on Inquiry MTU Library Resources
Pop Fandom and Culture
UN1001, Section R11 Jnan Blau
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 (
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 (1st 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 - 2nd 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
The New Grove Dictionary of American Music ML101.U6 N48 1986 Ref
Guiness Encyclopedia of Popular Music ML102.P66 G84 1992 Ref
Encyclopedia of Television PN1992.18.E53 2004 Ref
The Film Encyclopedia PN1993.45.K34 2001 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:
Contains bibliographic citations for items listed on the table of contents pages of over 12,600 journals in all subject areas.
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.
Access to arts and the humanities to social sciences, science and technology scholarly journals, news magazines, and newspapers - many with full text and images.
General interest database that integrates a variety of sources in one easy-to-use interface. Use to find articles from newspapers, reference books, and periodicals, many with full-text and images. Find the latest current events, popular culture, business and industry coverage, the arts and sciences, sports, hobbies, and more.
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.
Covers English language periodicals in all areas of the humanities.
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.
Provides full-text documents from over 5,600 news, business, legal, medical, and reference publications with a variety of flexible search options.
MLA (Modern Language Association) International Bibliography
Indexes, serials, books, dissertation, etc., published worldwide in literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore.
Indexes and abstracts popular periodicals from the
Covers periodicals in anthropology, economics, geography, law and criminology, political science, social work, sociology, and international relations.
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.
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.
Selected free web sites
Old Hippies Grateful Dead Links
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: summary of citation and style guides available either on the internet or in the library.