Perspectives on Inquiry MTU Library Resources

Considering the Book UN1001, section 53 J. Slack

 

For Assistance

For individual assistance or instruction from a librarian, visit or phone the Reference/Information Desk (487-2507), e-mail instrlib@mtu.edu, or use the Ask a Librarian buttonon 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 Library Services, then Interlibrary Loans on the Librarys web page. Some index databases also allow ILL requests through their sites.

 

Reference Collection First 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.

The New Larned History D 9 .L3 1922 REF

Dictionary of the Middle Ages D 114. D5 1985 REF

Encyclopedia of World Art N 31 .E5 REF

Encyclopedia of Painting ND 30 .E5 REF

Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science Z 1006 .E57 REF

 

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

MTU 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.

 

Here are some possible Library of Congress Subject Headings to use in a Basic Subject search:

 

Books Manuscripts [Z105-Z115 or Z6601-Z6625]

BooksHistory [Z4-Z8] Manuscripts, Medieval

Illumination of books and manuscripts [ND2890-ND3416] Art, Medieval

 

Books are located in the Main Collection on the Third Floor.

 

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

From the E-Resources menu select Search for an E-Resource. Here you can search for resources by keyword, topic, collection (e.g. InfoTrac, FirstSearch, etc.), or alphabetically. 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:

 

InfoTrac

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

 

FirstSearch

Art Abstracts, Article1st, Humanities Abstracts, Library Literature, Periodical Abstracts, and WilsonSelectPlus (full text).

For finding books available in other libraries, try WorldCat, a database containing over 40 million bibliographic records for material held by OCLC member libraries. (WorldCat does NOT index periodicals at the article level.)

 

LexisNexis Academic

General News - Full text coverage of national and international periodicals & newspapers. LexisNexis Academic also includes legal, medical, and business information in full text.

 

 

Quick Reference for Databases

For more databases, see http://www.lib.mtu.edu/reference/course/databasekeyword.aspx

Collection	Boolean	Proximity/ Phrase	Truncation/ Wildcards	Full Text	Retrieve Results
InfoTrac accesses academic, general interest, news, and health science periodical indexes	AND, OR, NOT	Wx - same order within x words of one another Nx - either order within x words of one another	* multiple-character   ! single-character   ? exactly one character	Some	E-mail, Disk, Print
FirstSearch accesses over 50 databases on a wide range of subjects.	AND, OR, NOT	Wx - same order within x words of one another Nx - either order within x words of one another	* multiple-character # single-character + singular or plural only (s or es) ? any number of characters	Some	E-mail, Disk, Print
Lexis-Nexis Academic accesses news, business, legal, medical, and reference information.	AND, OR	Phrase is system default W/n - either order within x words of one another W/p - either order, same paragraph W/s - either order, same sentence PRE/n - first word precedes the second by n words	! multiple-character   * single-character	Yes	E-mail, Disk, Print

 

Locating Periodicals on the Library Shelves

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 or microfiche.

BOUND JOURNALS AREA (Garden Level): Bound periodicals dated 1971 or later.

MICROFORMS AREA (1^st Floor ) Microfilm & Microfiche cabinets located on the east side of the building.

STORAGE: Bound periodicals dated before 1971; request these at the Circulation Desk.

 

Electronic Journals at JRVP

JRVP subscribes to several journals which provide electronic versions of their publications online. Access them under Electronic Resources on the Librarys web page.

 

Resources on the Web

American Memory: http://memory.loc.gov/ - American Memory is a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. The site offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections.

FirstGov: www.firstgov.gov - Portal to federal and state government information. All sites linked by FirstGov are evaluated for accuracy and authority.

Internet Public Library: Subject Collections: http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/- Good starting place for a research-oriented approach to a variety of subject areas. IPL emphasis is on education rather than entertainment.

Cornell University Libraries Research Skills: http://www.library.cornell.edu/okuref/research/webeval.html -One of the best sites on evaluating information found on the Internet.

Guidelines for Identifying Peer-reviewed Journals - Consult these sites provided by other institutions:

http://www.lib.waldenu.edu/serials.html

http://gateway.library.uiuc.edu/lsx/tutorial/section3_1.html

Citation style guides: http://library.concordia.ca/help/howto/citations.html- A site on citation styles produced by Concordia University Libraries.