Perspectives on Inquiry-MTU Library Resources

Stuck in the Middle: victims and the criminal Justice System

Instructor: Jessica DellaValla

Librarian: Joan Goodbody: email; goodbody@mtu.edu: phone; 487-2698

MTU Library Catalog:

Use the catalog to find items that the library owns: Searchable by author, title, subject or keywords. Also after using an index to find a paper/article that you want, youll need to use this catalog to determine whether we have the journal that the article appeared in. Articles from journals we do not have or books we do not have can be ordered through Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Many of the databases now have a direct ILL link.

 

Paper Reference Materials:

CQ researcher (issues)

H35 .E2. Reference

This is a multi volume (by year) publication that is put out to help the members of congress and their staff understand public issues. Some assignment # 4 topics are covered in this series. Index is in the front of the newest notebook. Index now available online at: http://library.cqpress.com/researcher_index.pdf

Crime Victim Rights, 1994, page 625

 

Black's Law Dictionary (legal definitions past and present)

KF156 .B53 1999 Reference

This is the definitive source for legal definitions. The 1999 edition is the newest. The library also owns the 1933 and 1979 editions if someone is interested in looking at any changes in definitions.

Databases:

LexisNexis:

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

Congressional provides a comprehensive online resource from Congressional hearings, public issues, legislation, history, and legal research.

FirstSearch: This database provides access to over 60 databases. They include:

Worldcat, a comprehensive database for all types of material cataloged by OCLC member libraries. This does NOT index periodicals at the article level;

Wilson Select Plus, A full text database 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.

Infotrac: A comprehensive multi-index database including:

General Reference Center Gold: A general interest database that integrates a variety of sources in one easy-to-use interface. Use General Reference Center Gold to find articles from newspapers, reference books, and periodicals, many with full-text and images.

Expanded Academic ASAP:Gives access to arts and the humanities to social sciences, science and technology scholarly journals, news magazines, and newspapers - many with full text and images!;

InfoTrac OneFile, A one-stop source for news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics. Millions of full-text articles, many with images. Updated daily;

LegalTrac,Use this database to find articles in all major law reviews, law journals, specialty law and bar association journals and legal newspapers.

 

 

Websites:

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

 

Firstgov.gov: www.firstgov.gov This is the official government site that searches over 87 million sites. Can search for just federal, federal and a specific state, federal and all states, all states, or a specific state. Advanced search gives the most flexability.

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.

U. S. Court of appeals. Each court of appeals has its own page,

 

United Nations: www.UN.org Items on international issues of justice, law, and conflict can be found on this site.

 

Department of Justice: http://www.usdoj.gov/ This is the homepage of the US department of Justice. They have many electronic publications that are authoritative on many ranging justice issues.

 

Legal sites

http://www.law.cornell.edu/ - Legal information through a law school website. Designed especially for law students.

http://www.hg.org/ - Hieros Gamos, legal information including news, resources, etc., in over 50 languages.

http://www.oyez.org/oyez/frontpage - The OYEZ Project provides access to more than 2000 hours of Supreme Court audio. All audio in the Court recorded since 1995 is included in the project. Before 1995, the audio collection is selective.

 

Victims Rights Sites: Remember that these are usually organizations with an agenda, so double check all sources and be sure to say where the information you use came from. Also see the list of Helpful websites on the syllabus.

National Victims Rights Constitutional Amendment Network: http://www.nvcan.org/. This site has its own agenda put does give information about Existing Victims rights in all states.

Office for Victims of crime: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc/welcovc/welcome.html. The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) was established by the 1984 Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) to oversee diverse programs that benefit victims of crime. OVC provides substantial funding to state victim assistance and compensation programsthe lifeline services that help victims to heal. The agency supports trainings designed to educate criminal justice and allied professionals regarding the rights and needs of crime victims. OVC also sponsors an annual event in April to commemorate National Crime Victims Rights Week (NCVRW). This is a government site.

The following sites describe and show the student how to use APA citations.

Print is available at the MTU Library Reference Desk, Publication manual of the American Psychological Association.

BF 76.7.P83 2001 REF DESK

 

APAs Electronic Reference Formats: http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html

Online!: Using APA Style to Cite and Document Sources: http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite6.html

 

Using American Psychological Association (APA) Format

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_apa.html

 

APA (American Psychological Association) Citation Style Guide: http://www.isr.bucknell.edu/research/apa.pdf