Perspectives on Inquiry MTU Library Resources

Wolves and Humans UN1001, section 22 R. Peterson

 

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.

 

Encyclopedia of Indians of the Americas E 54.5 .E52 REF

Encyclopediaof North American Indians E 76.2 .E53 REF (Also available electronically through NetLibrary in the Librarys online catalog)

Native America in the Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia E 76.2 .N36 1994 REF

The World of the American Indian E 77 .W88 1989 REF

Encyclopedia of Michigan Indians: tribes, nations and people of the Northern Woodlands E 78 .M6 E53 1998 REF

Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups E 184 .A1 H35 REF

Encyclopedia of World Cultures GN 307 .E53 1991 REF

 

Grzimeks Animal Life Encyclopedia QL 3 .G7813 REF

Official World Wildlife Fund Guide to Endangered Species of North America - QL84.2 O35 1990 REF

Endangered and Threatened Wildlife of Michigan QL 84.22.M5 E63 1994 REF

 

Finding Books in the JRVP Library Catalog (www.lib.mtu.edu)

Examples of Library of Congress Subject Headings for Basic Subject Searches in the JRVP Online Catalog:

 

Indians of North America Wolves [QL 737 .C22] Mammals - Michigan

Indians Economic conditions Animal ecology Predation (Biology)

See also names of specific tribes. MammalsBehavior Wildlife conservation

Books are located in the Main Collection on Third floor.

Finding Articles in Scientific Journals

Electronic periodical indexes are available on the Librarys web page by selecting E-Resources, then Search for an E-Resource. To select the databases that best meet your needs, look at the database descriptions and consider

         Topics covered (General news? Life sciences? 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? Academic/research/scholarly? Trade/professional? etc.)

 

Here are some database collections followed by the names of databases that are recommended for finding periodical articles on Native American tribes.

 

InfoTrac: Expanded Academic ASAP

 

FirstSearch: AGRICOLA, Article 1^st, Humanities Abstracts, Social Sciences Abstracts, Periodical Abstracts, WilsonSelectPlus

 

Lexis-Nexis Academic: General News

 

 

Reference Sheet on Finding Periodical Articles by Topic

 

Collection	Boolean	Proximity/ Phrase	Truncation/ Wildcards	Full Text	Retrieve Results
InfoTrac SearchBank accesses an academic, a general interest, and a health science periodical index	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, mostly periodical indexes with abstracts	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 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

 

Evaluating Periodical Articles

Here are some questions you might ask about a periodical article to determine whether it is an authoritative source:

What is the date of publication? Is currency an important factor?

How long is the article?

What are the author's credentials? What is the author's purpose?

What is the author's perspective? the author's bias? the author's attitude? Does the author state her/his bias?

Who publishes the publication? Does the publisher/publication have a bias?

NOTE: A book called Magazines for Libraries, available at the Reference/Information Desk (Call number Z 6941 .K2 REF DESK), describes thousands of periodicals and indicates whether a periodical is known for presenting information from a particular viewpoint.

Are there citations and/or a bibliography? Whom does the author cite? Are you led to primary sources?

Who is the audience being addressed by the publication?

Is it a primary or secondary source?

Are the author's facts readily verifiable? (Not all statements of fact are true.)

 

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.

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 guide to citation styles produced by Concorcia University Libraries.

JRVP Library Sept04 - DB