Perspectives on Inquiry MTU Library Resources

Our Universe in Perspective UN1001, Sections 41 and 63 W. Pereira

 

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.

 

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. All of these have an entry for Cosmology and/or Relativity.

 

Encyclopedia of Philosophy B 41 .E5 REF

Dictionary of the History of Ideas CB 5 .D52 REF

Encyclopedia of World Environmental History GF 10 .E63 2004 REF

Encyclopedia of World Cultures GN 307 .E53 1991 REF

McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology Q 121 .M3 2002 REF

Dictionary of Scientific Biography Q 141 .Z9 D5 REF

Encyclopedia of Astronomy and Astrophysics QB 14 .E54 2001 REF

Encyclopedia of Cosmology QB 980.5 .E53 1993 REF

Encyclopedia of Applied Physics QC 5 .E543 1991 REF

Encyclopedia of Bioethics QH 332 .E52 2004 REF

 

Britannica Online Select E-Resources on the Librarys web page.

 

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

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. Catalog records include bibliographic and location information for items retrieved in your search. Use the Location, Call Number and Status information to find an item in the Library Collections.

 

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 - http://infotrac.galegroup.com/menu

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

General Reference Center Gold Covers general, news, and business periodicals.

 

FirstSearch -

Article1st - contains citations for items listed on the table of contents pages of over 12,600 journals in all subject areas.

Readers Guide Abstracts Indexes popular and news periodicals.

WilsonSelectPlus Full text articles from over 1400 periodicals covering a broad range of subject areas.

FirstSearch also includes databases covering the professional and scholarly literature in specific areas. Some examples are BasicBiosis, GeoRef, Humanities Abstracts, INSPEC, Social Sciences Abstracts, and Education Abstracts.

 

LexisNexis Academic

General News - Full text coverage of national and international newspapers, periodicals, and other news sources.

 

 

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.

 

Quick Reference for Databases

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

Collection/ Database	Boolean	Proximity/ Phrase	Truncation/ Wildcards	Full Text	Retrieve Results
InfoTrac Includes access to 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 about 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 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

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?

Perspective refers to the angle or approach from which authors engage their subjects.

Bias refers to a special interest or personal angle.

Attitude refers to the author's position on the subject.

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.) What do those data or facts really tell you?

What kind of language does the author use--neutral, emotional, formal, popular, sarcastic?

Does the author use jargon or euphemisms (economic downturn vs. depression)?

 

Resources on the Web

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 Concordia University Libraries.