Perspectives on Inquiry MTU Library Resources

Amazing Lives UN1001, Section 2 - E. Flynn

Librarian: David Bezotte, Library--Room 203 (dbezotte@mtu.edu, Phone 487-3041)

 

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 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, such as those found in the FirstSearch collection, also allow ILL requests through their sites.

 

Resources in the Reference Collection - Second Floor

The Reference Collection is a good place to collect background information on a subject 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.

 

Gales Literary Criticism Series

Chronologically arranged series of criticism and analysis of literary works. To access information in these sets, use the dark-blue, paper-covered index shelved at PN 452 .C622 REF. Here are two examples of sets in this series:

Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC) PN 771 .C59 REF

Contains excerpts from criticisms of contemporary writers' works.

Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB) See Index for call numbers.

Highlights the careers, achievements, and place in literary history of American and European authors.

 

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 searches by author, title, subject, call number, ISBN/ISSN, or keyword. Catalog records include location information; use the Location, Status, Call Number information to find items in the Library. To find out whether the JRVP Library owns a particular journal, conduct a Basic search by Journal Title.

 

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

To find citations to recent articles from journals, conference proceedings, and other publications, select E-Resources, then Search for an E-Resource. The resulting screen offers four options for finding databases or electronic journals:

 

(1) Keyword search of database titles and/or descriptions, (2) Search by subject area, (3) Search by collection name,

(4) Browse an alphabetical list by title. Here are some collections/databases useful for this class.

 

         FirstSearch

MLA (MLA Bibliography) Literature, languages, linguistics, folklore (1963- ) A key database for this class.

WilsonSelectPlus Full text of articles from over 1400 periodicals (1994-)

HumanitiesAbs An index of articles in the humanities (1984- )

AH Search (Arts & Humanities) (1984- ) - A citation index which also includes periodical indexing

ArticleFirst - Index of articles from nearly 12,500 journals (1990- )

 

         InfoTrac

Expanded Academic ASAP Includes humanities journals, some in full text (1980- )

 

         JSTOR

Back issues of over 100 scholarly journals dated from with 2-5 years of the present, back to their beginnings. The Language and Literature section is a good source for this class.

 

 

 

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
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
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
JSTOR accesses back issues of over 100 scholarly journals from within 2-5 years of the present, back to their beginnings.	AND, OR, NOT	Use quotation marks to search a phrase.    Follow the expression in quotes with ~n to search for the enclosed words n words apart.	& retrieves singular or plural in English only ? single-character Use multiple ? (up to 7) to match more than one character.	Yes	Disk, Print

For more detail on searching these databases/collections effectively, use the "Help" or "Tips" section offered by each of them.