English 106 ~ Spring 2002
Toni Countryman

Accessing Library Resources from Off-Campus

The following are selected resources available in the library and on the Internet.

Locating Books in the A.C. Buehler Library

• Use Illinet Online to find books held in the Elmhurst College library as well as books owned by 44 other Illinois academic libraries.
  
  
• Subject word searching offers a good way to start looking for books in Illinet Online. Use the main words describing your topic.
  
  
• A more precise way of searching is to use controlled vocabulary. Illinet Online's controlled vocabulary is known as Library of Congress Subject Headings (or LC subject headings). Unlike keywords, you can't simply make these up: you have to find out what the exact terms are and enter them in Illinet as a subject heading search. Some examples of established subject headings are:
  
  
  Sexual harassment--Law and legislation--United States
  Violence -- United States -- Case studies
  
  

• Use an advanced query to combine two subject terms or concepts into one search. For example:
  
  sexual harrassment AND college
  
  

Inter-Library Loan ~ Illinet Online allows you to request books held by 44 academic libraries in Illinois.

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 Locating Articles in Library Resources

Newspapers/Journals

• The library offers many journal and newspaper resources.
  
  
• Academic Search Elite ~ A good place to start. Includes references to scholarly as well as popular periodicals.
  
  
• Periodical Abstracts ~ Includes indexing, abstracting, and some full text for magazine and journal articles.
  
  
• WilsonSelect ~ Includes indexing, abstracting, and full text for a variety of magazines and journals.
  
  
• Electronic Newspaper subscriptions ~ Search the full texts of the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal.

• Use Illinet Online to determine if the library owns the journal in print or microfilm, and check Journals and Magazines Available Online for electronic access to journals.

• Inter-Library Loan ~ You can request a copy of an article provided that it is unavaible at the library.

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Internet Resources

Below are listed only a few web sites for the following subject areas. Use a search engine or a web site index to find more web sites on your topic.

Indexes

How to find websites - why you shouldn't rely on Yahoo!
Net First - search by topic
Librarian's Index to the Internet - search by topic

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Specific Resources for the Research Paper

Below are only a few resources, in addition to those above, that might be helpful to you as you do your research. Resources are divided in the three subject areas studied earlier in the semester.

We the People of the United States of America - Constitutional Issues

Full Text Copy of the U.S. Constitution - from Cornell University

Supreme Court drama: Cases that Changed America. 2001 [R] 347.7326 B821s
Illustrated Great Decisions of the Supreme Court. 2000 [R]347.7326 M457
The Supreme Court A to Z. 1998 [R] 347.732603 S959 1998

Say What? Communication Styles of Men and Women

ComAbstracts -Contains abstracts of articles published in the field of Communications.

Gendered Lives: Communication, Gender, and Culture. (1997) 305.3 W876G1997
Exploring GenderSpeak: Personal Effectiveness in Gender Communication. (1994) 305.3 I96E
Talking from 9 to 5: How Women's and Men's Conversational Styles Affect Who Gets Heard, Who Gets Credit, and What Gets Done at Work. (1995) 651.7 T1666T

Bad Boy, Bad Boy - Increasing Violence in America

National Criminal Justice Reference Service - abstracts from 160,000 plus criminal justice publications including books and journals. Also offers crime statistics.
FedWorld - Gain access to hundreds of government web sites.

Statistical Handbook on Violence in America. (1996) [R] 303.60973021 S797
Youth Violence. (1998) 364.36 Y83v

Writing, Citing and Evaluating Resources

Documenting the information you use in your assignments is very important. Please check with your professors regarding the preferred citation style for your class. The librarians can help you locate a citation syle guide at the library. Further writing assistance is available from the Writing Center located in the Learning Center.

• Writing and Citing Assistance at Elmhurst College
  
  
• Citing Sources
• Citing Electronic Sources
  
  
• Evaluating Sources
• Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Pages
  
  

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Jennifer C. Paliatka, Assistant Librarian, Elmhurst College
This page was created 03/14/2002