|
To access our databases from off-campus,
click on this link on the library's
main page (enter your ID and password when prompted):
For further Off Campus Access instructions and
information, click here:
Getting
to the Library's Resources From Off Campus
If
you still have problems with accessing our databases, feel
free to contact us at:
630.617.3173
ref[at]elmhurst[dot]edu
or
IM (Instant Message) a
librarian at:
AIM:
elmhrstcollibref | Yahoo!Messenger: eclibraryref
|
MSN Messenger: ref[at]elmhurst.edu
|
Getting
Started
-
I need
background information on my topic -- where should I start?
Electronic Reference Books
- Xreferplus
- An online collection of 150 reference books covering many
disciplines. Click
here for a list of titles.
- Gale
Virtual Reference Library - an online collection of
reference books, including Countries and Their Cultures,
Dictionary of American History, Encyclopedia of Sociology,
Gale Encyclopedia of Everyday Law, among other titles.
-
The
New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Reference R031 B862N1991
~ A good source of background information and bibliographies.
Look up your topic in the index to get started.
Also available electronically.
General Resources for the Research
Paper
- The Encyclopedia
of Civil Rights in America, Reference R 323.1196 E56
- Encyclopedia
of Crime and Justice, Reference R 364.03 E56
- Encyclopedia
oMarriage and the Family, Reference R 306.803 E56
- Encyclopedia of Early Childhood Education, Reference
R 372.2103 E56
- The Encyclopedia
of Multiculturalism, Reference R 306.4460973 E56
- The Encyclopedia
of American Immigration, Reference R 304.87303 E56
- Encyclopedia
of U.S. Foreign Relations, Reference R 327.73 E56F
- Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, R
305.8 H339
- Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia, Reference R 306.703
H918
- International
Encyclopedia of Communications, Reference R 302.2 I61
- International
Encyclopedia of Population,
R 304.6 I61
- Routledge International
Encyclopedia of Women, Reference R 305.403 R869
- St. James Encyclopedia
of Popular Culture, Reference R 973.9 S143
- How else can reference
books help me?
- There are often bibliographies
at the end of their articles; these bibliographies can lead you
to other useful books and articles.
- How can I find more
reference books on my topic?
- Try browsing the Reference section.
- Browse the shelves around a particular book you like; call numbers
tend to keep books on like topics together.
- Search I-Share Online using your
search term combined with the word "encyclopedia" or
"dictionary."
Statistics
- Statistical
Abstract of the United States, Reference R 317.3 U58S
- A Statistical
Portrait of the United States: Social Conditions and Trends,
Reference R 306.0973 S797
- Datapedia of
the United States, 1790-2005: America Year by Year, Reference
R 317.3 D96d 2001
Book Series
- Current Controversies
- Contemporary
World Issues
- Opposing Viewpoints
- Taking Sides
- These books
discuss the pros and cons of a topic.
- To find books
in these series, simply do a search for the title of the
series in I-Share Online. See below
for more on I-Share Online.
return to top
Locating Books in the A.C. Buehler Library
How do I find books
on my topic?
- Use I-Share Online to find books
held in the Elmhurst College library as well as books owned by 65
other Illinois libraries.
- Quick Searches
- A good way to
start looking for books.
- You can either
look for particular items (such as a particular title), or
you can do keyword searching.
- Use the main
words describing your topic.
- For example,
to find books about phonics, type the word phonics
(with or without capitals).
- The word phonics
can be anywhere in the description of the item, like the name
of the publisher.
- To do a more
focused search on, say, phonics and whole language learning,
select Boolean, and type in phonics and "whole
learning"
- Browse Subject Searches
- A more precise
way of searching.
- I-Share Online
uses Library of Congress Subject Headings (or LC subject headings)
to arrange and organize information.
- Subject headings
are very specific; you can guess what they might be, but you
can't make them up.
- Some examples
of subject headings:
- Tattooing
- Titanic
(Steamship)
- Sex on
television
- Chicago
Cubs (Baseball team) -- History
- Dreams
- Tolkien, J. R. R. (John Ronald Reuel), 1892-1973
- Guided Keyword
Searches
- Allow you more
flexibility.
- Click the appropriate
tab, and fill in the blanks as desired.
- You can change
your searching options to look for either some or all of the
words you've typed in, and to look in different areas of the
item's catalog record.
- For example,
select all of these and type eating disorders treatment.
-
-
return to top
Locating
Articles in Library Resources
-
Which article databases are good starting places
for my search?
-
CQ Researcher ~ An excellent
source for current hot topics. Each individual issue contains
historical background, a timeline, current status, and
potential future developments. The bibliographies are
especially helpful in finding useful sources.
- Lexis-Nexis Statistical
~ Search the
Statistical Abstract of the United States and other
resources for statistics; also available online
-
-
Periodical Abstracts
~ Includes indexing, abstracting, and some full text for
magazine and journal articles.
-
WilsonSelectPlus
~ Includes indexing, abstracting, and full text for a
variety of magazines and journals.
-
Where can I find newspaper articles?
You can also call (630) 617-3173, email
or IM (Instant Message): [ AIM: elmhrstcollibref; Yahoo!Messenger:
eclibrary; MSN Messenger: ref[at]elmhurst.edu] the Reference
Department to inquire about a specific title or ask a question.
|
So
you found an article in one of our databases, but it's not full-text.
Now what?
Don't fret. Look for
these buttons:  ,
or  ,
or this line of text: (Find this resource
with SFX) next to the article citation on the search
screen. Clicking on this will take you to a list of our full-text
sources that carry the journal, if we have it. |
If you cannot find an article at Elmhurst, you can request it through
our online
Interlibrary Loan article request form. Inter library loan can
take 7-10 days.
return to top
Scholarly
and Popular Articles: What's the Difference?
Scholarly publications publish journals.
Popular press publications publish magazines. Journal articles
and magazine articles are very different from each other. Some of the
differences are apparant in the following areas:
Audience: Who was the article written for?
Author: What kind of job job does the author
have? What are the author's credentials?
Language: How does this article sound? What
educational level is the article written for?
Content: What is being written about? Does
the author write with bias?
References: Where does the author get his/her
information? Is the information quoted easy to find on your own?
Look at other factors like:
- publisher
- editorial process
- advertising content of publication
- overall look of the print version (if available)
Read this to learn how to distinguish
scholarly journals from other periodicals.
If you really get stuck and can't figure out if
a publication is scholarly or popular using the criteria listed above,
you can use use one of the three techniques listed below:
- Look at the reference book like "Magazines for
Libraries" located at the Reference Desk
- Look at the publisher's or journals web site
in the "About Us" (or similar) section
- Ask a librarian at the Reference Desk (Warning!
The reference librarians will employ one or both of the two techniques
listed above if we are really stumped!)
return
to top
Internet
Resources
-
Where can I go
for trustworthy sites that have already been evaluated?
BUBL ~ a selection of "Internet resources
covering all academic subject areas"
How
can I find other web sites?
Can't
I just do all of my research on the Internet (I thought everything
there was free and full-text)?
Despite
what some would have you believe, not everything is available
for free on the Internet.
Don't
rely on the web as your only source of information.
Choose
web sites carefully.
Use
them to support your articles and books, not to replace
them.
return to top
Putting it All Together
I've
found all this stuff -- now what?
Who's
going to help me write this paper?
How do I do the
citations at the end of my paper?
A print version of the MLA Publication Manual, Sixth Edition, is available
at the Reference Desk, R808.042 M685 2003.
return to top
Created
20 October, 2003 by Ayanna Gaines, Assistant Reference Librarian
Last revised 8 February, 2006 by Jennifer
Paliatka, and Peg Cook
Assistant Reference Librarians, A.C. Buehler Library, Elmhurst College
|