POL 201

American Federal Government

Professor Walsh
Spring 2008

General Sources	Finding Books	Finding Articles
Internet Research	Citation Chasing	Writing and Citing

General Sources--I already have my topic, why should I use Reference Sources?

Reference Sources can provide you with some useful "background information" on the topic, as well as giving you some "leads" on where to search next.

Electronic Reference Tools

Credo Reference - 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
Britannica Online ~ The online version of the Encyclopedia Britannica, also available in print.

Useful Reference Books

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.

Some other encyclopedias you may find useful:

Political parties and elections in the United States:an encyclopedia R 324.27303 P769
Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups, R 305.8 H339
Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women, R 305.403 R869
The Oxford guide to the United States government R 320.473 P314o
Culturegrams: The Nations Around Us Reference R909.82C968

You can also try looking for subject specific reference sources in I-Share

Finding Books

How do I find books on my culture?

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 keywords searching.
Use the main words describing your topic. For example, to find books about England, type the word England (with or without capitals).The word England 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 England and culture

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.

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.

Ordering books from other libraries ~ I-Share Online allows you to request books held by 71 other libraries in Illinois.

How do I get a book that is not available in the library? Use this form only if all else fails...

Finding Magazine, Journal and Newspaper Articles using the Library's Resources

Sources for Magazine, News and Journal Articles:

CQ Researcher ~ Great database to start in--search your topic and get detailed reports with bibliographies, links and information.
Academic Search Complete ~ General database with everything from Time magazine to scholarly sources. Good place to start.
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.

Newpaper Article Sources

Wall Street Journal ~ full text from 1985 to present.
New York Times ~ full text back to 1999, with indexing available back to 1990. For older articles, try ProQuest Historical Newspapers: New York Times, which has full text articles back to 1851. On campus access only.
Chicago Tribune ~ full text from 1985 to present.
Lexis-Nexis Academic ~ accesses a variety of news and business sources, many of which are full text.
Newspaper Source ~ full text from more than 100 U.S. and international newspapers. Includes sources such as USA Today, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The (London) Times, and transcripts from NPR's Morning Edition.

Internet Sources for articles

A word about Google and Wikipedia.

Google and Wikipedia are 2 tools that are available to help you find information on the Internet. Google is an Internet search engine. It will find websites for you on your topic. Wikipedia is a collaborative encyclopedia.It contains lots of information about different topics. But you need to be careful when using these 2 tools. Google will just find sites for you. It will not tell you whether or not those sites are accurate, or unbiased, or current. Wikipedia can be useful to help you get started finding information. But because anybody can edit a Wikipedia page, you have to take information you find there with a grain of salt. Wikipedia is a fine source for some information--but always backup information you find there with another source.

Online news sources

Most news sources have websites with articles on them. Some of these online magazines will let you read articles for free, some of them want you to pay. You should never pay for an article you find in a news source on the Internet. If you find an article on a website and the site wants you to pay for it, check our list of journals and newspapers available online; then search for your article in the appropriate database. If you still can't find it ask a librarian for help!

* Current issues of these magazines are also available for browsing at the library. Journals and magazines are arranged alphabetically by title.

It's important when you are looking for articles on political issues on the Internet to be careful about what the source of a website is. Many websites (especially blogs) are mostly opinion. You want to stick with sources that are more journalistic.

Why should I evaluate web sites? Can't I just trust everyone's website?

Take a look at the following websites and see if you can trust them:
Dissing the King ~ a cautionary tale detailing how websites are not always what they seem

Using and Evaluating Information Sources

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Citation Chasing

An excellent way to start looking for the resources you need is to begin with bibliographies provided in your textbook. All of the Taking Sides books have excellent references cited lists with sources that you can "hunt" for.

Look for books using our online catalog I-Share. You can search either by title or by author.

Use the Citation Linker Tool to look for articles in magazines or journals. Type in as much information as you have, but try to make sure you put in the article title, magazine or journal name, the date and the page numbers.

Writing and Citing Information

For help with writing your papers and bibliographies, try the Elmhurst College Writing Center online help page.

You can also try these online resources
College Writing and Citing
Citing Electronic Resources
ONLINE! Citation Styles
Citing Sources from the Duke University Libraries

If you need any help finding articles or writing, you can also contact the Reference Desk any time the library is open:

Reference: 630-617-3173
Email: ref[at[elmhurst[dot]edu
AIM: elmhrstcollibref | Yahoo!Messenger: eclibraryreference | MSN Messenger: ref[at]elmhurst.edu

Web Pages for Courses: Political Science	Elmhurst College Library	Political Science Department Home Page
This page was created by Peg Cook, Assistant Reference Librarian On September 18, 2007 amd last updated on February 19, 2008