Resources for Writing Definition Papers

1
Resources for Writing Definition Papers

• Beatrice Pulliam
• Reference Librarian
• February 14, 2006

2
We will cover

• Where to find background info on your topic
• How to find books in the HELIN catalog
• How to find peer-reviewed articles on your topic
• Some final tips and tricks

3
Investigating Your Topic

• Finding discussion of your topic in print and
  online
• Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report (print) and
  CQ Researcher (online)
• Issues and Controversies _at_ Facts.COM
• Humanities International Index (online)
• New York Times (online)
• For BACKGROUND info only!!

4
Congressional Quarterly (CQ) Weekly Report

• Provides unbiased reporting of information on the
  government, politics and policy
• Provides historical significance of legislative
  issues currently being debated and covers how the
  issue is evolving
• View cumulative indexes through the HELIN catalog

5
Issues Controversies_at_Facts.com

• Offers current, in-depth and unbiased information
  on the most hotly debated issues
• Combines analysis of facts with explanations of
  opposing points of view
• All major articles contain a bibliography of
  sources
• Sources taken from most of the major daily
  newspapers (NYT, WSJ, etc), major news and
  opinion magazines and government reports

6
Finding Books

• HELIN Catalog
• Displays books, journals and other materials
  available for PC, 8 other RI colleges and Brown
• Catalog automatically searches materials at all
  HELIN consortium members
• Click on Search InRhode to search for material
  at Brown
• PC users may borrow online from Brown when no
  other HELIN library has the item.
• Library of Congress Shelving Scheme
• Each alphanumeric call number is associated with
  a broad subject heading
• Can browse LC Subject Headings in the catalog

7
Things to Consider When Searching Databases

• Keyword vs. Subject Searching
• AKA natural language searching
• ex Google search bar
• Very broad tends to return too many and often
  irrelevant results
• Pre-defined words and terms
• very specific only searches within exact subject
• results typically highly relevant
• must know exact subject heading
• Thesaurus or Subject Guide
• Most databases have one
• Very helpful for matching your words with the
• most appropriate subject heading

8
What is a Peer-Reviewed Journal?

• Peer-review
• Critical evaluation of an article before
  publication. Typically by experts on an editorial
  board.
• Scholarly vs. Popular
• Created by academics and subject experts for
  academic audiences
• General interest topics meant for wide audience

9
Select Databases

• Social Science Abstracts
• Interdisciplinary index to 500-plus social
  science journals
• Coverage from 1983
• Abstracts beginning 1994
• Academic Search Premier
• Largest scholarly, multidisciplinary full-text
  database with over 8000 journals
• Covers nearly every area of academic study
• More than 3600 peer-reviewed journals
• Coverage from 1965

10
Tips Tricks --Evaluating Websites

• Authority
• Who contributed the content? Sponsors?
• Type of organization (government, not-for-profit,
  commercial)? Contact info?
• Currency
• When was the website created? Last time updated?
• Point of View
• Websites purpose or intent? Any evidence of
  bias? Intended audience?
• Accuracy
• Is there a bibliographic citations, links to
  other sources you can verify?
• Any errors in content (statements you know to be
  untrue)

11
MLA Citation Links on the Web

• URL
• http//www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/
• humanities/list.html