Academic libraries overview

Books Articles

Print Electronic Print Electronic

Print is still in use, but many items – articles & books –

are now available electronically.

Old Card Catalog:Find a Book

Title Author Last NameSubject Heading

In A – Z order

Online Public Access Catalog

(OPAC)

KEYWORD = searches the title, author’s name, subject headings, & table of contents ( if included in the catalog record!)

The catalog does not search within the text

of the book.

Periodical Databases= articles in Journals, Magazines, Newspapers

Keyword = search anywhere in the article title, journal title, subject headings, abstract / summary, or author’s name.

Ability to search anywhere within the text of the articles, (but this is limited to only those articles available in the full text in the first place.)

Although many articles are offered in the full text, some articles will only have the abstract available, (i.e. “indexed and abstracted.”)

Periodicals: Levels of Scholarship

•The author is a ‘scholar’ in the discipline.

•The article has been reviewed by other scholars prior to publication.

RefereedPeer Reviewed

•Not ALL scholarly journals are refereed, but many are.

•Databases may use all four terms interchangeably.

Academic /Scholarly

•Although considered reliable, popular publications are not scholarly.

•Examples: Time, Newsweek, Economist, Boston Globe.

Magazines Newspapers

Trade Publications

Books: Searching Print vs. Electronic Collections

Print Electronic

Find in OPAC Find in OPAC OR Search E-Book Collections

Use call number to locate May search within and browse the stacks. the content of book(s).

Useful to search within multiple titles

in Reference book collections. Ex.: Gale Virtual Reference; Sage eReference.

Searching for Articles

Need to find Professor has instructed you articles to find a particular article on your topic? from a specific journal.

Use a periodical database 1st: Do we own or have access to which covers that journal???the subject area. 2nd: Then search for article within

the database that contains the publication.

How Do I Find… ?

… a BRIEF OVERVIEW on

“xyz” topic?Reference

Collection: E-book

collections, or print

encyclopedias.

… BOOKS on “xyz” topic?Keyword search in the OPAC.

Choose a promising title, note the call number, & follow any good subject

headings.

… ARTICLES on “xyz” topic? (scholarly or otherwise.)

Keyword search in a database covering the subject area (business, literature…)

… an article FROM A

PARTICULAR JOURNAL, ex.: ‘The Journal of

…’FIRST: Search

for the Name/Title of the Journal in the OPAC or

the e-Journal Locator.

OPAC, E-Books, Periodical Databases

Wikipedia and Google

Wikipedia

• Authority of scholarship cannot be verified.

• Most professors do not want students to rely on Wikipedia.

Google

• Burden of verifying the scholarship of sources falls to the reader.

• URL domain names:• .edu• .org• .gov• .com

Google Scholar

• Indexes (and may link to the full text of) academically oriented material.

• Has no filter for Refereed or Peer Reviewed.

• No one, outside of Google ,has a list of which materials are indexed here.

Works-Cited, Bibliography, References.

Citations acknowledge the work and ideas of others.Citations verify the accuracy of your own scholarship.

Failure to properly cite your sources (whether intentional or not) violates the academic honor code, and is considered to be plagiarism.

A list of the sources that the writer

used to research a topic.

Standardized formats, or styles of citation (MLA, APA) identify the works and their format: books (print; online), articles (print; online), websites, other audio-visual media.

Citation practices and styles change over time: footnotes vs. in-text citations; adaptation to online formats.

Citations enable the reader to find the

original source material.