General Bibliography-Cotter

Introduction to Doing Research with Library Resources

The Henry G. Bennett Memorial Library contains many resources to help in answers to simple questions to providing information for a report or research paper. This paper will outline the main tools that use can use to pinpoint the exact resources that you need. Here at the Henry G. Bennett Memorial Library there is much useful information that is available in many different locations in the library and also in many different formats. This document will hopefully point you in the right direction in locating the right materials for your project, report, or paper.

STEP ONE: Choosing a Topic

You need to find a topic to do a research paper first. Here are some aids to choosing a topic:

R 808.02 L18T3

10,000 Ideas for Term Papers, Projects, Reports, and Speeches

Also use reference works to aid in choosing a topic, or as a starting point for research. For example, Encyclopedias give short descriptive articles on a topic, plus references that can be used to build a research paper.

General Encyclopedias

There are many publishers of general encyclopedias that contain some information on almost any topic. These would be good places to start by finding basic information on a topic or to look for a topic.

Encyclopedia Britannica
Compton's Encyclopedia
Worldbook Encyclopedia
Collier's Encyclopedia
Encyclopedia Americana

Subject Specific Encyclopedias

There are many, many encyclopedias that contain one subject. These can be used to find more detailed information on a topic, and also to find basic information on a specific topic. Here are a few of the many subject specific encyclopedias that there are in the reference collection:
Social Sciences

CQ Researcher. CQ Press, a Division of Congressional Quarterly, Inc. 1991- (R 070.442 Ed4c)
Issues and Controversies on File. Facts on File, 1996. (R 070.442 IS7)
Dictionary of the History of Ideas. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1968 (R 903 D56)
Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. Oxford University Press, 1998. (R 111.8503 En1k)
The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The Macmillan Company & The Free Press, 1967 (R 103 Emle)
Encyclopedia of Classical Philosophy. Greenwood Press, 1997. (R 180.3 En1e)
Encyclopedia of Human Behavior Academic Press, 1994.
Encyclopedia of Sociology 2nd Edition. Macmillan Reference USA, 2000 (R 301.03 En1)
Encyclopedia of Ethics. 2nd edition. Routledge, 2001 (R 170.3 En3)
The Encyclopedia of Religion MacMillan Publishing Company, 1987 (R 200.321 En1)
Encyclopedia of World Biography Gale Research, 1998 (R 920.02 W17b2)
Encyclopedia of Utopian Literature ABC-Clio, 1995. (R 809.93372 Sn5e)
Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice 2nd ed. Macmillan Reference USA, 2002 (R 364.03 En1)
Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment Sage Publications, 2002
Encyclopedia of Communication and Information Macmillan Reference USA, 2002

History

Encyclopedia of American History Facts on File, 2003 (R 973.o3 En1n)
Beachman's Encyclopedia of Social Change: America in the Twentieth Century Beachman, 2001 (R 306 B35k)
The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Simon & Schuster, 1992. (R 970.015 C726be)
Slavery in America: An Eyewitness History Facts on File, 2000 (R 306.362 Sch5s)
Encyclopedia of the American Constitution. Macmillan Reference USA, 2000 (R 342.73 En5L)
The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights in America Sharpe Reference, 1998 (R 323.173 En1b)
The Encyclopedia of Third Parties in America Sharpe Reference, 2000 (R 324.273 En1n)
The Encyclopedia of the Republican Party Sharpe Reference, 1997 (R 324.27303 En1k)
The Encyclopedia of the Democratic Party Sharpe Reference, 1997 (R 324.27303 En1k)
The Encyclopedia of Foreign Relations Oxford University Press, 1997 (R 327.73 En1)
The Encyclopedia of American Economic History. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1980 (R 330.973 En1)
The Encyclopedia of American Social History. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1993 (R 301.0973 En3)
Encyclopedia of the American Military. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1994 (R 355.00973 En1)
Encyclopedia of Popular Music. Muze Schuster, 1999 (R 781.6403 EnL3)
Encyclopedia of Western Lawmen and Outlaws. Paragon House, 1992 (R 923.64 En1)
Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1993 (R 970.02 En2)
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History MacMillan Library Reference, 1996 (R 973.0496 En1)
Encyclopedia of Rural America. ABC-CLIO, 1997 (R 973.009173403 En1g)
Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century. Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001 (R 973.503 En1f)
Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1996 (R 973.003 En1)
Encyclopedia of the Confederacy. Simon and Schuster, 1993 (R 973.713 En3)
Encyclopedia of the American West. MacMillan Reference USA, 1996 (R 978 En1)
Encyclopedia of Japanese American History. Facts on File, 2001 (R 973.004956 En1n)
Encyclopedia of the Korean War: A Political, Social and Military History. ABC-CLIO, 2000. (R 951.904203 En1t)
Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War. ABC-CLIO, 1998 (R 959.704303 En1t)
Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History. Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001. (R 973.03 En1c)
Encyclopedia of American Studies. Grolier Educational, a Division of Scholastic Incorporated, 2001. (R 973.003 En1k)

Education

Encyclopedia of Educational Research. Simon and Schuster, 1992 (R 370.78 En1a6)
Encyclopedia of Special Education. John Wiley & Sons, 1987 (R 371.9 En1)
Encyclopedia of Early Childhood Education. Garland Publishing, 1992 (R 372.2103 En1)
The International Encyclopedia of Education. Pergamon, 1994 (R 370.3In8h2)
Deskbook Encyclopedia of American School Law. Center for Education and Employment Law, 2005 (R 344.7307 D46)

STEP TWO: Select a Style Guide to Use

When you are writing a research paper, usually you consult other resources to obtain information. If you use any of these resources in your paper, you need to give proper credit to the resources that you use in your paper. This is called citing your sources. There are several different ways to cite your sources. Each way has different rules that govern how you cite your sources. The main citing style guides are listed below:

R 808.02 T84m6	A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations This is commonly known as the Turabian style manual, because it was written by Kate L. Turabian. It is commonly used in history papers.
R 808.02 Am3p	Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association This is a common style manual used in the sciences and social sciences. It is published by the American Psychological Association, and is commonly known as the APA style manual.
R 808.027 G35m	MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers This style manual is used some in the humanities and english. It is commonly known as the MLA style.

STEP THREE: Use The SIRSI ILINK CATALOG To Find Books and Government Documents

This is the SE library catalog. Use this to search for books, videos, government documents on a topic.

This is the SE library catalog. Use this to search for books, videos, government documents on a topic. The catalog is one of the main access points to the SE Library's collection.

It can be used in the library or away from the library.

How Our Books are Arranged

We use the Dewey Decimal System to Arrange our books in the library. The Dewey system arranges every subject under a number system, where each number in a 1,000 number classification scheme corresponds to a specific subject. Here are some of the Dewey numbers in the 900's that correspond to history:

920-929	Biography	930-939	History of the Ancient World to ca. 499	940-949	History of Europe
950-959	History of Asia: Far East	960-969	History of Africa	970-979	North American history
971	Canada	972	Middle America	973	United States
974	NE United States	975	SE United States	976	South Central United States
977	North Central United States	978	Western United States	979	Great Basin, Pacific Slope
980-989	History of South America

Research in History: What is a Primary Resource?
Primary sources enable the researcher to get as close as possible to what actually happened during an historical event or time period. A primary source reflects the individual viewpoint of a participant or observer. Under this definition, primary resources are: Diaries, speeches, journals, interviews, letters, memoirs, autobiographies, records collected by government agencies, records of organizations, published materials (such as books, magazine articles, newspaper articles) that are written at the time of a particular event, photographs, audio recordings, moving pictures and video recordings. There is more information about primary sources and examples of more primary sources at the Library Research Using Primary Sources Page at: http://www.se.edu/lib/primarySources.html

GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS

The United States government publishes many materials each year. Different agencies of the government publish research, handbooks, how-to-manuals, periodicals maps, statistics and reports. Congress publishes results of Congressional hearings. These are all called Government documents. Our government documents are housed in a special room on Floor 2A of the library.

Reference	United States Statutes at Large Government Printing Office (AE 2.111) This is where all public laws passed by the United States Congress go. They are arranged first by the Congress number and then by Law number 2001.
Reference	United States Code Government Printing Office, 2001 (R 348.7323 Un3c) This contains all United States Federal Laws as of January 2001.
Reference	Code of Federal Regulations Government Printing Office (AE 2.106/3:34) This contains all regulations that are needed to enforce the laws that the United States Congress passes Title 34 is the regulations for Education.
Basement, storage	Congressional Record This publication contains all the speeches, debates, and official proceedings in the houses of the United States Congress. THe Library has this publication from 1873 to the present.
(In Storage, Basement)	Congressional Globe (1833-1873) A precursor to the Congressional Record, these volumes contain the debates and proceedings of the U.S. Congress. Each volume contains an index. Citations to the C. G. may appear in any one of several indexes or bibliographies named earlier. The library has the following years: 1833-1835, 1837-1839, 1841-1873. The complete holdings of the Congressional Globe is available on the Internet at the Library of Congress' American Memory Project. The webpage is called A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875, and it is located at: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html Also on this page are the House Journal and Senate Journal, which contains matters considered by the Senate and House respectively, plus votes and other action taken, but it does not contain debates.

Many of the government publications are now available online. See the Internet Resources for the address of many online government documents.

STEP FOUR: Use magazines, journals and newspapers

A magazine or journal is something that is published periodically, and so in libraries they are called periodicals. A magazine is a periodical that can be published daily, weekly, or monthly. Magazines usually contain fairly short articles written in a style of writing that is easy to understand. There are usually lots or advertising in a magazine. A journal, however, contains the results of research or experiments done. Usually in a journal article there is data presented about a research project, and the language can be quite technical, and there are few advertisements.

Unlike books, the contents of journals are not available in the SE library catalog. So where are they located? They are located in magazine and journal indexes. Magazine and journal indexes assign a subject to each article in each journal indexed in the magazine and journal index. Until the 1990's most magazine and journal indexes were in paper, now they are almost all on the Internet. Some of these journal indexes on the Internet index popular magazines, other scholarly, while others are devoted to one subject area, NO Journal Index indexes every journal that is published, so they are selective.

HOW TO FIND ARTICLES IN JOURNALS, MAGAZINES

Step 1: Look in a Periodical Index

A periodical index is a publication that indexes the content of periodicals. There are many different periodical indexes, some general and some subject specific. One thing needs to be made clear: There is not any periodical index that indexes every single periodical being published today. So each index is selective in what periodicals it indexes. Periodical indexes tend to index the most important or most popular or most respected or well known periodicals.

PAPER PERIODICAL INDEXES

For many years periodical indexes were published in paper, like a book. They would usually come out every few months with an update, and then come out at the end of the year with an annual cumulation. Paper periodical indexes are cumbersome to use and take some take to look at every year, but they can contain information on many valuable articles written sometimes years ago, and paper indexes are valuable places to search for topics in music, drama, art, literature and history.

Basement	International Index An index to periodical literature in the social sciences and humanities. The index begins in 1907 and ends in 1964.
basement	Social Sciences and Humanities Index An index to articles appearing in several hundred magazines and journals. Coverage begins in 1965 and continues to 1974.
Basement	Humanities Index An index to articles found in several hundred magazines and journals in the humanities. Coverage begins in 1974 and continues until 1993.
Basement	Social Sciences Index An index to articles found in several hundred magazines and journals in the social sciences. Coverage begins in 1974 and continues until 1998.
Basement	Art Index An index to articles found in several hundred magazines and journals in the arts. Coverage begins in 1967 and continues until 2002.
Basement	Poole's Index to Periodical Literature A guide to periodical literature published in 1802-1906.This is a hard index to use, so see a reference librarian.
Basement	Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature A general subject index to about 200 popular magazines. We have this index from 1915 to the present.
Basement	New York Times Index Index to the New York Times, a major national newspaper. The library has the New York Times from 1851 to the present on microfilm. The index is subject arranged. Paper indexes begin in 1929, and from 1851 to 1928 they are on microfiche. There is an online Index to the New York Times available at: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/nytarchive.html

ONLINE PERIODICAL INDEXES

In the 1980's many Paper Periodical Indexes became digitized and now most periodical indexes are online on the Internet. In this form they can still be called indexes, but they are usually referred to as DATABASES.

Why use online databases?

It is much easier to use online databases, and you can search years of a database with one search
You can also find the most recent articles on any topic because most online databases are updated daily or weekly

There is a disadvantage to online databases for those who are researching topics in history or literature

Most online databases go back only to the 1990's or the 1980's, and so many potentially valuable articles in older magazines and journals can be missed if you search only in online databases.

Some Online Databases that the SE Library Has

FirstSearch	Article First This database contains citations to articles that appear in journals in science, technology, social science, business and humanities, and popular culture. With over 16,000 journals indexed, this is one of the largest journal databases in the SE Library's collection. It covers from 1990 to the present, and is updated daily.
EBSCOHost	Academic Search Premier The SE Library has subscribed to a new database called Academic Search Premier. This database has been designed specifically for academic institutions and EBSCOHost claims that, it is “the world’s largest scholarly, multidisciplinary full text database.” Indeed, it is larger that the database that it is replacing, Academic Search Elite. It contains full text for nearly 4,550 journals and magazines, whereas Elite has only 2050. It has indexing and abstracting for more than 8,200 titles. It contains full text for many journals back to the 1990’s and for one hundred journals there is full text back to 1975.
EBSCOhost, and FirstSearch	ERIC ERIC, the Educational Resource Information Center, is a very large education database that has been around since 1966. It was funded by the U.S. Department of Education until 2003. It contains over 1 million records in two types: (1) ERIC Documents, which are classroom guides, results of research not published, dissertations, manuals, results or research, and (2) Journal articles from almost 1000 journals. Many of the ERIC Documents from 1993-to the present are available full-text online. There is another online version at the Department of Education website, at: http://www.eric.ed.gov/ For more information on ERIC, go to the following website: http://www.se.edu/lib/eric.htm
EBSCOhost	Professional Development Collection "Designed for professional educators, this database provides a highly specialized collection of 520 high quality education journals, including nearly 350 peer-reviewed titles. This database also contains more than 200 educational reports. Professional Development Collection is the most comprehensive collection of full text education journals in the world."
EBSCOhost	PsychInfo "PsycINFO, from the American Psychological Association (APA), contains nearly 2.4 million citations and summaries of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations, all in psychology and related disciplines, dating as far back as the 1800s. 98 percent of the covered material is peer-reviewed. Journal coverage, which spans 1887 to present, includes international material selected from more than 2,200 periodicals in more than 27 languages."
EBSCOhost	PsycARTICLES PsycARTICLES, from the American Psychological Association (APA), is a definitive source of full-text, peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific articles in psychology. The database contains more than 134,000 articles from 63 journals - 50 published by the American Psychological Association (APA) and 13 from allied organizations. It includes all journal articles, letters to the editor and errata from each journal. Coverage spans 1894 to present."
EBSCOhost	Communication and Mass Media Complete "Communication & Mass Media Complete provides the most robust, quality research solution in areas related to communication and mass media. CMMC incorporates CommSearch (formerly produced by the National Communication Association) and Mass Media Articles Index (formerly produced by Penn State) along with numerous other journals to create a research and reference resource of unprecedented scope and depth in the communication and mass media fields."
FirstSearch	H.W. Wilson Select Full Text Covers 1,600 periodicals from 1994 to the present. Contains records from: *Readers'* *Guide Abstracts, Social Sciences Abstracts, Humanities Abstracts, General Science* *Abstracts, and Business Abstracts* and other Wilson databases. It is updated weekly. An important feature of this database is that all articles are full text.
EBSCOhost	MasterFILE Premier "Designed specifically for public libraries, this multidisciplinary database provides full text for more than 1,750 general reference publications with full text information dating as far back as 1975. Covering virtually every subject area of general interest, MasterFILE Premier also includes nearly 500 full text reference books, 85,827 biographies, 105,789 primary source documents, and an Image Collection of 285,912 photos, maps and flags. This database is updated daily via EBSCOhost."
EBSCOhost	MAS Ultra School Edition "Designed specifically for high school libraries, this database contains full text for more than 500 popular, high school magazines. MAS Ultra – School Edition also provides more than 360 full text reference books, 85,639 biographies, 104,481 primary source documents, and an Image Collection of 285,912 photos, maps & flags, color PDFs and expanded full text backfiles (back to 1975) for key magazines."
EBSCOhost	Education Research Complete "Education Research Complete is the definitive online resource for education research. Topics covered include all levels of education from early childhood to higher education, and all educational specialties, such as multilingual education, health education, and testing. Education Research Complete provides indexing and abstracts for more than 1,820 journals, as well as full text for more than 900 journals, and includes full text for more than 71 books and monographs, and for numerous education-related conference papers."
FirstSearch	MLA Bibliography This database is compiled by the Modern Language Association, and is one of the top indexes of literature, languages, linguistics, and folklore. It contains over 1.3 million citations to over 6,500 periodicals and other publications. It covers from 1963 to the present, and is updated 9 times a year.
EBSCOhost	SocINDEX SocINDEX with Full Text is the world's most comprehensive and highest quality sociology research database. The database features more than 1,918,000 records with subject headings from a 19,300+ term sociological thesaurus designed by subject experts and expert lexicographers. SocINDEX with Full Text contains full text for 428 "core" coverage journals dating back to 1908, and 136 "priority" coverage journals. This database also includes full text for more than 720 books and monographs, and full text for 6,785 conference papers." There should be many articles in this database dealing with discrimination issues.
ABI-Inform	ABI-Inform This is a large business database, and indexes over 3000 journals, magazines and newspapers. It would also contain many articles on discrimination in the business world.
EBSCOhost	Business Source Premier "Business Source Premier is the industry’s most used business research database, providing full text for more than 2,300 journals, including full text for more than 1,100 peer-reviewed titles. Business Source Premier is superior to the competition in full text coverage in all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, MIS, POM, accounting, finance and economics. This database is updated daily on EBSCOhost."
EBSCOhost	Newspaper Source "Newspaper Source provides cover-to-cover full text for 28 U.S. and international newspapers. The database also contains full text television & radio news transcripts, and selected full text for more than 260 U.S. newspapers. This database is updated daily via EBSCOhost.
EBSCOhost	Regional Business News "This database provides comprehensive full text coverage for regional business publications. Regional Business News incorporates coverage of 75 business journals, newspapers and newswires from all metropolitan and rural areas within the United States. This database is updated on a daily basis."
EBSCOhost	Military and Government Collection "Designed to offer current news pertaining to all branches of the military and government, this database offers a thorough collection of periodicals, academic journals, and other content pertinent to the increasing needs of those sites. The Military & Government Collection provides cover-to-cover full text for nearly 300 journals and periodicals and indexing and abstracts for nearly 400 titles."
EBSCOhost	Health Source-Consumer Edition "This database is the richest collection of consumer health information available to libraries worldwide, providing information on many health topics including the medical sciences, food sciences and nutrition, childcare, sports medicine and general health. Health Source: Consumer Edition provides access to nearly 80 full text, consumer health magazines."
EBSCOhost	Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition "This database provides nearly 550 scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines. Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition also features the Lexi-PAL Drug Guide, which covers 1,300 generic drug patient education sheets with more than 4,700 brand names."
EBSCOhost	Topic Search "This current events database allows researchers to explore social, political & economic issues, scientific discoveries and other popular topics discussed in today’s classrooms. TOPICsearch contains full text for over 139,800 articles from more than 4,800 diverse sources."
Criminal Justice Periodicals Index	Criminal Justice Periodicals Index This is a database containing journals from criminal justice.
EBSCOhost	Middle Search Plus Middle Search Plus provides full text for more than 150 popular, magazines for middle and Junior high school research. All full text articles included in the database are assigned a reading level indicator (Lexiles), and full text information dates as far back as 1990. Middle Search Plus also contains 84,606 biographies, 88,463 primary source documents, and an Image Collection of 107,135 photos, maps and flags. This database is updated daily on EBSCOhost
EBSCOhost	Primary Search Primary Search provides full text for more than 60 popular, magazines for elementary school research. All full text articles included in the database are assigned a reading level indicator (Lexiles), and full text information dates as far back as 1990. This database is updated daily on EBSCOhost.
online	NEWSBANK http://infoweb.newsbank.com This is a database of newspaper articles from newspapers published in major cities in the United States, and also the world.
online	Oklahoman Archives This is the archives of the Daily Oklahoman newspaper, with access to the full content of the newspaper from September 1901 to the present. Access through the Electronic Resources pages at: http://www.se.edu/lib/electres.htm

1. Where the Databases are located
These databases are all to be found on the SE Library's Electronic Resources Page at: http://www.se.edu/lib/electres.htm

2. What EBSCOHost and FirstSearch are
The word EBSCOhost or FirstSearch to the right of the database name in the table above indicates the name of the database vendor where you can find these databases. If you look at the list of links on the ELectronic Resources page, you will see the links organized by the type of database that they are. You will find EBSCOhost and FirstSearch under the listing of databases called Periodical Databases. When you go down the list, you will see at least two links for both EBSCOhost and FirstSearch. The first link is for those that are on the SE campus. Click on that link, and you will be taken to the list of databases under EBSCOhost or FirstSearch. The second link is the off campus link. This link is necessary to use if you are off of the SE Campus. This link takes you to a page where you will be asked to type in a userid or authorization number, and a password. The userid or authorization number and password to gain access to EBSCOhost and FirstSearch is available at the SEOSU Library Reference Desk, and also is on the proxy server.

What the Electronic Resources Page looks like on the SE Library's Webpage. You can see the links to EBSCOhost and FirstSearch

Step 2: Check to see if the article is available online Full-Text

(the steps from here on pertain only to online databases)

Databases have changed much in the last ten years. it used to be that databases contained only the citation (information needed to find the article) and sometimes a summary, or abstract of the article. Starting about ten years ago, database vendors began to offer some articles in full-text, that means that the entire article was available online, making it unnecessary to find the article in a library. Now there are fewer databases that offer no titles in full-text, and so after doing research in one of SE's databases, check to see if the article that you are interested is available full-text. There will be a link that say something like this: HTML full text, or PDF full text. When you click on the link, you are presented with the full-text of the article, and you are finished. What if the full-text of the article is not available in the database that you are searching? If that is the case, then we move onto Step Three

Step 3: Check to see if the article is available online Full-Text in another database

If you can't find an article full-text in one database, then look to see what other databases have a journal title available full-text. You do that by checking another database called A-to-Z A-to-Z is located at: http://atoz.ebsco.com/home.asp?id=seosu, or you can also get to A-to-Z from the electronic resources page at: http://www.se.edu/lib/electres.htm. A-to-Z is a list of journals that are available full-text, either in an online database that we subscribe to or available in the library in paper in the basement on in microform.

Step 4: Check to see if the the SE Library has the journal in paper

The library subscribes to almost one thousand journals, magazines, and newspapers. In many cases the journal article that you want is located in a journal that we have downstairs in the basement, or on microform. How do you check to see if the library has a journal? By checking A-to-Z, or checking a copy of the SE Library's Periodicals Holding List http://www.se.edu/lib/perhold.htm

These journals, magazines in the next table are those that can be considered primary sources, because they all contain content that was written at the time of the event.

Some Magazines and Journals with Historical content

Basement and Microfilm and microfiche	U.S. News and World Report This weekly magazine reports news and commentary. The library has this publication from 1936.
Basement, microfilm and microfiche	Time This weekly magazine reports news and commentary. The library has this publication from 1923.
Basement, microfilm and microfiche	Newsweek This weekly magazine reports news and commentary. The library has this publication from 1933.
Basement	New Republic This is a weekly magazine of commentary and opinion of current events. THe Library has this publication from 1923 to 1998.
Basement	The Nation This is a weekly magazine of commentary and opinion of current events. THe Library has this publication from 1925 to 1980.
Basement	The National Review This is a weekly magazine of commentary and opinion of current events. THe Library has this publication from 1979 to 1996.
Microfilm, 1st floor	New York Times The library has this newspaper from 1851 to the present on microfilm reels. The index to the newspaper from 1851 to 1928 is on microfiche, and is located with the microfiche periodicals. The New York Times is a primary historical source.
Basement	Times-Picayune (New Orleans) This is a daily newspaper that is still being published today. The library has this newspaper from November 1860 to March 1868.
Basement	Life Magazine This is a weekly magazine news and "life" as it appeared every week from 1936 to 1972. Each weekly issue contains many quality photographs, some of which are well-known historical photographs.
microfiche	Harper's Weekly This is a weekly magazine news magazine written in the 19th century. It contains many illustrations and the library has it from 1857 to 1876.
Basement	Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report This is a weekly magazine of news and commentary on the events of the United States Congress. THe Library has this publication from 1987 to the present.
Basement	Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine 1882-1901. Not Indexed
Basement	Harpers Magazine 1850-1976 (with some gaps) Indexed in Poole's
Basement	Scribner's Monthly 1870-1881 Indexed in Poole's
Basement	Scribner's Magazine 1887-1939 (with some gaps) All four of these monthly magazine contain articles of opinion and history with short stories and poetry also included. All three of these magazines began publishing in the last 50 years of the nineteenth century, and so are useful for historians. These four magazines could be considered as primary sources.

These magazines and journals below contain historical articles written after the event.

Basement	American Heritage Well known magazine that has very readable articles of varying length that cover all aspects of United States history. This library has issues from 1954 to the present. Indexed in EBSCOHost (Academic Search Elite), and in Reader's Guide (1954 to present)
Basement	American Historical Review This very distinguished journal, published by the American Historical Association, contains long scholarly articles on all areas of history. The library has this journal from 1895 to the present. Indexed in Humanities Index 1974-1993 and on Humanities Index on CD-ROM 1984-1999, and in EBSCOHost (Academic Search Elite) and in Reader's Guide (1895 to 1953, 1961-1978)
Basement	Civil War History This journal contains scholarly articles on the what it calls the "middle period", which includes the Civil War period, including the period leading up to the Civil War, the Civil War itself, and the Reconstruction period. The library has this journal from 1990 to the present, has 1984-1989 on microfilm. Indexed in Humanities Index from 1974 to 1993, and in EBSCOHost (Academic Search Elite).
Basement	Civil War Times Illustrated This magazine contains articles on various aspects of the civil war. It also contains numerous reproductions of diaries, and journals of participants in the war, from officers to the enlisted man. The SE Library has this publication from 1962 to 1977. There is no index, so you will have to browse each issue.
Basement	Mississippi Valley Historical Review Published quarterly by the Mississippi Valley Historical Association. Contains many articles on the civil war period. The SE Library has this publication from 1914 to 1964. Indexed in International Index from 1907 to 1964.
Basement	Journal of American History (formerly Mississippi Valley Historical Review) Published by the Organization of American Historians. An excellent journal on all aspects of American history. This library has volumes from 1964 to the present. Indexed in Humanities Index 1974-1993, and in EBSCOHost (Academic Search Elite)
Basement	Missouri Historical Review A quarterly publication of the State Historical Society of Missouri. Contains articles on the history of Missouri, including slavery and the Civil War period. The SE Library has this publication from 1976 to 1980. There is no index.
Basement	Journal of the West A quarterly publication that is"devoted to the history, culture and other facets of the development of the west." It contains articles on the "west" although what constitutes the "west" is not clear. It does have some articles that pertain to the civil war. The library has this publication from 1965 to the present. It is indexed in Humanities Index, (1974-1993) Social Sciences and Humanities Index (1965-1973) and in EBSCOHost (Academic Search Elite).
Basement	Journal of the Illinois Historical Society This journal is devoted to the preservation, writing, publishing, teaching, understanding, and awareness of Illinois history. It contains quite a few articles on Abraham Lincoln, and it also has some articles on the Civil War. The SE Library has this publication from 1915 to the present. Not indexed.
Basement	Journal of Southern History An excellent journal on Southern History published by the Southern Historical Association. The library has issues from 1935 to the present. It is indexed in International Index, Social Sciences and Humanities Index (1965-1973) and Humanities Index (1974-1993), and EBSCOHost (Academic Search Elite)
Basement	Chronicles of Oklahoma This is a quarterly publication of the Oklahoma Historical Society. It contains articles on all aspects of Oklahoma history, including the Civil War. It will have articles on Civil War battles fought in Oklahoma The SE Library has this publication from 1921 to the present. There are three index volumes, one from 1921 to 1959, a second one from 1960 to 1979, and a third one called An Annotated Guide to the Chronicles of Oklahoma that covers 1921 to 1994.
Basement	New England Quarterly The library holds volumes from 1946 to the present. This journal says that it is " a historical review of New England Life and Letters." It is indexed by the International Index and Humanities Index 1974-1993 and EBSCOHost (Academic Search Elite).

There are sites on the Internet that contain the full text of articles out of many nineteenth century journals. The name of the sites to go to to access these journals is listed below:

Making of America
http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/
This is a good site from the University of Michigan that is a digital library of primary sources.

The Online Books Page
http://www.digital.library.upenn.edu/books/

Step 5: Use InterLibrary Loan to obtain the article from another college library that has the journal that you want

If you have determined that you cannot locate a journal article full-text on any online database, AND the SE library does not have the journal that the article is in, then what do you do? Give up? You can, but ifournalreq.htm">http://www.se.edu/lib/illjournalreq.htm for a journal article and http://www.se.edu/lib/illbookreq.htm for Interlibrary loaning a book.et. Anybody can put out material on the Internet and there is no editorial or evaluation process at all. So when deciding to use an Internet resource you need to look at the following:

Author	Who wrote this? If it was written by a government agency, or by and educational institution, or in some cases, a corporation, then the information is probably factual. If, however, you can't determine either who wrote it or who published the site, then you may need to question the accuracy of the material.
Currency	Is the site being updated, or has the information not been updated for several years? This may or may not be important, depending on the topic.
Bias	What is the author's viewpoint? Is the material objective, or is there a heavy bias slanting the material in one or another direction? Biased material is not necessarily bad, it depends again on your topic, and what you want to do with your topic.

SEARCH TOOLS

Google
http://www.google.com
This is one of the most popular and largest search tool on the Internet.

Yahoo
http://www.yahoo.com
This is another popular search tool on the Internet.

MetaCrawler
http://www.metacrawler.com/index.html
This is a search tool that searches other search tools, like Yahoo and Google, and combines the results. The idea behind all metasearch tools is if searching in one search tool is good, searching in several at once is better.

Internet Search Tools
http://www.se.edu/lib/search3.htm
This is another page that contains links to many search tools on the Internet.

GENERAL INTERNET SITES

Electronic Resources
http://www.se.edu/lib/electres.htm
This page contains links to electronic databases that the SE Library subscribes to or free databases that were put on this page.

Internet Resources by Subject
http://www.se.edu/lib/search2.htm
This is a page that has been put together by librarians that contain a list of links to resources on the Internet by topic.

Government Documents
http://www.se.edu/lib/govdocs/govdoc%20home.html
This is a page of links to government documents, which are documents and databases published by the United States government on many different topics. There are many useful reports and statistics published by the government on the Internet.

USAGov
http://www.usa.gov/

NetLibrary
http://www.netlibrary.com/

The Online Books Page
http://www.digital.library.upenn.edu/books/

HISTORY

American Memory
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/
This is an amazing site from the Library of Congress, that has taken and digitized much of its holdings of primary sources.

Making of America
http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/
This is a good site from the University of Michigan that is a digital library of primary sources.

Historical Census Browser
http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/
This is a good site for statistical information on the United States population from 1790-2000 from the University of Virginia.

SCIENCE

National Science Digital Library
http://nsdl.org/

Science.gov
http://www.science.gov/
This is a good site for scientific information from the United States Government.

MUSIC & LITERATURE

Grove Music Online
http://www.grovemusic.com
This is an excellent site for all kinds of musical information.

Alex: A Catalog of Electronic Texts
http://www.infomotions.com/alex/

This site contains the full texts of many great works of literature.

CURRENT EVENTS and CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES

Stats
http://www.stats.org/
This site is managed by George Mason University, and it they "check out the facts behind the news."

The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press
http://people-press.org
THis site contains the results of surveys on many different topics

NationalIssues
http://nationalissues.com/
This is a good site for current events, international news, science news, national news, business and sports news.

Public Agenda
http://www.publicagenda.org/
This site is a "nonpartisan opinion research and civic engagement organization helping Americans explore and understand critical issues since 1975."

RESOURCES HELPFUL IN WRITING YOUR PAPER
After you have found your information, the next step is to put it together into an essay, research paper, or report. There are several resources that the SE Library has to help in this effort.

R 808.042 F82L6	The Little, Brown Handbook This is an excellent book in helping you to write better. It contains chapters on grammar, and style, tense, spelling rules, plus how to document sources.
R 808.042 C86r6	The Random House Handbook This is a guide to good writing, and it covers how to compose whole essays, how to construct a research essay, how to support a thesis, how to construct good paragraphs, sentences, and good usage of words, punctuation, and more.
R 428.2 L98s	The St. Martin's Handbook This is a good book to use in writing a term paper, and takes you through the process of choosing a topic, gathering sources, evaluating and analyzing a resource. The next section takes you through the grammar lessons, and word usage.
808.06	How to Write Term Papers and Reports This book takes you through the whole term paper process, from choosing your topic to how to do research, to how to write the term paper and cite your sources.
Internet	General Research Information http://www.se.edu/lib/generalresearch.htm This is a link on the Research Aids to Library Resources Page. It contains links to sites that contain hints to doing research, how to avoid plagiarism, how to cite sources that you used in your paper, and more.

Last Updated: June 23, 2008