Getting Started in the Library
This library guide points you in the direction of some basic library resources for completing library assignments and writing research papers in this course. Many of these resources are available from the library's homepage at http://www.lib.ipfw.edu/, so you may want to bookmark both the homepage and this guide.
Here are some resources to get you started:
Gaining an Overview
To develop and refine your search, it often helps to consult a specialized dictionary, encyclopedia, handbook, textbook, guide, or bibliography. These tools are designed to offer an overview of your topic or research problem written by an expert. They may provide an historical perspective, a chronology of events, definitions of terms or concepts, or bibliographic references leading to the literature in a particular field of study. Many useful reference works are now available online. These handy e-reference collections are accessible via Find Resources By... Subject, Title, or Type on the library's homepage.
Choosing a Topic
Don't know what to write about? These two "hot topic databases cover many current social and political issues and are good starting points for ideas and gaining an initial overview.
- CQ Researcher
Investigates "hot" topics in the news and presents concise and well-balanced information from all sides of the issue. Each report is written by an experienced journalist and includes a "Pro/Con" segment, a chronology, and a bibliography. US focus with some coverage of international affairs. - CQ Global Researcher Provides authoritative coverage of important issues affecting the international community. Each single-themed report contains an introductory overview, background and assessment of the current situation, pro/con statements from representatives of opposing positions, chronology, and a bibliography of key sources.
- Opposing Viewpoints in Context Provides information from all sides of current event issues including statistics, links to Web sites, and full-text articles from more than 30 major magazines and newspapers, utilizing the acclaimed social issues series published by Greenhaven Press, as well as core reference content from other Gale and Macmillan Reference USA sources.
eReference Collections
These electronic encyclopedias provide overviews and bibliographies for the beginning researcher.
- Gale Virtual Reference Library This online reference collection provides full-text access in PDF and html formats to more than 200 major reference works published since 2000, including encyclopedias, almanacs, directories, and handbooks by publishers such as Berkshire, Cambridge, Macmillan, Sage, Scribner, Sharpe, St. James, Thomson Gale, and Wiley.
- Oxford Reference Online Premium Provides a single interface for searching more than 20 Oxford encyclopedias and 175 language and subject dictionaries and reference works, including the Oxford Companion series, Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, and Visual English Dictionary. Covers all areas of science, medicine, humanities, social sciences, and business.
- Credo Reference An electronic (e-reference) collection providing access to entries in over 500 encyclopedias and other reference works. Also provides access to art, science, and medical images, audio pronunciation files and atlas images of places and geographic features throughout the world.
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