Course: Eng 180
Spring 2008 – Allen

Librarian: Sean Cordes
Email: cs-cordes@wiu.edu
Phone: 298-2785

Office Hours: Mon 8-10, Tue 1-2, Wed 1-2

Off-Campus Access Library Internet Resources: If you are off-campus, you will need to enter your student id # or your ecom (email) username and password. If you have problems, call the reference desk at 309-298-2700 or 800-413-6544.

Getting Started

What do you want to find? How can you name it? What form of information do you need? What form do you need it in....

Keywords, keyterms- words people generally believe can be used alone or in combination to find targetted information.

Example: Gun Control

What are scholarly articles?

As a student, you will often be asked to use scholarly journal articles. A scholarly article, as opposed to magazines or news articles, are reviewed by professionals and experts in the field to verify the accuracy of the work. Scholarly articles also have citations, (footnotes, end notes, works cited pages, and bibliographies), that you can use in your own work to follow up further verified information to support your research.

Digging through the databases

Academic Search Premier, 1985- .
Academic Search Premier provides full text for more than 2,050 publications, including more than 1,500 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to the full text, indexing and abstracts are provided for all 3,476 journals in the collection. This database offers information in nearly every area of academic study.
Expanded Academic ASAP by InfoTrac, 1980- .
InfoTrac is one of the WIU Libraries’ most popular multidisciplinary database. Easy to use and a majority of the citations include full text.

LexisNexis Academic-full-text access to major domestic and foreign newpapers, transcripts, legal periodicals, and other sources.

JSTOR, Year varies by title- .
JSTOR has access to a wide variety of journal backfile issues with full text access.
CQ Researcher, single-themed, 12,000-word reports (background, stats, assessment, biblio.)

Opposing Viewpoints, 6,600+ viewpoint articles; statistics; biographies; court cases; primary docs

Full text - What there is and how to get it

Periodicals Holdings List
The Periodicals Holdings List (PHL) is a listing of both the print/microform periodicals available on the shelves of the Western Illinois University Libraries, and the full-text e-titles available via databases purchased by the Libraries. This resource currently indexes over 20,000 periodical titles.

Interlibrary Loan Service
Researchers who need library materials from other libraries are encouraged to use the WIU Libraries' Interlibrary Loan Department. Since ILL requests can take 7-10 business days to fill, you are encouraged to start your research early and place a request as soon as you know what you need.

find it
When you see this button, click on it to determine full-text availability. By clicking on the Find It! button you are engaging the libraries Peridocials Holdings List. The example below shows the Find It! button in a bibliographic citation:


find it!

 
 

SFX

sfx

Scholarly or Popular Materials: Knowing the Difference

Your instructor may require you to locate information in scholarly  journals.
But how can you easily know the differences between a scholarly journal and a popular magazine?

Some of the ways that a research journal typically differs from a popular magazine are:

1. Author or authority/expertise  
Scholarly journal articles will indicate authors and their academic credentials (degrees, positions, academic institution), and ways to contact them.
Popular magazines may not always list the author, credentials, contact and other information found in the scholarly article.

2. References and bibliographies
Scholarly journal articles will include footnotes, endnotes, bibliographies, or reference lists to show where the information in the article came from. Popular magazine articles rarely do. Popular magazine articles may attribute sources in a more indirect or less formal manner, or not at all

3. Focus of the content
Scholarly journal articles focus on research. Popular magazines focus on current events & topics of general interest, and include lots of ads for consumer products.

Scholarly articles are written for experts in the field.  The writing style of the article may be technical, detailed, and are often long and complex. Scholarly publications do not include a lot of advertisements for consumer products; ads are limited to scholarly or academic products and services

4. Review Method
Scholarly journal articles are thoroughly reviewed by subject experts for research accuracy & importance before being published. Popular magazines are not usually as rigorously reviewed.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the act of stealing or using or passing off as someone elses words, phrases, ideas, writings, or creative work as your own, whether you mean to or not.

According to Diana Hacker, editor of The Bedford Handbook, reminds her readers that "[t]hree different acts are considered plagiarism: (1) failing to cite quotations and borrowed ideas, (2) failing to enclose borrowed language in quotation marks, and (3) failing to put summaries and paraphrases in your own words" (570).

Basically you have to give authors credit for the work they did. You can avoid plagiarism by always citing your sources, including any and all resources and information found on the Web, via the Internet, or other electronic sources. Citing your sources accomplishes a number of things.

1. It gives the creator of work credit where credit is due.

2. It lets your readers know where you got your information, so they can tell if your sources are reliable.

3. It gives readers ionformation about the resource so they can fint it if they want more information.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Citing Your Sources: Hard Copy, Internet and RefWorks

There are a number of style you can use to cite your work, ask your instructor which they prefer.

Here are some of the most common ones. Diana Hacker’s A Pocket Style Manual features three popular formats: MLA, APA, and Chicago. Of the three listed, APA is the style I recommend for science research papers. For special instructions on how to cite Internet sources, see Hacker’s A Pocket Style Manual, Fourth Edition, pages 174-175. You can, of course, always consult the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fifth Edition (APA Manual). We have APA Manuals at the Reference Desk. For Internet sources, see pages 268-281. The Reference Staff have created handouts on two of three popular styles, Chicago is currently under revision and is not available.

To manage your citations, you might consider learning how to use RefWorks. It is citation management software that is compatible with most of the University Libraries's databases. Contact a librarian to set up a personal account and begin filling folders with citations. You will find RefWorks on the WIU Libraries list of databases.


Library Reference Service

If you need more help with the library tools demonstrated today, visit the Library Reference Desk, located on the main (second) floor of the library. The desk is open Mon-Thurs. 9-9, Fri. 9-5, Sat. 1-5, and Sun 1-5, 6-9 or use the Ask a Librarian page