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Introduction to Doing Library Research for Technical Writing | |
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.
In the library we have a special collection of books on the first floor. In this special collection the Library has books that are useful for finding facts, statistics,and brief factual information. This collection is called the Reference Collection, and it contains encyclopedias, dictionaries, directories, and handbooks. Use reference works to begin your research on a topic. 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.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:
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 the ten main classes of the Dewey Decimal System:
| 000-099 | GENERALITIES |
| 100-199 | PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY |
| 200-299 | RELIGION |
| 300-399 | SOCIAL SCIENCES |
| 400-499 | LANGUAGE |
| 500-599 | NATURAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS |
| 600-699 | TECHNOLOGY (Applied Sciences) |
| 700-799 | THE ARTS |
| 800-899 | LITERATURE |
| 900-999 | HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY |
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.
Since the 1990's much of this information is now available on the Internet. It is a great place to find useful facts and statistics to help any speech. This link is to the web page that contains links to many useful government sites. It is available on the web at: http://www.se.edu/lib/govdocs/govdoc%20home.html You can also search the government's web sites all at once by going to FirstGov at: http://www.firstgov.gov. You can also get statistical information from government websites by going to: FedStats at : http://www.fedstats.gov/
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.
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 |
| Basement | Social Sciences Index |
| Basement | Art Index |
| 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 | Business Periodicals Index
An index to articles in almost 400 english language journals in business related areas, such as: accounting, advertising and marketing, banking, communications, occupational health and safety, international business, management, real estate, regulation of industry, and public relations. The paper index covers 1971 to the present, and the CD-ROM version covers 1984 to the present, and is located on the local area network (LAN) terminals. |
| basement | Wall Street Journal Index
An index to the Wall Street Journal. The index is divided into two parts. Part 1 (General) contains articles on business topics, while Part 2 (Barrons Index) is an index to company specific information. The library has the Wall Street Journal from 1975 to the present on microfilm. |
| 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://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/nytimes/advancedsearch.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?
There is a disadvantage to online databases for those who are researching topics in history or literature
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 15,000 journals indexed, this is one of the largest
journal databases in the SE Library's collection. It covers from 1990 to
the present, |
| EBSCOhost | Academic Search Elite Academic Search Elite provides full text for nearly 2,050 academic, social sciences, humanities, general science, education and multi-cultural journals, and abstracts for about 1330 more. Over 1,500 journals are peer reviewed. Full text backfiles go as far back as January of 1990, while indexing and abstract backfiles go as far back as January of 1984. This database is updated daily on EBSCOhost. |
| 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, and since has been in limbo. So the database is current as of the end of 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. A new contractor for ERIC, called CSC, is currently putting 2004-2005 materials into the ERIC database. About 107,000 of the ERIC Documents from 1993-2004 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 more than 550 full text journals, including more than 350 peer-reviewed titles. Professional Development Collection is the most comprehensive collection of full text education journals in the world. |
| EBSCOhost | PsychInfo PsychInfo contains nearly two million citations and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations, all in the field of psychology. Journal coverage, which dates back to the late 1800's includes international material selected from nearly 2,000 periodicals in over 35 languages. More than 60,000 records are added each year. |
| EBSCOhost | PsycARTICLES "PsycARTICLES is a definitive source of searchable full text articles on current issues in psychology. The PsycARTICLES database covers general psychology and specialized, basic, applied, clinical and theoretical research in psychology. The database contains more than 39,000 searchable full text articles from 44 journals published by the American Psychological Association and 8 from allied organizations. It contains all journal articles, letters to the editor and errata from each of the 52 journals. Examples of titles offered in PsycARTICLES include: American Psychologist, Behavioral Neuroscience, Canadian Psychology, Developmental Psychology, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Psychoanalytic Psychology, Psychotherapy: Theory/Research/Practice/Training, etc. Coverage spans from 1985 to the 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 2,050 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 more than 350 full text reference books, 84,606 biographies, 88,463 primary source documents, and an Image Collection of 107,135 photos, maps and flags. This database is updated daily via EBSCOhost |
| EBSCOhost | MAS Ultra School Edition Designed specifically for high school libraries, this database provides full text nearly 600 popular general interest and current events publications with information dating back as far as 1975 for key magazines. MAS Ultra – School Edition also provides more than 500 full text pamphlets, 268 full text reference books, 84,606 biographies, 88,463 primary source documents, and an Image Collection of 107,135 photos, maps and flags. This database is updated daily via EBSCOhost. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| ABI-Inform | ABI-Inform
This is a large business database, and indexes over 3000 journals, magazines and newspapers. |
| 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 SE Library Reference Desk, and also is on the proxy server.
Step 4: Check to see if the the SE Library has the journal in paper
Step 5: Use InterLibrary Loan to obtain the article from another college
library that has the journal that you want
1. Obtain an Interlibrary loan form from the circulation desk or go to an online InterLibrary Loan form at: http://www.se.edu/lib/illjournalreq.htm for a journal article and http://www.se.edu/lib/illbookreq.htm for Interlibrary loaning a book. 2. Fill out the form, take note that those fields of the form that have an asterisk in front of them are required fields that are needed to send the information via e-mail. Click submit after filling out the form. 3. The process of receiving something from InterLibrary loan takes about 4 days to two weeks, so if InterLibrary Loans are needed,
| Basement | Essay and General Literature Index
This is an index to essays found in books that contains collections of essays with particular emphasis to materials in the social sciences and humanities. It begins coverage in 1900 and goes to 2002. |
| FirstSearch | Proceedings Contains over 149,000 citations of every congress, symposium, conference, and workshop from all over the world that was received at the British Library from October 1993 to the present. This database is updated twice a week. |
| FirstSearch | PapersFirst Contains citations to papers presented at worldwide meetings, conferences, expositions, workshops, congresses, and symposia. To be included the information must have been received by the British Document Supply Center. It covers from October 1993 to the is updated monthly. It has 4.9 million records and is updated 24 times a year. |
| FirstSearch | WorldCat A database of over 52 million records of materials representing 400 languages, such as: books, magazines, films, slides, journals, manuscripts, maps, musical scores, newspapers, videocassettes, audio-cassettes, computer data files, and computer programs, that have been cataloged by OCLC members worldwide. The records cover items from 1000 BC to the present, and this database is updated daily. |
| FirstSearch | GPO Monthly Catalog This contains citations to 522,000 publications of the United States Government, such as: Congressional reports, hearings, debates, and records; judiciary materials; documents issued by an executive department or federal agency (defense, education, justice) The database covers documents that have been published since July 1976. |
| Internet | Mergent Online This database contains financial statements, history, background, mergers and acquisitions, subsidiaries, business constructional programs, principal plants and properties, names and titles of officers of a large number of 15,000 U.S. public companies, data on international companies. Private companies are not included. Also included are company annual reports. This database is located at: http://www.mergentonline.com/ |
| Internet | CCH Tax Research Network
CCH is a major publisher of Tax Information. This site contains all tax laws and regulations, tax court cases and rulings. Located on the Internet site at: http://tax.cchgroup.com/primesrc/bin/login.asp This is a password protected database. To access, come see a librarian at the Reference Desk. |
OTHER SOURCES OF FACTS AND STATISTICS FOR A REPORT
When writing a report, many times you may need statistics to back up a point that you are trying to make. These sources below contain facts and statistics. These are sources that contain facts and statistics in paper form. Statistical information on the Internet sources are located further down in this document.
The Statesman's Yearbook
R 328 St2s
This books is an annual book of the politics,
cultures, and economies of the world.
The Almanac of American Politics
R 328.73 Al6
This has facts and biographies of all of the
members of the United States Congress, United States Senate, and the Governor's
of the fifty states.
Statistical Abstract of the United States
R 317.3 Un3s
This fact filled annual publication published
by the Bureau of the Census has statistics on population, health, education,
law enforcement, crime, prisoners, geography, environment, defense, income,
expenditures, prices, science, businesses, agriculture, natural resources,
energy transportation and more.
World Almanac and Book of Facts
R 317.3 W89w
This fact-filled volume has information on all
the countries of the world, all the states of the United States, and listings
of all four year colleges in the U.S., list of top-selling albums of all time,
list of newspapers with highest circulation, best selling books, best-selling
magazines, astronomy information and calendar for the year, and sports statistics
and lists.
The New York Public Library Desk Reference
R 031 N42m3
This book is written by the New York Public Library,
a system with four major research libraries and 85 branches, and has more
material than any other public library in the world (55 million items).This
book contains information that "reflects the experience of librarians, professional
researchers, and reference editors in handling a wide range of questions in
many subject areas." It has information on times and places, weights and measures,
information on the biological world, physical sciences, technology, inventions,
lists of musical, drama terms, lists of composers, playwrights, film directors,
painters, sculptors, architects, lists of authors, religious information,
symbols used in science, mathematics, music, religion, maps, road signs, sign
language. Also information on grammar, etiquette, first aid, health and nutrition,
personal finances, travel, sports and games, and the political world.
Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches
R 280.6973 Ye3o
This annual gives information on the trends in
religion in the United States, brief information on all religious bodies in
the United States, lists of religious periodicals in the United States and
Canada, and tables of membership statistics.
Oklahoma Almanac
R 317.66 Ok4a
This annual publication gives information on
the Oklahoma state Government, including biographies on Oklahoma government
leaders, and the members of the Legislature. It also gives facts and statistics
of every county in Oklahoma. Also gives information on all cities with over
9,900 population, and a list of all incorporated cities and towns in Oklahoma,
plus a lot of other information about this state and the people and organizations
in it.
Guinness World Records
R 032 G94b
This fact filled annual publication on all kinds
of records, from sports records to the most trivial.
There is much useful information on the Internet, and much information that is of little value. So when finding material on the Internet, you need to be careful. Printed books and magazines and journals go through an evaluation process before they are published. It is not the case with material on the Internet. 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
GENERAL INTERNET SITES
HISTORY
EDUCATION
ENVIRONMENT
CRIME
GRANTS, FOUNDATIONS
BUSINESS
SAFETY
MEDICINE
TRANSPORTATION
CURRENT EVENTS and CONTROVERSIAL ISSUES
Grammar Manuals
| R 808.042 F82L6 | The Little, Brown Handbook |
| 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. |
Style Manuals
Style manuals outline the format a formal paper should take with regard to
tables, bibliographies, footnotes, etc. Format is often a question of individual
style and preference, and there is not necessarily one correct method.
Visit the Style Manuals page from the Electronic Reference Shelf at
http:/tug.lib.uwaterloo.ca/referencetools/stylemanuals.html for
Web resources. The following is a selected list of style guides
in print.
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 T87 | Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations
|
| R 808.02 R83s | A Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association Washington, D.C.: The Association, 1994 This is more commonly known as the APA Style Guide, and it is used in psychology, education, sociology, and other disciplines of the social sciences. |
| R 808.027 G35m5 | MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
5th ed. Joseph Gibaldi. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1999 This style is commonly used by teachers of English classes. |
808.02 Un3c 15th | Chicago Manual of Style 15th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003 This well-known stylebook has been around since the 1890's and is used throughout the publishing industry. |
Technical Writing Style Manuals
The purpose of technical or job-related writing is to communicate clearly information such as instructions, results, or new proposals. The following is a selected list of sources on technical writing.| R 808.0666 AL7h6 | Handbook of Technical Writing |
| R 808.0666 W43b6 | Basic Technical Writing Herman M. Weisman. Columbus: C. E. Merrill Pub. Co., 1985 |
| R 808.0666 P48T | Technical Writing: A Practical Approach Pfeiffer, W. S. (1991). New York: Maxwell Macmillan International Pub. Group |
808.0666 W63p | Procedure Writing: Principles and Practices Douglas Wieringa, et al. Columbus: Battelle Press, 1992 |
| 808.0666 Sa4e | Editing Technical Writing Samson, D.C. (1993). New York, NY: Oxford University Press |
| 808.06665 B15p | The Plain English Approach to Business Writing Bailey, E.P., Jr. (1990). New York, NY: Oxford University Press |
| 808.066651 R81b | Business Reports: Written and Oral Ruch, William V, and Crawford, Maurice L. (1988). Boston: PWS-KENT Publishing Co |
| 300.723 P44c | Constructing Effective Questionnaires Peterson, Robert A. (2000). Thousand Oaks: Calif: Sage Publications, Inc |
| 300.723 Su7s | The Survey Kit Fink, Arlene (1995). Thousand Oaks: Calif: Sage Publications, Inc Vol 1: The Survey Handbook Vol 2: How to Ask Survey Questions Vol 3: How to Conduct Self-Administered and Mail Surveys Vol 4: How to Conduct Interviews by Telephone and In Person VOl 5: How to Design Surveys Vol 6: How to Sample in Surveys Vol 7: How to Measure Survey Reliability and Validity Vol 8: How to Analyze Survey Data Vol 9: How to Report on Surveys |
Statistical and Graphical Information
| 808.0666 W83w | Writing Up Qualitative Research Harry F. Wolcott. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, 1990 |
| 001.4226 T81v | Statistical Graphics: Design Principles and Practices
Schmid, Calvin Fisher, New York: Wiley |
| 001.4226 T81v | The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
Tufte, Edward R., Cheshire, Conn.: Graphics Press, 1997 |
Scientific Dictionaries
Scientific disciplines often develop a terminology that is unique to their subject area. Scientific dictionaries define words used exclusively in a discipline, or common words that have a special meaning within a discipline. Listed below are some examples of specialized dictionaries.
Plants and Their Names:A Concise Dictionary
Hyam, Roger and R. J. Pankhurst, New York: Oxford University Press, 1995
R 580.14 H99p
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms
5th ed., New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994
R 503 M17d5
The Oxford Dictionary of Scientific Writers and Editors
New York: Oxford University Press, 1991
808.0666 Ox2