Sourcepack

English 1000 Exploring Media Bias

Some research tricks

• Clarify your questions and the types of information you need to answer them.
• Think about where types of information are typically published.
• Use a variety of words: nature, environment, landscape, ecology.
• Use truncation to find word variants: ecolog* = ecology, ecologic, ecologist, etc.
• Use both broad and narrow terms.
• Examine records for subject headings or descriptors.
• Put OR between words to search for more.
• Put AND between words to narrow your results.
• Search authors with surname first for more precision.

Background Resources

• The Gale Virtual Reference Library provides specialized online encyclopedias for background information.
• CQ Researcher provides pro/con and background on a wide variety of issues.
• Oxford Reference Online Premier provides concise reference sources.

Finding Books

• The MERLIN catalog shows materials in the MU Libraries.
• The MOBIUS catalog shows materials from Missouri academic libraries.
• WorldCat shows materials from many libraries worldwide.

Finding Articles

Use these databases to identify articles on your topic:

• Academic Search Premier provides the core journals in all fields.
• Newsbank
• Newspaper Source
• Lexis/Nexis Academic
  • Choose News, then among many categories:
    • General News
    • World News
    • Arts & Sports News
    • News Transcripts
    • University News
• Alternative Press Index

Internet Information

• Google Directory
• Google Blog Search
• Evaluating Internet Information (from Johns Hopkins University)

Click on to locate a copy of the article online, in the library, or through ILL@MU.

To locate older materials, use the following databases and reference tools.

• C19: The Nineteenth Century Index
• The American Periodicals Series Online (1740-1900)
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online
• The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature (1890-) (Ready Ref. AI3 .R48)

To find your way around Ellis Library

• Virtual Tours
• Hours and Maps

This SOURCEPACK is a service of Ellis Library