Sourcepack

English 1000
Instructor: Ericka P. Evans  epe6c6@mizzou.edu

I. FINDING BACKGROUND INFORMATION

• CQ Researcher
  Provides extensive background information and discussion of the pros and cons of current issues of the day.
• Gale Virtual Reference Library
  Online fulltext reference books.
• Public Agenda Issues Guide
• Opposing Viewpoints Series
• Taking Sides Series

II. FINDING JOURNAL/MAGAZINE/NEWSPAPER ARTICLES GENERAL DATABASES:

• Academic Search Premier (EBSCOHost)
  Index to major journals and magazines in all subject areas. Many articles are full-text. Updated continually. Generally, coverage is 1984 to date. Click on "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals" to limit search results to research articles.
• Lexis/Nexis Academic
  Provides full-text of current and back issues of major newspapers, journals, newsletters, and news sources from around the world.
• Newspaper Source
  Provides selected full text for nearly 30 national (U.S.) and international newspapers. It also contains full text television & radio news transcripts, and selected full text for more than 200 regional (U.S.) newspapers.

SUBJECT SPECIALIZED DATABASES:
The MU Libraries offer a large number of databases covering all disciplines. Below is a listing of a few that could be helpful. Go to the MU Libraries' website to see a complete listing.

• Sociological Abstracts
  Abstracts and indexes the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. Provides abstracts of journal articles, books, dissertations, conference papers, etc.
• PAIS
  Emphasis on national and international economic, political and public policy issues.
• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
  Indexes international periodical literature in Political Science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration/policy.

III. FINDING BOOKS

Search the MERLIN Catalog to find books on your topic.
Think of words and synonyms that describe the topic you are researching. Select the keyword search and type words that describe your topic into the search box. You can use the asterisk as a truncation symbol. You can use quotation marks to search for phrases. Once you have a list of hits, select one that looks on-target, then examine the subject headings for that item. Try clicking on one of the subject headings for that book, to retrieve similar books. Subject heading searches generally pull up more relevant hits than a keyword search.

If you do not find enough books on your topic, change your search to "ALL MERLIN." By doing so you will be checking the library holdings at UMSL, UMKC, UMR, and MU all at once. Still not enough? Click on the MOBIUS Union Catalog button. This expands your search to about 70 additional libraries in our network. Most books you find through MERLIN or MOBIUS are requestable online, just click on the "Request Item" link. Books requested through MERLIN or MOBIUS take two to three working days to arrive.  

IV. FINDING NEWS WEB SITES

• Google News
  Searches 4500 English-language news sources.
• Dogpile
  Searches 6 web search engines simultaneously. Click on the News option above the search bar and type in your search.

This SOURCEPACK is a service of Ellis Library