Sourcepack
English 1000
Stand-up Comedians as Sit-com Stars
Instructor: Tim Eisenbarth timothy.eisenbarth@netzero.net
107 Tate Hall, MU English Department
Office phone (573) 882-6421
Your Assignment
In your assignment, your instructor has asked you to use at least 4 sources to support your ideas. These sources will most likely include books, magazine or journal articles, newspaper articles, and editorials. At least one of your sources will need to be a printed source from the library. This Sourcepack provides search strategies and links to help make it easy for you to find sources. All library materials may be accessed through the MU Libraries Gateway page.
Reference Books
The first thing you will need to do is select a comedian according to the parameters of your assignment. The sources listed below contain biographical entries on many current comedians. Some of them also provide short bibliographies for further reading on each individual. If you begin your search by using these reference books first, you may find essential dates and details that will make the rest of your search proceed most efficiently. Remember, you cannot check out reference books but you can make photocopies of the pages you want in our Copy Service.
Books available for check-out
Not only can you check out books from our own library, but you may request books from the larger library networks to which we belong - MERLIN and MOBIUS. We are not a part of a network that includes the local public library (Daniel Boone Regional), but you could become a cardholder there and check out books. Here are some convenient links to library catalogs:
- Books from MU Libraries Columbia campus
- Books from all MERLIN libraries in our network (5 academic libraries)
- Books from all MOBIUS libraries in our network (about 60 academic libraries)
- Books from Daniel Boone Regional Library at 100 W. Broadway, Columbia, MO
Try the following search strategy in order to find books on comedians:
- In the MERLIN catalog, select "Search all MERLIN Library Collections." By doing this, you will be simultaneously checking the catalogs of MU, UMSL, UMKS, UMR, and St. Louis University libraries.
- Select "Subject Search"
- Enter the name of the comedian, last name first and first name last - for example, "Seinfeld, Jerry." If you prefer, you can try names of other comedians, such as Ellen DeGeneres, Jerry Seinfeld, Robin Williams, Drew Carey, Tim Allen, Ray Romano, or Roseanne Barr.
- For any books located in an MU (Columbia) location, take a list of call numbers and locations for books that look promising, and then find them in our buildings. How to find a book in Ellis Library.
- For books located in the library of another university, select "Request Item" and follow the instructions.
- Now go back to the "Subject Search" screen and enter the word "Comedians." Notice that you can view books cataloged under that subject, and/or you can explore some subheadings such as "Comedians - United States - Biography."
- Repeat steps 4 and 5.
For the greatest selection, try these same search strategies in the MOBIUS Union Catalog. You may request books from other MOBIUS libraries free of charge. Be sure to allow about one week for requested books to arrive.
Articles
If you want to find articles, you will need to use library databases. Click the "Find a Databases" link on the MU Libraries Gateway. Here are a few suggestions for databases we think are well suited for your topic.
- Academic Search Premier
Contains both scholarly journals and popular magazine sources - MasterFile Elite
Contains both scholarly journals and popular magazine sources - Proquest Historical Newspapers
New York Times and Wall Street Journal only. - LexisNexis Academic
Search the full text of America's big city newspapers and many smaller ones as well. - Factiva
Full text database with both newspaper and journal content. Suggestion: Search Enter the name of comedian in search box; select "headline and lead paragraph" from drop-down box and then sort by publication date.
Citing your sources
This SOURCEPACK is a service of Ellis Library Librarian/Webmaster