For the assignments required in this class, you will have the chance to review many different sources of information.  This handout will help you navigate your way to find the most relevant information as efficiently as possible.  There are many topics and issues that will be covered and I have identified sources that will direct you to information about them.  Think broadly and then find locally available resources. 

 

Please use the Library Homepage as a source of departure for your research journey.  The list of Subject Guides will direct you to resources that support a specific subject or discipline - you may want to consult the Informatics, Computer Science, Library & Information Science, Education  or Political Science Subject Guides.

 

TO FIND JOURNAL ARTICLES:

1.     Go to "Find Online Resources" - click on the letter corresponding to the first letter of the title of one of the following databases or go directly to ANTPAC and search the resource by title:

o      Expanded Academic ASAP - a general subject database

o      Business Source Premier - major source of business & management literature

o      Factiva - covers business trade journals fulltext

o      Faulkner's Advisory for IT Studies - covers IT and communications industry

o      INSPEC - covers computer science, math, physics from scholarly sources - includes journals, conferences, proceedings from 1969 to present - Archive covers backfiles from 1968-1898

o      ERIC - an education database including coverage in higher education - two kinds of output: 1) EJ=journal literature; 2) ED=ERIC documents or working papers, proceedings, documents, etc.

o      Library Literature - indexes library & information science themes and topics

o      LISTA - Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts

o      Worldwide Political Science Abstracts - covers current political science theory and ideas

o      Sociological Abstracts

o      Web of Science - covers the Social Sciences Citation Index from 1956; Arts and Humanities Citation Index from 1974; and the Science Citation Index from 1900.

o      Philosophers Index

o      PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) and the Archive

o      Ergonomics Abstracts

o      LegalTrac

o      Lexis/Nexis Academic Universe NEWS &  LEGAL RESEARCH - has new interface for Fall 2007!

o      MLA Bibliography and Directory of Periodicals - indexes humanities content for the Modern Language Association but also covers technical writing and scholarly communication in the fields you may be writing and reading about

 

2.     Professional Societies - fulltext content is provided by the digital libraries - it is more efficient to search the databases first than these sources but links will take you to them (these are listed under Fulltext Online Journals - by Journal Publishers or Collections - it is also recommended that you consult the Associations Unlimited database

o      ACM Digital Library -

o      IEEE Xplore - one of the largest indexes of fulltext coverage by a scientific society - of journals, conference proceedings and many books

o      Additional Societies that produce and release publications that may be of interest:

                                                                                  i.     Association of Research Libraries and SPARC, and Information Access Alliance

                                                                                ii.     Digital Library Federation

                                                                              iii.     American Association of Engineering Education

                                                                              iv.     American Library Association - specific divisions include the Library Information Technology Association (LITA)

 

3.     Appropriate Newspaper Sources - individual newspapers will often have the current week available but using the indexes with links to the fulltext will be most efficient for retrospective coverage.

o      Lexis/Nexis Academic Universe NEWS - remember to set the parameters for your search - especially for the date - content is rekeyed

o      News & Newspaper Subject Guide

Full coverage through several databases is available for the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and less coverage online for other titles.

 

1.     Online Journals that support specific assignments - the following are recommended titles that you may want to browse:

o      SPARC Open Access Newsletter

o      Journal of Electronic Publishing

o      First Monday

o      Information Technology and Libraries

o      D-Lib Magazine

o      Ariadne

 

DOING RESEARCH for this class - remember to use the Subject Guides - for ideas of where to find articles, cite facts, verify information, etc.

 

use the eLinks - to determine whether UCI has a copy of the fulltext of that citation - a direct link will take you to the source; or you can learn if we only have a print or microfilm copy (especially for newspapers) of the content.

GENERAL REFERENCE - there is a major non-circulating collection of reference tools at both the Science & Langson Libraries.  Increasingly, there are also online reference resources listed by product line at: http://www.lib.uci.edu/online/reference/reference.html  Additional tools that may be helpful for Privacy related themes and legislation are noted at Westlaw Campus

 

CITING INFORMATION CORRECTLY - depending on the kind of writing you are doing, you will select a format for bibliographic references or footnotes. (see http://www.lib.uci.edu/online/reference/citation.html) and exercise consistency.  If you only use the abstract you usually will not include it in your bibliography.  Standard citations include:

 

 

For journal articles:

Author(s), (last, first, MI), (YEAR), "title of article," SOURCE volume #, (issue #): pages.

 

For Books:

Author or Editor, Title.  City of Publication: Publisher, Date, pages.

 

For Conferences:

Author(s), "Title," Conference Sponsor & Name, City where conference is held, Date. Publishing info if different, volume #, date, pages.

 

For online resources - give the full citation, and if it is only available online - that is the only way it was published, provide the URL and date last visited.  Increasingly common, you will include the DOI when it is noted.  Do NOT provide URL for pdfs, instead provide full citation from the print original.  The APA has a new guide to follow for online content released in Summer 2007.

 

 

HINTS FOR SPECIFIC ASSIGNMENTS:

 

1. Short Assignments - you may want to contextualize the computing or scholarly communication/publishing environment you are writing about for example.  You may need some background information or data and can consult standard Reference tools for definitions, data, etc.  Many such electronic tools are arranged and listed in the Quick Reference Guide as well as in ANTPAC.
2. Long Assignments - these two assignments may require additional research.  Using the list of Article databases found above, you can find journal and newspaper articles on your topics.  When you cite information from different sources, you will want to practice consistency and follow a standard citation formula found at http://www.lib.uci.edu/online/reference/citation.htm and discussed in more detail just above.  To find relevant articles, you may want to think broadly about the issue and then create a search strategy that hones into your area of focus.  In order to find 3 sources you may have to identify 6-8 possible sources that may be considered for relevancy.  Don't leave these assignments until the end.  From the time you submit your draft until you submit the final copy, you may still be conducting research to incorporate in the paper. 

 

For additional assistance, you can use any of the following services:

1. Contact the Liaison Librarian - contact information at the top of this handout
2. Go to the Reference Desk at either the Science or Langson Libraries
3. use Ask-a-Librarian for digital reference assistance to contact a librarian via eMail, Live CHAT, or to schedule a reference consultation