Getting Help
Hi, I'm
Krista Knapp,
your friendly research/instructional librarian, and I'm
here to help you!
How to get in touch with me:
-
In my office, BL129 (best to
make an appointment)
-
By email:
kmknapp@salisbury.edu
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By IM on Facebook
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At the Research Services
Desk: Mondays 8am-12pm, Wednesdays 8-10am,
Thursdays 10am-2pm.
Have a question about
circulation (reserves, overdue books, fines, etc) stuff?
Chat with a circulation staff member from 8am-4pm
M-F!
You can also get help 24/7
from the Maryland AskUsNow chat service.
Click here for more details.
Background Info
Why can't you just use Wikipedia?
Wikipedia can be useful for some
research, especially popular culture topics, and particularly
when the entries are well-documented with citations.
However, it should NEVER be cited in an academic paper. We
have so many authoritative, high-quality resources available
in the library and accessible online, that you have no
excuse not to use them.
And to further drive home my point about Wikipedia not being a
valid source, please enjoy this clip from the
Colbert Report. Trust me, it's really amusing!
If you need background information
on Sociology topics, try a
reference tool.
These sources
will help you with background information on your ethnic groups:
In the
library:
Countries and
their cultures
REF GN307 .C68 2001
The Oxford encyclopedia of the modern Islamic world
REF DS35.53 .O95 2001
Racial and ethnic diversity : Asians,
Blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans, and whites
REF E184.A1 R78 2002
Encyclopedia of the stateless nations : ethnic
and national groups around the world
REF D860 .M56 2002
Encyclopedia of Black studies
REF E185 .E554 2005
Encyclopedia of
African nations and civilizations
REF DT14 .E43 2002
Reference library of
Jewish America
REF E184.J5 R44 1999
Encyclopedia of Latin
American history and culture
REF F1406 .E53 1996
The Oxford encyclopedia of
Latinos and
Latinas in the United States
REF E184.S75 O97 2005
On the web:
Finding books and reserves:
Find books and reserves in Blackwell Library using our
online library catalog.
Books in our library are arranged using
Library of Congress Classification.
The books you can check out are located on the second floor of
the library. If you ever have trouble finding a book you want,
PLEASE ask for help at the Research Desk!
To find reserve items,
click on the words "Course Reserves" in the library catalog.
Then you can search for items by your professor's name, by
class, or title of the item.
This guide can also help you find reserves.
Books from other USMAI
Libraries
You can also borrow books from any of the USMAI affiliations by
selecting the "choose campus" link at the top of the catalog
page and then selecting "USMAI All Campuses." When you find a
book you want that is not in Blackwell, click the "request"
button and use your ID number to login. You can have the book
delivered to Blackwell within 3 or 4 days. Here's a
short tutorial that shows you how it's done!
Scholarly V. Popular Sources: A Showdown!
Here are the basics: (Check
out this
handy dandy chart for more information!)
Popular Magazines/Newspapers:
-
glossy, pretty pages
with lots of advertisements and pictures
-
written by hired
reporters for a general audience
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short, easily read
articles
Scholarly Journals:
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somewhat dull
looking - very few pictures or advertisements
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written by experts
in the field and reviewed by other scholars before
publication
-
long articles with
citations and bibliographies at the end
Why should you
use the library and not Google?
Most of the time,
scholarly publications are not
available to the general public, nor are they
available for free on the internet. Individuals or
organizations (such as a library) subscribe to these
publications. Because subscriptions are expensive, many
choose to access this content through libraries.
Often, content from
scholarly journals is indexed in databases that
the library subscribes
to. The content is on the web, but it is not accessible unless
you are affiliated with the institution that is subscribing. It
isn’t the same thing as just finding a website
through a regular Google search.
Sometimes the full text of the article is available through the
database; other times it is only a citation to the article and
you will need to find the print version of the article in the
library or order the article through interlibrary loan if we
don’t subscribe to it.
So, basically what
I'm saying is that the only way you can access this scholarly
information for free is by using the library databases!
Finding Articles
We have several databases
you can use to search for journal, magazine, or
newspaper articles. Some of them only give a citation
to the article, and some have the full-text. Here is a
list of databases you might want to try.
Note: if you are off
campus, you will be prompted to log in with your Gull Card
barcode number.
-
Academic Search Complete
- a multidisciplinary database from EBSCO with a mix
of scholarly and popular resources, a lot of
full-text and Find It links when there is no
full-text available. This is a great place to start your research. AND,
the EBSCO databases can be searched simultaneously.
Click here to see how!
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America: History and Life - an EBSCO database
where you will find scholarly articles about
American history including immigration and different
ethnic/racial groups.
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JSTOR
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scholarly full-text resources; the newest documents
are 3-5 years old. Lots
of Sociology journals in here! Some tips: Use
the Advanced Search and limit to the disciplines
where you want to find articles. Also limit to
Articles and remember this database is searching the
full text of the articles and sorts results by
relevance, not date.
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Lexis-Nexis Academic
- this database contains full-text world news, legal
and business information. Great
for international newspapers!
-
National Newspapers
- a collection of full-text major newspapers
including The New York Times and
Washington Post.
-
Columbia
International Affairs Online -
full text theory, research, and case studies on
international affairs.
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Humanities International Complete -
database covering the Humanities with some articles on
International Studies.
-
Social Sciences Abstracts -
articles and citations for interdisciplinary
fields such as addiction studies, anthropology,
corrections, economics, gender studies, gerontology,
minority studies, political sciences, psychology,
sociology, and more. An
EBSCO database.
WHAT DOES THAT CUTE LITTLE FIND IT BUTTON DO, ANYWAY?It's a bit like
magic, really. The Find It button does three things:
-
Looks in all of
our databases to see if the document you want is
available full-text in another of our databases. If
so, it links you to it!
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Links you to the
library catalog when we have the item you want in
print or microform.
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Links you to
ILLiad (interlibrary loan) so you can borrow the
item from another library if we don't have access
electronically or in print.
The Find It button is
YOUR FRIEND!!! Here's a
tutorial that lets you see the Find It Button in
action!
Citing your work:
Plagiarism is not cool. Of
course you want to make sure you give proper credit to
any source that you use to write your papers, whether
you directly quote or paraphrase.
This guide helps
students understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid
it.
Citation Help:
