University of Wisconsin - Green Bay

There are a number of ways to get in touch with our reference desk staff if you have questions in the course of your research. For an overview of these contact options, please see the Research Assistance Page.

For information on how to set up your citations, please see the Cofrin Library's citation information page.

 

To find books:

• Cofrin Library Catalog
  If you are searching for a book and you discover that Cofrin Library does not own it, you can request it through InterLibrary Loan (also called ILL or ILLiad), a service for students to get books and journal articles for other libraries. If you are unfamiliar with using InterLibrary Loan, stop by the reference desk for assistance.


• Worldcat
  Use the mega-catalog, Worldcat, to find books from other libraries. WorldCat will allow you to search over 15,000 libraries worldwide. Although the Cofrin Library may not own an item that you find in WorldCat, you can submit an interLibrary loan request from right inside the database. It can take from 7-10 days for the item to arrive so it is important that you start your research early to give yourself an opportunity to get the best resources for you research.

 

To find background information:

• CQ Researcher
  Description : The CQ Researcher explores a single "hot" issue in the news in depth each week. Topics range from social and teen issues to environment, health, education and science and technology. There are 44 reports produced each year including four expanded reports.
  Coverage: 1991-

• CQ Weekly
  Description : CQ Weekly is a weekly source of information on government, politics and public policy. CQ Weekly contains an unbiased and comprehensive roundup of all-important Capitol Hill activity from the previous week. CQ Weekly takes each legislative issue being debated and provides a clear explanation of its historical significance, how it’s evolving and what to look for in the future. Status of legislation, agendas of individual members and the appropriations process are all covered thoroughly and impartially.

 

To find journal and magazine articles:

• Academic Search Complete from EbscoHost - Description : Gain access to information from a wide range of academic areas including literature and language.
  Coverage: varies from title to title, but approximately 1990 to the present.
  
  
• JSTOR
  Description: JSTOR is unique because the contains complete backfiles of core scholarly journals in PDF full text format. Many journals reach back to the 1800s.
  Coverage: varies from title to title, but approximately from the 1800s to 2000.
  
  
• Social Sciences Full Text
  Description: Indexes and abstracts over 400 English language periodicals. Topics include anthropology, area studies, community health and medical care, criminal justice and criminology, economics, family studies, geography, gerontology, international relations, law, minority studies, planning and public administration, policy sciences, political science, psychiatry, psychology, social work and public welfare, sociology, urban studies, women's studies, and related subjects.
  Coverage: 1983 -

 

To Find Newspaper articles:

• Lexis Nexis Academic
  Description : Academic Universe provides access to nearly 5,000 publication on a wide range of news, business, legal, and reference information.
  Coverage: 1990-
  

• Newspaper Source Plus
  Description: Newspaper Source Plus includes 1,520 full-text newspapers, providing more than 28 million full-text articles. In addition, the database features
  more than 601,300 television and radio news transcripts, videos & podcasts.
  Coverage: varies.

• Note: Electronic access to the Green Bay Press Gazette has changed. If you need access to the paper, please try the Brown County Library. Please note that the public library's access may also change, and if you have questions regarding dates of coverage for the paper or how to access this resource, please contact the Brown County Library.

 

To find web sites:

• Google and Google Uncle Sam, Google Scholar

 

Determining a scholarly source:

There are a number of ways to determine if a source is scholarly, below are a couple of the key ways:

• Scholarly sources ALWAYS cite their sources in either footnotes or bibliographies
• Scholarly sources have articles written by people in the field with which the journal is concerned.
• Scholarly sources use language that assumes a certain level of scholarly background.
• Scholarly sources often contain graphs and charts, but few pictures.

 

Evaluating your sources:

No matter what type of source you are using, be it a book, article, or web site, you should look at 5 key points:

• Authority - What are the author's credentials?
• Accuracy - Compared to other sources does it seem to be giving correct information?
• Objectivity - Is there a bias or an agenda by the author?
• Currency - Is the source current enough for your needs?
• Coverage - Does the source go enough in-depth for your needs?

rev. 16 Sep 2009