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Historical Research Resources: real-time and real perspectives

e-resources, good information, libguides August 1, 2011 Frances Yates, Library Resources, Matt Dilworth, Research mdilwort

Suppose someone living in the year 2025, or even 2225, wants reliable information about what happened in 2011? Where would be the best place to get information (assuming by then all our brains aren’t pre-wired at birth to the Internet or whatever comes Next)? There are unique considerations when doing historical research, for whatever type of questions you seek to answer. One facet of historical research is the need for primary sources – that is, things written and said by the people actually involved with those events. Having access to primary documentation is of vital important to historical study. Newspapers are also of great value, providing contemporary perspectives that can be critical to understanding the perceptions about events and people … Continued

Strategies for database searching

e-resources, good information, reference databases May 2, 2011 Library Resources, Matt Dilworth mdilwort

Chances are, if you’ve used a library database, you’ve used one of the EBSCO databases. Some of the databases provided by the vendor EBSCO are available to Indiana residents through Inspire, and Ohio residents through OhioLink. At IU East, a third of our full-text journals are available through the EBSCO interface. In 2010, IU East students, faculty, and staff searched an EBSCO database 114,240 times, retrieving 102,280 full-text articles. EBSCO provides general search databases like MasterFile and Academic Search Premier. They also have specialized databases. For example, if you’re working on a health topic, you could use MedLine, CINAHL, and Health Source. A criminal justice paper? PsycInfo and SocIndex will work well for you. Economics? Try Business Source Premier. Education? … Continued

Disappearing Statistics: Why it should matter to you and what you can do about it

books, good information, government information March 28, 2011 books, Matt Dilworth mdilwort

Some of you who have come to the library needing statistics for your research may have seen me reach for a book called Statistical Abstract of the United States. The Census Bureau, which has published it annually since 1878, has announced that it will discontinue producing it. It is, in the Census Bureau’s words, a guidebook that “provides a comprehensive summary of industrial, social, economic, and political data. It serves as a statistical compendium and as a guide to other statistical publications and sources. It includes tables and charts drawn from data of almost 300 government, private, and international agencies.” It is produced both to provide the public with clear and current statistical data, and also to facilitate the best … Continued

Best of….

e-resources, good information, Website December 27, 2010 Frances Yates, Website fyates 0 Comments

Of course this is the time of year when reflection is rampant and “best of…” lists beset us. So why should the library be any different? So here’s a smattering of selected websites popular with some IU East library staff. Enjoy! Lora uses the Charity Navigator http://www.charitynavigator.org/ as a reliable way to research a charity to see if it is legit and how they spend their monies. For searching 20 different English versions of the Bible Lora recommends the BibleGateway.com http://www.biblegateway.com/ and for a gateway to local U.S. and international newspapers, she suggests NewsVoyager http://www.newspaperlinks.com/home.cfm Several library staff count on Snopes.com http://www.snopes.com/ and Truth or Fiction http://www.truthorfiction.com/ to verify urban legends and all those email scams before you forward to … Continued

Dam Rumors

good information May 3, 2010 Matt Dilworth, Research mdilwort

So, I was on vacation last week, and one of the things I saw on my trip was the Hoover Dam. I was awed by the scale of the thing, and how much went into planning and creating it – and how much of Nevada, Arizona, and California can exist at all because of the clean water and hydroelectric power generated there. When you’re looking straight down over a sheer wall of more than 700 feet of concrete, humility comes more easily. Now, I’m not an architect or engineer (several of the friends I was traveling with are), so I’m sure I didn’t appreciate it thoroughly, but it was amazing to think of this massive project being done with the … Continued

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