reference databases

reference databases

Lots of New Databases

Lots of New Databases

Thanks to being part of a large University, our IU East campus often has the opportunity to participate in group subscriptions that reduce our cost yet increases your access to a variety of databases.  It’s part of what makes IU East special – a lot of the benefits of a big university, but the familiarity and personal attention of a small campus. This semester, we are adding several great new databases. One of the most interesting is the Loeb Classical Library, a digitization of hundreds of volumes of classical literature currently published by Harvard University. The print version of the Loeb Classical Library has been a mainstay in universities for decades, offering the original Greek or Latin text on one page … Continued
More Great Databases

More Great Databases

Being part of the IU system is great. IU East students have always benefitted from small class sizes and close relationships with faculty coupled with Indiana University’s rigorous academic programs, but being an IU campus pays dividends in lots of other aspects of campus life. The library is no exception. For example, if we don’t have a book you want and another IU library does, just click the red ‘request delivery’ button in our catalog. It will be mailed here for you at no cost, and you’ll get to keep it for six weeks. It’s like having a library with ten million books! Being part of IU helps provide electronic resources, too. Since we can often purchase databases in conjunction … Continued
Communications Questions

Communications Questions

This summer, we have been exploring in-depth research for each of IU East’s major fields of study, and this week we conclude with communications. The general techniques that we covered in the first week will serve you well here, too, but there is plenty more available. For most research questions you might have, you will want to start with a general communications database. The best choices are Communication & Mass Media Complete or ProQuest Telecommunications, which are easy to use and offer a lot of full text. For e-book sources, try the Media Studies section of OxRef or eBrary. And if you are interested in a journalism perspective, Newspaper Source and ProQuest News and Newspapers are great choices (the latter … Continued
Sociology Questions

Sociology Questions

Throughout the summer, we’ve been exploring how to do academic-level research in each of the major disciplines IU East offers degrees in. While there are plenty of commonalities and general techniques that we covered in the first week, each discipline has its own dedicated material. This week, we’ll look at the study of sociology. While social theory is most concerned with how things like class, religion, law, and social behavior relate and interact in the present, it is possible that you will be interested in historical social theory, or how social change occurred in the past. If so, a historical database like JSTOR will be ideal. For most research questions, though, you will want a general sociology database. The largest … Continued
Science Questions

Science Questions

This summer, we’ve been looking at how to do insightful, quality research at IU East.  And while there are great general sources and techniques available that benefit any researcher, each discipline has its own special sources and quirks.  This week, we’ll look at the natural sciences.  If you’ve been following these columns, you’ll notice that there is some overlap with mathematics, since math is in many ways the ‘language’ of science.  People who are good at science often first studied math. Science is an incredibly broad topic, and which scientific discipline you are interested will affect your searching.  For example, finding current material (books and articles published in the last few years) is vitally important in most topics of biology … Continued