Library Research f or PSCI 291: Research and Writing

1. Library Researchfor PSCI 291: Research and Writing Charlotte Johnson Jones Reference & Social Sciences Librarian Spring 2007

2. A suggested search strategy Search . . . • the library catalog, using Pearl Gathering/1,2,3 to find books and government documents on your topic • CQ Researcher and Issues & Controversies to find background information and pros and cons on policy issues in law and economics • Gale PowerSearch to find popular and scholarly articles • PAIS to find scholarly articles from a political science perspective

3. Pearl Gathering/1,2,3 defined A subject search strategy that works in almost all library catalogs and databases How ? • Do a keyword search. • Find the pearl, i.e. a book or article that is exactly what you need. • Follow subject headings in the record about that book or article to find more like it.

4. A 1,2,3 search strategyin the library catalog Go the library’s home page at www.umw.edu/library From the catalog toolbar choose Keyword Search

5. Pearl Gathering/1,2,31) Start with a keyword search Let’s assume we want to find books about voter turnout. Enter the phrase voter turnout in quotation marks and click Search. The quotation marks tell the catalog to search for this exact phrase.

6. Notice the types of results Many books in UMW Libraries are from scholarly publishers. Annals are a sort of hybrid between a book and a journal. This series appears bi-monthly, but each issue is dedicated to single topic. A netLibrary book is an e-book which may be read online.We have more than 46,000 of these books, many in the sciences and social sciences.

7. The results appear from the most recent backward. Notice that our keyword phrase appears in the title. This books appears to be exactly what we need. What a pearl! 2) Find the “Pearl” Click full record to see more details about this book.

8. 3) Follow the subject headingsto find more like the “pearl” Notice that we searched for voter turnout but the Library of Congress Subject Headings that capture this concept are Voting – United Statesand Political Participation – United States. Click a subject heading to see more items like this one.

9. CQ Researcheris a good source of background info Choose Advanced Search for best results.

10. Look in the Abstract Type your keyword or phrase in the search box. Enclose phrases in quotation marks. Choose Search only . . . Abstract. If a report is really about your topic, your keywords are very likely to appear in the abstract, or summary, of the report.

11. Notice the most relevant results The most relevant results are at the top of the list. The entire report on Low Voter Turnout rates 100% relevance. Click the title to see that report. 100% Click title to read.

12. The CQ Researcher format Every CQ Researcher report follows the same format: an abstract, overview of the issue, background, the current situation, outlook, pros and cons, a bibliography and more. This is a great place to begin thinking about a policy issue.

13. Issues and Controversies The Issues & Controversies database is similar to CQ Researcher. Get there by choosing Facts.com from databases lists on the library’s home page. Go! Select Issues & Controversies and enter search terms. Again, phrases should be in quotation marks.

14. The results These results come up from the most recent backward. Notice that I & C updates its reports as issues evolve.

15. The reports are similarto those in CQ Researcher Notice the issues are spelled out at the top of thereport.

16. Gale PowerSearch Use Gale PowerSearch to access millions of articles from popular and from scholarly publications. Many are in full text. It sounds strange, but you usually want to begin in Gale PowerSearch by using the Change Databases feature.

17. Throw out irrelevant databases Change Databases lets you see all the databases PowerSearch is set to search at once. Uncheck the ones that don’t make sense for your search, like Computer Database or General Business File ASAP, then click Submit.

18. Switch to Advanced Search

19. Advanced Search has more options and features You can easily enter two concepts together, like voter turnout AND United States. You can set limits and request only documents with full text, or only peer-reviewed (scholarly) publications. Limiting to full text, while easy, means that you might miss a really good article in your research.

20. Notice how results are sorted Magazines (popular) Academic Journals (scholarly) News (popular) Many articles are full text. Other records only have citations or abstracts.

21. Popular or scholarly?(Magazine or journal?) • Articles in popular publications, such as Time or The Washington Post, may provide an overview of the topic and be a good place to begin your research. • Literature for a research paper should also be from scholarly publications—known as “academic,” “peer reviewed,” and sometimes “professional” publications. • See “Popular vs. Scholarly: How to Tell the Difference” at http://www.library.umw.edu/talon/topic10.html

22. Use Locate Journal Article link If there is only an abstract or a citation, click Locate Journal Article to see if the article is available in the Libraries’ online, print, microfilm, or microfiche collections.

23. Locate Journal Articlealways opens the same pop-up Be sure to allow pop-ups!

24. The citation is at the top of the box This means that the Libraries own this journal in some offline format—paper, microfiche, or microfilm. Click the link to use the catalog to figure out how and where. These indicate that the article may be available in another UMW Libraries database. Try the Article links first. If the links only lead you to places that requires you to pay for an article, don’t. When you have no UMW choice, use Interlibrary Loan to get the article for free.

25. Searching PAIS The PAIS link on the library’s web page opens to Advanced Search. Advanced Search “Anywhere” is basically a keyword search. Notice that this is the only clue you’re searching PAIS. Got your reading glasses? Limit your search to updates (new records are entered monthly), to references for journal articles, or to English only. Notice there is no limit for full text since PAIS has abstracts only.

26. A sample search in PAIS Search for: voter turnout AND united states. PAIS covers public affairs worldwide, so it’s probably best to specify this country. Also, notice that quotation marks are not needed. Just enter a phrase in a single search box.

27. Notice the number & type of results Click on the underlined number of results on any green tab to “go” and see a subset of results by publication type: Journals, Peer Reviewed Journals, and Books There are 76 results in all. Peer Reviewed Journals is a subset of Journals.

28. Notice the info for each item Your search terms are in bold italics. The citation. A portion of the abstract: Click View Record or the article title to see the full abstract. Notice the subject headings assigned to each item.

29. A sample PAIS record Click to see more works by this author. Notice the subject headings. There isn’t one for voter turnout. The concept is captured instead by using Political participation AND Voting. Search for all the other items with those 2 headings by checking the boxes. Click Go. Here’s the complete abstract.

30. Notice the additional results Interesting. Here’s a popular publication with a specific point of view. If you are looking for scholarly articles only, be sure to change to the Peer Reviewed Journals tab.

31. Use the Locate Journal Article link It works just the same as it did in Gale PowerSearch.

32. Mark records to manage results Mark items on the results screen and click Update Marked List before moving to another screen. Click Save, Print, Email to manage your results. Or check here on the individual record screen and click Update Marked List before returning to results.