College English

ENGL 180 -19 Cheryl Schwartz
Guide for finding sources at the George T. Potter Library
 

November 7, 2006

Marcia Sexton

msexton@ramapo.edu

x6749

 I. Library Homepage

  • Provides access to the catalog (OPAC), databases, interlibrary loan forms, etc.

II. Finding Books at the Potter Library

  • Catalog: use this to find books, periodical titles (NOT articles), government documents, reserve items, music,and movies owned by the Library. You may limit a search by language, year(s) of publication, type of material, etc. This may take a few seconds to load.
  • Use the Basic Search to find material using Keywords
    • For example: search for Persian Gulf War or minorities and military to locate a broad range of materials the library has on these keywords
    • Use quotation marks around a multi-word phrase so that the catalog system will treat it as a single word
    • When you find an appropriate title, click on the Related Records tab located at the top of a catalog record to see which Library of Congress subject headings are discussed in that particular book/DVD/periodical to get to more titles that deal with that subject
    • OR
  • Search the catalog using Subject Browse feature if you know the relevant Library of Congress subject heading, for example:
    • United States--Armed Forces--Minorities
    • Indians of North America
       

Tips

    1. Start with broad searches. It is much easier to discard too much rather than start with too little.
    2. If you don't know the Subject Heading, use the Related Records tab located on the top of a catalog record to get to the headings. This will help you focus in on more relevant material.
    3. You can "virtually" browse the shelves by clicking on the call number in a record.

III. Reference Material (Print and Online)

  • The reference stacks are located on the 3rd floor (this is also the library's entrance).
  • Some useful materials for your projects:
Ethics REF BJ63.E54 2004
Human Rights and the World's Major Religions REF BL65.H78 H8595 2005
International Encyclopedia of Military History REF D25.A2 I58 2006
Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes REF E77.G15 1998
Environmental Encyclopedia REF GE10.E58 2003
Abortion Rights Controversy in America: A Legal Reader REF KF3771.A937 2004
Encyclopedia of Social Welfare History in North America Online through Gale Virtual Reference Library
St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture Online through Gale Virtual Reference Library
 

IV. Electronic Resources

Academic Search Premier

A multi-disciplinary database containing both full-text articles and citations.

NOTE: When only a citation is included, click on the Check availability at Ramapo link to see if the full text of the article is available in our collection.
Lexis-Nexis: Academic

Full text articles that cover news, financial, medical, and legal information.

Expanded Academic ASAP Provides multidisciplinary, easy-to-use access more than 3,500 journals (of which 2,100 are peer-reviewed) in the areas of humanities, social science and science and technology. Covered are such topics as communications, computers, environmental studies, health, and women's studies. Many articles are full-text.

 

Scholarly/Peer Reviewed/Refereed articles have been reviewed by a selected panel of experts in the discipline covered by that journal. Many of the databases allow you to limit your search to these articles.

  • Journal Finder: this provides information about where to find the full text of articles when available in the George T. Potter Library in print, microform, or through a full-text database. This feature also appears in many of our databases
  • Interlibrary Loan: allows students to borrow a book or article that the George T. Potter library does not own. There is a link from the Journal Finder page.

Both of these links can be found under QUICK LINKS on the library's homepage.

Tips

  1. Switch to the Advanced Search page in a database. This will give you more control over your results.
  2. Use Boolean Operators--AND, OR, NOT and Quotation Marks when running a search. For Example:
  3. Always check your Spelling if the database results are zero.
  4. Use the Subject Terms or Thesaurus link, if available, to find the best terms to use in a database.

V. Using Web Sources

  • Use Evaluating Websites to determine if the site is authoritative enough to use in your paper.

 

VI. Bibliographies

 

Need more help? Visit or call the Reference Desk: 201.684.7574

Use QandA NJ: a 24/7 virtual chat with a reference librarian.
 
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| 505 Ramapo Valley Road, Mahwah NJ 07430 | (201) 684-7575 |

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