Sociology 316

Intellectuals, Media & the Public Sphere

Reference Resources Finding Articles & Publications Finding Books *You might also want to look at the general Research Guide for Sociology* Reference Resources The following reference books may prove useful for providing some basic information, help with terminology and general context. These are just some selected items - depending on your specific issue/publication there may be other sources that would also help. Checking on your publication(s)- Note that not all publications will be found in these sources, but it's worth a look. UlrichsWeb - a directory of periodicals with some brief descriptive information St James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture - interesting articles on the New York Times and USA Today also in print - E 169.1 .S764 2000 Magazines for Libraries PN 4832 M34 2006 Ref. Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media (a guide by location) PN 4867 A9 Ref (4v) Ref Encyclopedia of the Essay - includes essayists and publications where essays are published PN 6141 .E53 1997 Ref American literary magazines : the twentieth century PN 4877 .A433 1992 Ref The Conservative Press in Twentieth Century America PN 4888 C598 C664 1999 Ref Annotations: a guide to the independent critical press PN 4784 U53 A565 1999 Ref ALSO -- where this is possible... check out the information on the publication's own website and/or the information about the publication in the database you are searching Thinking about your alternative 'public'- Note there MANY, MANY resources on different ethnic or cultural groups. These are just a few examples: Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered History in America Encyclopedia of African-American Society Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa also in print -DS 43 E53 2004 (4v) Ref Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture DS 779.23 E5 2005 Ref Encyclopedia Latina E 184 S75 E587 2005 (4v) Ref Asian American Encyclopedia E 184 O6 A827 1995 (6v) Ref Broad Sociology & Research Tools- some general sources and tools to help you work Encyclopedia of Social Theory Dictionary of Sociology ASA Style Guide HM 73 A54 1996 Ref Writing Manuals and Style Guides, MHC Library (links to online resources) RefWorks - a web-based software program for keeping citations and making bibliographies Finding Publications & Articles Searching in the following databases will provide you with citations to articles on your topic or issue. In many cases you can link directly to the full article online, but sometimes you will need to track down the print publications -- and sometimes you will find citations to publications that we don't have access to. In this last case, you can normally put in an interlibrary loan request for the article you need. For this assignment, though, it's better to find a publication for which we do have direct access. Lexis-Nexis - for the New York Times and many other newspapers. A bit tricky to search. Alternative Press Index - Indexes nearly 300 alternative, radical and left periodicals, newspapers and magazines. Contemporary Women's Issues - Indexes books, journals, newsletters, research reports and fact sheets. Ethnic NewsWatch - A bilingual (English and Spanish) database of newspapers, magazines and journals from ethnic, minority and native presses. World News Connection - translated news from official country news agencies and sources news.google.com - a conglomerate of thousands of web-accessible news sources.  Skim the sites they mention. blogsearch.google.com - a way to search for blogs on particular topics/areas of interest Finding Books If you'd like to browse the shelves in our library, you'll generally find books on... Media/Journalism - will have a call number starting with PN 4700-4800 Immigrant & Minority Groups (in U.S.) - will have a call number starting with E 100's Sociology - will have a call number starting with HM World History and Cultures - will have call numbers starting with D - DS This will work pretty well when browsing in the Reading Room for reference books (encyclopedias, etc.), but in the main stacks it will be many, many shelves of books. For better efficiency, use the library catalog to search for books of interest by subject. Try keyword searching to look for specific topics (but remember to try synonyms and related terms) or browse through books under broader subject headings. Remember that Reference Librarians are here to help you. The reference desk is staffed 9am-9pm (except dinner break) Mon-Thurs, 9am-5pm Fridays, & 1-5pm Sat/Sun.