COMP 100 (Weinschenk)  

Periodicals are publications that come out on a regular, or periodic, basis. Examples include newspapers, magazines, and journals. Scholarly, or peer-reviewed, periodicals are appropriate for more serious research, while magazines, or popular, periodicals are intended for entertainment or information for general audiences. See this Types of Periodicals guide to understand all the differences. These databases allow you to search for content that is not, for the most part, free on the web. The library pays for access to these databases. 

An editorial is an article in a publication expressing the opinion of its editors or publishers.  These can be difficult to ferret out of a large database.  Use the following search strategy to help find editorials (this may vary some between databases): In the first search box, enter the word "editorial"; in the second search box enter your topic "ledalization and marijuana".

Use the Browse by Discipline list (under the Databases tab on the home page) to find the best databases for your topic.

If you have the citation for a periodical article, click on the Journals tab on the library website and enter the title of the journal or magazine. The resulting list will indicate which database(s) include the periodical. Follow the link to the database, then either follow the links to the specific issue of the periodical, or enter the article title in a search box. If the library subscribes to the periodical in print or microform, the holdings will be indicated by linking to Oneonta Local Collection.

Not sure what topic interests you? Any of the sources listed below can be used to identify a topic.  The databases can be accessed from the alphabetical list of databases on the home page.  The website links will take you to the home page of the website.

Locating the full text of the article in electronic form:

If there is no full text with the citation for an article in a database, click on or Find It!. If a full text of the article is available in another database, there will be a link connecting you to that database, where you can locate the article in the appropriate volume, or search for the article by title or author.

If the article is unavailable electronically, but available in print or microfilm, click on Oneonta Local Collection for exact holdings. Periodicals are located on compact shelving or in microfilm drawers on the floor P.

Requesting an article on Interlibrary Loan:

If you find an article from a periodical that is not available at Milne Library in any form after you have linked to "Check Library Catalog", you can request the article through the link Request item on Interlibrary Loan on the record for the article needed (see computer screen that comes up after you click on Find It!). You need to be registered to submit ILL requests. See a librarian for help. You can also request articles through the Interlibrary Loan  link on the library website.

A lot of "news and opinion" magazines contain articles on controversial issues that are discussed in news media.  These magazines have an editorial slant, such as "liberal, "middle-of-the-road," or "conservative."

Milne Library's online catalog lists and describes the books and other materials in the Library and indicates where to find them. It cannot be used to find individual journal articles.

 

The online catalog is the default search box on the library's homepage. A Word Anywhere search is useful if you do not know the exact author, title or subject. Truncate or shorten terms using the question mark (?) or asterisk (*) if uncertain of spelling or searching variations of a word.

In your set of results, note availability under the heading "Owned/Out."

WorldCat is an online database listing materials in thousands of libraries worldwide. Use the WorldCat tab on the top right of the library home page. The results list will indicate if Milne Library or Hartwick College owns the item. You can check out items at Hartwick College with your SUNY Oneonta ID card. If you want an item that is not owned by Milne or Hartwick,click on the Interlibrary Loan link to ask Milne Library to borrow the book from another library.

Search Engines: Search engines create their listings using automated software without evaluating the contents: Google and bing 

Subject Directories:  Humans select, sometimes evaluate, and organize (by subject) the listings in a directory. Use a directory to browse and to find the "best" sites on a general or popular topic, one such directly is  ipl2.

Wikipedia: Don't use an article from Wikipedia in your bibliography. However, a wikipedia article can be a useful place to get background information and an overview on a topic. The references and links at the bottom of the article often list reliable resources you can use.

FDSYS: The U.S. government publishes an enormous amount of material related to international issues. Use this search engine to find well-reputed sources from the government.

Issues on Global Issues

Global Issues (United Nations)

 Searching tips:

•          Limit a search to .edu and .gov sites for best quality

o    To do this add site:edu or site:gov to your search. EXAMPLE: college students volunteering site:edu

•         Limit the search to the TITLE of the page to get more targeted results.

o    To do this add allintitle: in front of your search terms. EXAMPLE: allintitle: organic foods nutrition

Evaluation tips: Use the following checklist as a guide to help you determine the value and validity of all the sources you find as you do your research.

  Evaluating Information - Applying the CRAAP Test (California State University at Chico)

When you use information from a book, article, or web site, don't forget to cite it in proper fashion!  Even ideas must be cited. When paraphrasing be sure to use your own language.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Turnitin.com is often used at the College at Oneonta to detect plagiarism.