COMP 100: Composition (Denekamp)

Milne Library guides to style manuals are available under Citing Sources on the library web site and at the Research Help Desk.  Links to other guides are also available.

Reference books (encyclopedias, handbooks, chronologies) are valuable sources of information.

• Brief overviews
• Important concepts, names, and dates
• Lists of sources for further reading
• Free photocopying at Research Help Desk
• Do not generally count as required sources

Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, and Handbooks

Locate these titles in the alphabetical list under the Databases tab on the library website. 

A useful web site that includes both in-depth analyses and opinion studies for major policy issues is Public Agenda at http://www.publicagenda.org.

Use the Library Catalog link at the top of the library homepage.  This is an index to the physical contents of Milne Library and to selected books, documents, and media available online.  For books in Milne, note the call number for the item and consult Library Floor Plans to determine the location of the item.  For online books, follow the link to the Electronic Book or Online Item.

Search Tips:

• Use truncation to search for variations of a word, including plural forms

Example:  farm* searches for farm(s), farmer(s), and farming

• Use quotation marks to bind terms

Example:  “food industry”

In any list of results, the number of items owned by the library will be followed by the number of items in circulation, for example, (1 owned/0 out).  In this case, the book should be available in the library.  Click on the title to see more information about the item.  Click on terms after Subject for items that provide more substantial coverage of the topic.

**You can also check out items at Hartwick College with your SUNY Oneonta ID card. ** 

If you are having trouble finding materials on your topic in the Milne Library, or if the books you want are checked out, you can look for books in other libraries and request them through interlibrary loan (ILL).  You cannot request an electronic book on interlibrary loan.  Registration on the library web site is necessary to submit requests.  The Interlibrary Loan link is located under the Student/Faculty services tab.

To find an item that Milne Library does not own, go to the Databases tab on the library homepage.  Locate WorldCat in the A – Z list.  WorldCat is an online catalog of sources held by other libraries and research institutions around the world.

• Enter your search terms into the search box.
• If the library owns the item, you will see the SUNY Oneonta icon listed.  If the library does not own the item, or the item is checked out, you can request it on ILL.  Click on the title of the item to see the full record, and then click on Request via Interlibrary Loan.
• Enter your Oneonta username and password.
• All necessary bibliographic information for the source will appear on the form.
• If Milne Library owns the source, but it is checked out, add this information to the Notes.
• When the item arrives, you will receive an email. Pick up your book at the Circulation Desk. You will need to bring your student ID card.
• Please remember that it can take two weeks for your book to arrive, as it comes via mail or UPS. If you need to request books or media items through ILL, request them early. 

For academic research, it is often important to use peer-reviewed (or refereed) journals rather than popular magazines.  Peer review is the process by which a journal article is evaluated by experts in the field. An example of a peer-reviewed journal is Ecotoxicology.  An example of a popular magazine is National Geographic.  

Link to the following databases by clicking on the Databases tab at the top of the library website and locating the database name in the alphabetical list.  Note the descriptions accompanying each database to select those that cover the types of sources that you need, for example, scholarly journals, popular magazines, or newspapers.

Databases Covering Many Subjects 

Databases Covering Specific Subjects

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, the full text of the article might be available in another database. Click on Linked Full Text to connect to this database.

Requesting an article on Interlibrary Loan:

If the article is not available at Milne Library in any form, request the article through the link Request through Interlibrary Loan.  Registration on the library web site is necessary to submit requests.  The Interlibrary Loan link is listed under the Student/Faculty Services tab. 

• Use the Journals tab at the top of the library home page.
• Enter the title of the journal or magazine, for example, Past and Present, in the search box and click on the magnifying glass icon. The title of the periodical, if available, will appear near the top of the results list.  Click on the title of the periodical.​​

• If the title is available in library databases, Full Text Access will link to databases that include the full text of the title.  Check dates of coverage to determine if full text for the needed article is available.  Click on the Database title and search for the needed volume and issue number of the periodical OR enter the title of the article in the search box to obtain the full text.

• ​​​If the title is available in print or microfilm, the link Print Journals in Milne Library will lead to information about the specific issues available in Milne Library.  Click on Is it here? Note specific library holdings, and locate the title in the library.  Print periodicals are located on compact shelving, and microfilm is available in metal cabinets in the Microfilm Room, both of which are in the Periodicals Room in the library sub-basement (SB floor).  Periodical articles in the Empire Shared Collection must be requested on Interlibrary Loan.

​If the article is not available at Milne Library in any form, request the article through the link Request through Interlibrary Loan.  

The EBSCO Discovery Service points researchers to appropriate databases, but is not a substitute for searching these databases.  EDS merely “scratches the surface” of selected library databases to produce a single list of results, including print books, electronic books, scholarly journal articles, magazine articles, research reports, documentary films, and much more. 

Click on the Advanced Search, and enter terms in the search box. 

Refining or Narrowing the Results:

The results from a search can be very large.  Use the limiters on the left side of the page to refine and narrow your results.  The most useful limiters are listed below:

Subject:

Click on Subject and then Show More to see a list of all subjects.  Subjects at the top represent the largest number of results.  Subjects at the bottom will give the fewest results.  The list can be alphabetized by clicking on Name.  You can select multiple subjects.  Update results.

   Location & Format:

Use to limit results to categorized items owned by Milne Library.  Click on desired format(s). Update results.

   Source:

Click on Sources and then on Show More for a selected list of databases in which results were found.  Select the most appropriate databases.  Update results.  

Use Databases tab on the library web site to link to alphabetical list of individual databases. Click on database name(s) and enter words in the search box(es).  Searching the individual databases improves search results because more refined searching can be done with discipline-based subject terms. 

   Date:

Use to limit results to particular dates.

Mary Lynn Bensen (MaryL.Bensen@oneonta.edu)

Milne Library, SUNY Oneonta

February 2018