COMP 100: Composition (Most Instructors): COMP 100: Composition

Librarians are available to help you in several ways:

• Visit the Research Help Desk in Milne Library located on your left after you enter the library through the main entrance or through Jazzman's Cafe.
• Call the Research Help  Desk at Milne Library at 607-436-2722. If the librarian is busy, you can leave a message on voice mail.
• Email a question (http://www.oneonta.edu/library/reference/ask.asp) to a Milne librarian & get a response within 48 hours.
• Request a research consultation (http://www.oneonta.edu/library/research/researchconsultation.aspx) to meet individually with a librarian.

Encyclopedias, almanacs, and handbooks provide quick, reliable information about a topic.  They are excellent starting points for research when you need to find background information, important concepts, names and dates.  These sources often include lists of books and articles for further reading.

Use Reference Universe to find information indexed in print and electronic reference sources.  A large Kik scanner is available in the Milne Technology Center on level B. Scanning is free and the scans may be emailed or saved on a USB drive. Accomodates large books.

Search Everything!

This is the default search on the library home page. It is a great place to start your research because it searches the library catalog and many of the full text databases in one fell swoop. The results list will include print books, ebooks, scholarly journal articles, magazine articles, research reports, documentary films, and much more. For the most part this does not retrieve web pages. EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), is the system behind the Milne Library “Search Everything” interface.

Search Tips:

• Use truncation to find variations of a word, including plurals
• Example:  myth* finds myth, myths, mythology, mythological, etc.
• Example:  educ*  finds educate, education, educational, etc.
• Use quotation marks to find a phrase:
• Example:  "global warming"
• Example:  "political advertis*"

Refining or narrowing the results:

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

• Type:          
• Select to narrow the results to only "Academic Journals" or "Magazines" or "Books" or "News." Click on "Show More" to see the full list of types.
• Subject:     
• Click on "Show More" to see a list of all the subject categories. You can select multiple subjects. Subjects at the top represent the largest number of results. Subjects at the bottom will give the fewest results.
• Geography:    
• Useful if you wish to restrict your results to a certain country or region of the world.
• Location:       
• Use to limit to print or electronic owned by Milne Library, among other things.
• Source:          
• Click on "Show More" for a complete list of every database in which results were found. This is a great way to discover which individual database(s) might be a better tool to research a specific topic.

To limit to books:

On the results screen click on "Books" under "Type." If "Books" is not on the visible list, click on "Show More" to see a complete list of types. The results will include both eBooks and print books available in the Milne Library collection.

For print books in Milne Libary, click on "Retrieve Catalog Item" to find the book in the Milne Library catalog. Then click on "Is It Here?" on the right side of the screen to see if the book is available. For help go to the Research Help Desk or the Circulation Desk on the first floor of the library.

To limit to magazine or popular articles:

On the results screen click on "Magazines" under "Type." In the results list these will be labeled as "Periodical."

To limit to scholarly or peer-reviewed articles:

On the results screen click on "Academic Journals" uner "Type." In the results list these will be labaled as "Acadamic Journal."

WorldCat is an online database listing materials in U.S. libraries and selected libraries throughout the world. Holdings are indicated for Milne Library, and the Stevens-German Library at Hartwick College. You can search by author, title, subject, and keyword. If Milne Library does not own an item, you can request items by following the Request via Interlibrary Loan link provided on the record for an item in WorldCat. Locate WorldCat in the alphabetical list of databases.

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

All of the following databases are linked from the library home page under the Databases tab on the top right of the page. Note that most of the database content is also found using the EDS (Search Everything) search.

Some databases are not directly indexed in Ebsco EDS or are not complete. For instance, the New York Times is only available from 1985 to the present in EDS.

To take advantage of the richest features of a database, including the subject thesaurus or specialized limiters, you may choose to search a specific, subject-relevant database.  For example, Business Source Complete, PsycINFO, and Lexis Nexis Academic have powerful features only available in their unique interfaces.

All of the following databases are linked from the library home page under the Databases tab on the top right of the page.

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 360 Link to Full Text 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.

Locating the article in print or microfilm, if not available in electronic form:

Link to Milne Library Print or Microfilm Copy, and then click on Is it here? Note available issues and location. Print periodicals are located on compact shelving, and microfilm is availabe in metal cabinets in the Microfilm Room, both of which are in the Periodicals Room.

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.

Finding an Article from a Citation:

If you have the citation for a periodical article