This guide will help you find both general/popular and specific/scholarly resources for the secondary source portion of the Potential Source List assignment.
As a rule, general/popular materials are written by professionals or laypersons in a particular field for the general public. Specific/scholarly sources are written by professionals for other professionals in a particular field. This guide will help you identify both types of resources.
Reference resources include dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, manuals and directories. These resources can be general/popular or scholarly/field-specific. Scholarly/field-specific reference resources may also be referred to as specialized resources.
Many fields and areas of study have subject encyclopedias that cover topics specific to that field. Subject encyclopedias cover topics that may not be included in general encyclopedias. They also go into more depth on topics and may use more technical language.
A List of Subject Encyclopedias is available at the reference desk. It lists some of the subject encyclopedias available in the library. You can also use the library catalog to find subject dictionaries and encyclopedias. Some examples of subject encyclopedias are:
Law, business, medicine, art, literature, philosophy, religion, science, and many other fields have their own vocabulary. Specialized dictionaries define words and phrases as they are used in a particular field or area of study.
A List of Subject Dictionaries is available at the reference desk. It lists some of the subject dictionaries available in the library. You can also use the library catalog to find subject dictionaries and encyclopedias. Some examples of subject dictionaries are:
The asterisk (*) is a truncation character that tells the computer to find any word that begins with "dictionar" or "encycloped," that is dictionary, dictionaries, encyclopedia, encyclopedias.
If the library does not have a subject dictionary or encyclopedia on the specialized subject, try a slightly broader search. For example, if your topic is emeralds, you will find that Chemeketa has encyclopedias of gemstones, but no dictionaries of gemstones. You might try a keyword search for "mineral* AND dictionar*."
Another approach is to look for a specialized dictionary or encyclopedia in the catalog of another library. You will find links to other library catalogs on the Other Library Catalogs page.
Most catalogs, including Chemeketa's, use Library of Congress subject headings to describe the topics of books under "subject" searches.
Try also the Bowker's best reference books [R 028.12 B67]. This resource lists reference materials such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, and indexes for many topics. The book is arranged alphabetically by subject. If you do not find your specific topic, use a broader topic. For example, if your topic is homeschooling, look under education.
You are probably familiar with several general dictionaries. They are used to look up word meanings, spelling, and sometimes the history of a word. You can find general English dictionaries under the Dewey Decimal number 423. Some examples of general dictionaries are:
Usually organized in A-Z order, general encyclopedias cover a variety of topics. They are a good first place to go for a concise overview of a topic. You can find general encyclopedias under the Dewey Decimal number 031. Some examples of general encyclopedias are:
To find books in the library, use the library catalog. A link to Chemeketa's library catalog as well as regional, national and international library catalogs is available on the Library Catalogs page. There are also instructions for using the library catalog.
Trying to determine from the catalog whether a book is general/popular or specific/scholarly is not recommended. You should look at the actual book to determine who the intended audience is.
Full electronic text for books on a variety of topics of interest to community college students are also available on netLibrary.
To find scholarly journal articles you must use an index to scholarly journals. The EBSCOhost indexes listed below allow you to limit your results to Scholarly Journals (Peer Reviewed) under Limit your results. Checking this option will exclude articles in popular magazines and newspapers from your results.
Journal article indexes can cover a variety of subjects or one subject such as business or education. Some journal article indexes by subject area are:
To find articles in magazines and newspapers, you must use an index.
Some indexes available at Chemeketa that include popular magazines are:
Newspaper indexes available at Chemeketa include:
A journal article index is a publication that serves as a key to the contents of scholarly/specialized journals. Journal article indexes provide citations for articles on your subject. Citations usually include the title of the article, author's name, name of the journal the article is in, date, volume, issue, and page number of the article.
With the citation you can find the article in the library or request it through interlibrary loan if the library does not subscribe to the journal.
You will find examples of citing indexes for this assignment on the How to Cite Indexes for a List of Possible Sources (WR123) page.
To find indexes appropriate for your potential source list, use the following:
*An Abstract Index, also known as an Abstract Journal Index, is a publication that provides citations and abstracts from scholarly literature. (An Abstract is a short summary of an article or other work.) Abstract indexes include not only journal articles, but also books, chapters, dissertations, and other materials.
Refer to the list of indexes in the section on finding articles in magazines and newspapers, above.
You may find institutes, agencies and organizations for your topic in the following resources:
Some suggested items for this category are:
As you began your research, you may have noted names, specialized words, or other terms that pertained to your subject. These terms can be used as search words when you look for further information.
If you are having trouble coming up with basic terms for keyword searching, there is a reference book that you may find helpful. Successful keyword searching (Reference 025.04 M14) has suggested words, names, and organizations for many popular topics.
