Wescoe Cohorts

Need help with your research and other library-related matters? Contact:

Kelly Cannon
Humanities & Business Subject Specialist
Phone: x484-664-3602
kcannon@muhlenberg.edu
IM: refcannon (AOL, Yahoo!, MSN)

 

ACADEMIC VS. NON-ACADEMIC RESEARCH

For an illustration of how the information sources used in academic research differ from those in non-academic research, compare Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) vs. Scholarpedia (http://www.scholarpedia.org/).

REFERENCE WORKS

Reference books are located on A level of Trexler Library, to assist in topic-narrowing and making recommendations for further study. Here is an example:

    Encyclopedia of Leadership
    Ref. Collection 303.3403 E56o
    Defines a wide variety of leadership styles and recommends important academic articles and books that discuss these styles. Sample

    Encyclopedia of Management (http://0-infotrac.galegroup.com.library.muhlenberg.edu/itweb/mul_coll?db=GVRL)
    An online encyclopedia subscribed to by Muhlenberg College that summarizes important leadership theories and recommends key academic articles and books on the subjec

FINDING BOOKS

Trexler Library Catalog
Access: Trexler Library Home Page (http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library) > Catalog
Search the library catalog to find books and documents our library own.

Included in this collection are a number of e-books, many of them scholarly, related to management studies.

WorldCat
Access: Trexler Library Home Page (http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library) > Library Catalogs > WorldCat
To expand your book search considerably, try WorldCat, then submit a request to receive a copy of the book on interlibrary loan (books generally arrive at our library in 2-3 days).

Regional Libraries
As a Muhlenberg student, you have access and borrowing privileges for books (but not videos) to a number of college libraries in the Lehigh Valley. The Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges includes Cedar Crest College, DeSales University, Lafayette College, Lehigh University, and Moravian College. All these libraries will issue library cards to students with a Muhlenberg ID.

FINDING ARTICLES

All of the databases below can be accessed by visiting Trexler Library Home Page (http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library) > Databases A to Z. From home, you will be prompted to enter you last name and college ID (found on your ID card).

Academic Search Premier contains full text for more than 4,500 scholarly and popular journals covering academic areas like the medical sciences, ethnic studies, education, humanities, etc.

Business Source Elite is a full text database of over 1,000 of the world's top management and marketing journals. Dates back to 1985. ***RECOMMENDED***

Communication & Mass Media Complete indexes over 600 titles with half being in full text. Areas covered are those related to communication and the mass media like television, radio, etc.

JSTOR full text archival database that covers a wide variety of subjects.

PsycInfo covers scholarly, professional, and research articles in psychology and related fields, 1887 to the present, and books, 1987 to the present. Useful for locating materials on social or organizational behavior.

Sage Journals Online is full text from 1999 to the present although citations can be from as far back as the 1890s. Topics covered include communication, business, policy, psychology, political science, sociology, religion, etc. ***RECOMMENDED***

Wall Street Journal is full text of the paper from 1982 to the present. ***RECOMMENDED***

getting to the full text. . .

To see if the library has the full text of a journal, either click on the Get It link in the database, or go to the Trexler Library Home Page and run a journal title search.

interlibrary loan of journal articles. . .

articles from journals not found in Trexler Library can be ordered through interlibrary loan, either by clicking on the appropriate link from within an article database, or by returning to the Trexler Library Home Page > ILL > Articles.

FINDING COMPANY AND INDUSTRY INFORMATION

All of the databases below can be accessed by visiting Trexler Library Home Page (http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library) > Online Reference Shelf. From home, you will be prompted to enter you last name and college ID (found on your ID card).

Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe contains extensive financial information about companies. From within the database, click on the "Business" tab.

Marketline over full-text industry reports for the U.S. and around the world.

ValueLine is an investor's service, offering U.S. company analysis and forecasts.

FINDING VIDEOS

Trexler Library contains an extensive DVD and VHS collection, that can be viewed in the library or at home. Search for videos in the Trexler Library Catalog (see above).

SEARCHING THE WEB FOR ACADEMIC RESOURCES

When deciding to use information from the web, these tools can be useful for screening for authoritative information.

    Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com)
    Non-selective. One of the largest web crawlers.

    Intute (http://www.intute.ac.uk/)
    Highly selective. One of the most restricted search engines/directories.

CITING SOURCES

Assistance with creating bibliographies and citing sources can be found at Trexler Library Home Page> Citation Guides.