How to Think about Weird Things

Need help with your research? Contact:

Jen Jarson
Social Sciences Reference Librarian
phone: x3552
email: jarson [at] muhlenberg [dot] edu
IM (AIM, Yahoo, MSN): jjarson1 (add @hotmail.com for MSN)

Need help after hours?
IM the Library at TalkToTrexler (for AIM, Yahoo, and MSN)
Note: Add @hotmail.com for MSN.
Online Sunday-Thursday 2pm-10pm.
See Ask a Librarian for more information.

Selected Reference Sources

Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology
Online (2001 edition) or Reference 133 E56o v.1-2 (1996 edition)

Encyclopedia of the Paranormal
Reference 133.03 S819e

Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience
Reference 503 S553s v.1-2

Finding Books

TREXLER LIBRARY

Search the Trexler Library Catalog to find out what books, government publications, journals, videos, etc. the library owns.

GETTING THERE:      Use the shortcut search box on the Library Homepage or Library Homepage  --  Books, Videos, Music, ... (in Find box)  --  Trexler Library Catalog

For tips on searching the catalog, use the Help link above the search boxes.

OTHER LIBRARIES

WorldCat. To find books held by other libraries, search WorldCat, a database of over 60 million library records from around the country and world. Use the ILL button to request a book from another library. (ILL can take 10-14 days.)

GETTING THERE:      Library Homepage  --  Books, Videos, Music, ... (in Find box)  --  Other Library Catalogs -- WorldCat

For more information on Interlibrary Loan options, see http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library/more/ill/index.html or ask for help.

GETTING THERE:      Library Homepage  --  ILL (in the Services & Forms box)

Finding Articles

See a list of all databases at via the Library Homepage  --  Articles A-Z (in the Find box).

GENERAL / INTERDISCIPLINARY

Academic Search Premier
Large and diverse database that covers most academic disciplines. Contains both scholarly and non-academic resources. Includes many articles in full text.

JSTOR
Searchable collections of full-text journals from a wide variety of possibly relevant disciplines.

OmniFile (WilsonWeb)
Multi-disciplinary database providing the complete content–indexing, abstracts, and full text from many of Wilson's databases (including Business, Education, Humanities, Sciences, Social Sciences, and more).

SUBJECT-SPECIFIC

Philosopher's Index
 Provides indexing and abstracts from books and journals of philosophy and related fields from 1940 to present.

PsycINFO
Indexes and abstracts professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines.

ScienceDirect College Edition Health and Life Sciences
This database includes 1000+ full-text Elsevier journals in the areas of health and life sciences. Coverage spans 1995 to the present.

GETTING THE ARTICLES

  1. When searching for articles, you may find the full-text of an article linked in the database.

  2. If not, you need to search the Trexler Library Catalog to see if we own the journal in which the article is published.
    • Most databases have a Get It! link embedded. Click the link to check our holdings.
      • Sometimes Get It will connect you directly to the online full-text of the article. Otherwise, use the Get It gateway screen to check the library's holdings, by searching the library catalog for the journal in which your article is published. 
    • Otherwise, search the catalog by journal title. Verify that we have online, print, or microform access to the year/volume you need.
  3. If the library's holding don't match what you need, request the article from another library via Interlibrary Loan.
    • Some databases have a Request on Interlibrary Loan link embedded. Click the link to fill out the form. Click Submit.
    • Otherwise, use the Interlibrary Loan Journal Article Request Form (Library Homepage  --  ILL (in the Services & Forms box)  --  Articles request form). Fill out the form with as much information as possible. Ask for help, if you have questions.

Selected Web Search Engines

Google
http://www.google.com
Non-selective. One of the largest web crawlers.

Google Scholar
http://scholar.google.com
A web crawler that looks for content it identifies as "scholarly." Emphasis is on books and journal articles. Intended as a "federated search" to search across disciplines (weighted toward sciences and social sciences). Not always full text. Check the library catalog to see if Muhlenberg has access to the full text.

Intute
http://www.intute.ac.uk/
The service is created by a network of UK universities and partners. Subject specialists select and evaluate the websites in the database and write high quality descriptions of the resources.

Librarians' Internet Index
http://lii.org/
Highly selective search engine and directory of web resources.  Both scholarly and popular sites deemed important by a team of California-based public librarians. Entries are accompanied by paragraph-length descriptions.

Citing Your Sources

For information on citation styles, consult the following resources.

Writer's Handbook (University of Wisconsin--Madison)
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/Documentation.html

Trexler Library handouts on APA, MLA, and Chicago styles:
http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library/reshelp/citations.html
GETTING THERE: Library Homepage -- Citation Guides (in the Research Help box).

© Muhlenberg College
Last modified: 29 October 2008