Research Guides: First Year Seminars: FYS 181-3 Whales' Tales

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Library Catalog

MUSCAT Plus This link opens in a new window
MUSCAT Plus searches for books, journal articles, media, and more in Musselman Library and beyond.

To see have more request options and to see all results, sign in with Muscat Plus before searching.

Interdisciplinary Databases

ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
Provides access to thousands of full-text scholarly journals, trade and professional titles, newspapers, magazines, dissertations, working papers, case studies, and market reports. Content covers all major subject areas, including business, health and medical, social sciences, arts and humanities, education, science and technology, and religion.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Provides access to content across all disciplines. Search or browse books, journals, images, and primary sources.

Disciplinary Database

America: History and Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Provides citations to articles on American and Canadian history. Articles date from 1964 – present. Includes some full-text links.
MLA International Bibliography This link opens in a new window
Covers literature, language and linguistics, folklore, film, literary theory and criticism, and dramatic arts, as well as the historical aspects of printing and publishing. Over 6,000 journals and series, plus 1,200 book publishers, are indexed. Articles date from 1926-present.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Provides abstracts and citations of research literature and quality web sources updated daily, 1900-present. Coverage is very strong for sciences, strong for social sciences, and growing for arts & humanities.

Background Information

Gale Reference eBooks This link opens in a new window
Provides a database of encyclopedias and reference sources for research. Coverage include the Arts, Business, Education, the Environment, History, Literature, Medicine, Multicultural Studies, Religion, Science and Social Science. 2000 – present.

Borrowing Materials from Another Library

If the library doesn't have an item you want, you can request to borrow a copy from another library via our interlibrary loan service.

Articles (PDF) usually arrive within 24 hours. Books may take 4-7 days. A book chapter (PDF) may arrive in 1-2 days.

small button with the words Gett It! For articles, use the Gett It button in databases to see if we have access. If not, you will see an option to sign into Muscat Plus and submit your request.

For books and book chapters, search Muscat Plus. If you don't see what you want, click "search other libraries" and then submit your request with the "request from other libraries" link on the results page. Or, you can use the interlibrary loan form at the top of Muscat Plus.

More directions for requesting books/book chapters and journal articles are on the library website.

Potential Primary Sources for History and Literature

Pamphlets, Advertisements/Posters, Books

Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 This link opens in a new window
Provides full text resources about life in 17th- and 18th-century America, from agriculture and auctions through foreign affairs, diplomacy, literature, music, religion, the Revolutionary War, temperance, witchcraft, etc., with option to search all imprints, including two supplemental collections from the Library Company of Philadelphia.

Newspapers and Magazines

America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Features full-text images of over 1,000 U.S. historical newspapers published between 1690 and 1922, including titles from all 50 states.
Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Provides access to a collection of 400 19th Century United States newspapers. Content includes full-text articles, advertisements, and illustrations from a wide range of urban and rural American newspapers.
American Periodical Series This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text articles on American social and political development from periodicals published in the United States during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. Includes periodicals published between 1740-1943.

Other Documents/Materials

Adam Matthew Explorer This link opens in a new window
This collection provides access to the complete Adam Matthew Digital portfolio of primary source content published through 2018, including 88 collections as well as the AM Explorer cross-search platform.

Citations - Chicago and MLA

Chicago

Chicago Manual of Style This link opens in a new window
The online version of the Chicago Manual. Provides information on manuscript preparation, punctuation, spelling, quotations, captions, tables, abbreviations, references, bibliographies, notes, and indexes, with sections on journals and electronic media.

Chicago Style (Purdue OWL)
The Purdue OWL provides basic examples for most types of sources.

MLA

MLA Handbook This link opens in a new window
Provides access to the online MLA Handbook for writers of research papers and anyone citing sources according to the Modern Language Association defined style guide/format. This is the ninth edition, 2021 MLA Handbook.

MLA (Purdue OWL)
The Purdue OWL provides basic examples for most types of sources and formatting guides.

Short Research Videos/Tutorials

Distinguishing Among Source Types (video, 5 mins.)
What are the differences among different types of sources--from scholarly and popular books to scholarly articles? How can I identify them within a library database or catalog?
Peer Review in 3 Minutes (video, 3 mins.)
How do articles get peer reviewed? What role does peer review play in scholarly research and publication?
Anatomy of a Scholarly Article (video, 5 mins.)
How are scholarly, academic articles structured? How does it differ from a popular magazine article? How can knowing the common structure of scholarly articles help to make sense of the authors' arguments and research process?