SpeechCommunication354, Education and Social Science Library, U of I

Library Resources for Speech Communication 354
Rhetoric of Free Speech
Fall 2007 - Daniel Larson

Questions? Contact me:
Lisa Romero - 333-6348
Communications Library
122 Gregory Hall

Welcome! We are providing this site to assist you in exploring library resources on your topic. In case you hadn't noticed, our library is one of the largest in the United States and it can be very intimidating. We will try to make things a little easier for you, but you have to ask questions. It takes patience, curiosity, and a sense of adventure to use our resources and facilities so think of this page as a road map for your travels with us.

You may think of the Library as a place to read, but it is much, much more. We have several purposes. The first purpose is as a repository for information. We have been around a little longer than Google, so it is sometimes a little more difficult to find the information here. That leads to our other two functions - discovery and location. The Library is the place to discover resources that will be helpful to you in your studies and writing. We use various tools to do this, both catalogs and article databases. Explore these tools to see what exists in the collections that will be of help to you. Finally, use the tools we provide to locate the materials you need. Many of our databases include links to full-text articles. What if they don't? Use the Online Catalog to find out where the journals the articles are found in live. It's similar to the good old game Tetris, you build, block by block to create the perfect paper.

Use our Ask-A-Librarian Service to IM, chat, email, phone or find a reference librarian. You can also type in the box to the right to instant message us.

Fill out an Individual Research Consultation Form to sign up for a one-on-one appointment with a librarian to learn about the best databases, search strategies and information sources for your upcoming project or paper.

The use of subject words is generally more helpful to you in the library. We aren't very good about "natural language." We just can't keep up with it! If you have an article that you think will be of use to you, look at the subject headings listed after the citation to get an idea of the terms you can use to expand your search.

For the purposes of your assignments in many classes, you may really need to find some good articles. This is a two-step process. First, you need to find the citation to the article you want. You can use bibliographies or suggested readings lists, or you can search for the topic you are interested in by using one of the over 800 databases we provide to you. The second step is to find the actual text of the article you want. Some of our journals are available electonically, but most still live on the shelves. You will need to use the I-Share catalog to look up the source of the citation you have retrieved from the article database if the article is not available electronically.

Search for Articles - The new Library Gateway should provide you with a simple way to gather general information about your topic. Just enter the terms you are interested in finding in the Easy Search. It will pull up citations to books and articles.

If you are looking for a particular type of electronic resource, you can use the Online Research Resources link to see what is available. You don't have to choose a type, but the opportunity is there. Let's say you wanted an index and abstracting resource in order to search for articles. Just select that tab at the top of the search area. You can also choose the subject area you are working in. These are very broad subjects. You would probably want to choose "Political Science", "Communications" or "Government" for this class. If you hit the search button, you will go directly to the relevant article indexes and abstracts. Or, (for example) if you know that you just want to look at the PAIS database, just type in the name, or part of the name in the search box.

If you are working off campus you can get into most of these resources by logging into the proxy server. Just select the database you need and you will be automatically prompted for your netid and login. These are the identifiers you use for your e-mail or to register for classes. If you are working from a campus computer you should be able to connect without identifying yourself.

America History and Life and Historical Abstracts - America: History and Life is a complete bibliographic reference to the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Published since 1964, the database comprises almost 400,000 bibliographic entries. Historical Abstracts is your complete reference guide to the history of the world from 1450 to the present, excluding the United States and Canada.

EBSCO- EBSCO online offers general, business, newspaper and health-related information. Provides full text for over 1,250 journals covering the social sciences, humanities, general science, multi-cultural studies, education, plus 960 journals covering business, management, economics, finance, banking, accounting and selected full text articles from 143 U.S. and international newspapers.

Communication Abstracts - A fairly comprehensive database covering the following subjects - General Communication, Mass Communication, Advertising, Marketing, Broadcasting, Communication Theory, Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Communication, Small Group Communication, Organizational Communication, Journalism, Public Relations, Radio, Public Opinion, Speech, and Television from 1977 to date.

Global Newsbank and NewsBank Newsfile - Identifies articles on politics, economics, culture, science, technology, and environment from Africa, Asia, Europe, former Soviet Union, Pacific Rim, Central and South America, and the Middle East. All articles are in English and are from translated broadcasts, news agency transmissions, wire services, newspapers, magazines, and government documents.

InfoTrac- Includes Expanded Academic ASAP (1996-Sep. 1999, backfile (1980-1995) and LegalTrac (1980-Sep. 1999) collections. EAI offers citations, abstracts and some full text articles with graphics from over 1500 magazines and journals. Subjects include astronomy, religion, law, history, psychology, humanities, current events, sociology, communications and the general sciences. LegalTrac is another subset from this provider that identifies articles (sometimes with full text) in all major law reviews, specialty law journals, and bar association journals.

Hein Online - Identifies law reviews and journal articles prior to the dates traditionally covered by Lexis and Westlaw. Provides full text search capabilities. Also includes full text of treatises and agreements, as well as U.S. Supreme Court reports since 1754 and Federal Register documents since 1936. Provides full text search capabilities.

JSTOR - Includes the full-text of over 100 journals in the areas of African American studies, anthropology, Asian studies, ecology, economics, education, finance, history, literature, mathematics, philosophy, political science, population studies, sociology, and statistics. Most include full texts of complete journals from their inception up to a “moving wall.” The moving wall is a fixed period of time ranging, in most cases, from 2 to 5 years, that defines the gap between the most recently published issue and the date of the most recent issues available in JSTOR.

Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe -A comprehensive source for news, business, and legal information, with full text and abstracts. Includes foreign news sources, major U.S. newspapers, regional U.S. news services, radio and television transcripts, federal and state case law, medical, legislative and industry news, annual reports from Securities and Exchange Commission and many other sources. Newspapers are updated several times daily, and wire services hourly. Other databases available from Lexis-Nexis deal with statistical resources and Congressional resources - be sure to check this out.

The New York Times - This is the "newspaper of record" for the United States and will frequently provide good background as well as primary sources on a variety of topics. This link goes to the historical version of the paper (1851-1998), more current access can be found in Lexis-Nexis which will have the full-text of most of the articles in the "Final New York City" edition from 1980 to date.

P.A.I.S.(Public Affairs Information Service) - This is a bibliographic index with abstracts covering the full range of political, social, and public policy issues. Topics covered include economic, political, and social issues, business, finance, law, international trade and relations, public administration, government, political science, and any topics that are or might become the subject of legislation. The database covers selected journal articles, books, statistics, yearbooks, directories, conference proceedings, pamphlets, reports, government documents, and microfiche. More than 1,600 journals and over 8,000 monographs are indexed each year. Coverage includes documents published worldwide in any of six languages: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. The subject headings and abstracts are in English. Covers 1915-present.

ILLINET ONLINE CATALOG - Our very own list of holdings plus much more. Look here to find titles to books that you want to read, titles of magazines or journals containing articles that you need, and the location of these items. In addition to the 9 million volumes we have on this campus, you can connect to over 60 libraries within the State of Illinois and request books be sent to you. This can take anywhere from five days to two weeks. Some good subjects to search under include "Freedom of the Press," "Government and the Press," and "Freedom of Information."

Here is a brief bibliography of useful works that can be found in the Education and Social Science reference collection:

Chandler, Ralph C., Richard A. Enslen, and Peter G. Renstrom. Constitutional Law Deskbook : Individual Rights . Rochester, N.Y.; San Francisco, Calif.: Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Co.; Bancroft-Whitney Co., 1987. - Call no. 342.73 C766c - For each amendment provides an overview and notes specific cases.

Chandler, Ralph C., Peter G. Renstrom, and Richard A. Enslen. The Constitutional Law Dictionary : Individual Rights . Clio Dictionaries in Political Science. Vol. 8. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio Informations Services, 1985. - Call no. 342.73 C361c - Look under specific amendment for some indepth information.

Epstein, Lee. The Supreme Court Compendium : Data, Decisions, and Developments . 3rd ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2003. - Call no. 347.7326 Ep85s 2003 - A great fact book with data, tables, a chronlogy and more.

Finkelman, Paul, Melvin I. Urofsky, and United States. Supreme Court. Landmark Decisions of the United States Supreme Court . Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2003. - Call no. Q347.7326 F495l - Arranged by decade, includes citations, author of majority and dissenting opinions, a brief discussion of the case, bibliographies, membership, a case index and a separate topical index.

Harrison, Maureen, Steve Gilbert, and 10 United States. Supreme Court. Landmark Decisions of the United States Supreme Court . Beverly Hills, Calif.: Excellent Books, 1991. Call no. - 342.7300264 L748l - Contains an entire section on the First Amendment that includes information on specific cases and a bibliography.

Jost, Kenneth. The Supreme Court A to Z . CQ's American Government A to Z Series. 3rd ed. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2003. Call no. 347.732603 SU76 2003 - Brief entries and a selected bibliography at the end.

Palmer, Kris E. Constitutional Amendments, 1789 to the Present . Detroit: Gale Group, 2000. - Call no. Q342.7303 C7663 - Chapter on the First Amendment includes the text of the amendment, an overview, the origins of the idea, information on the 19th and 20th Century events, a subject related essay, a list of sources, and at the end of the volume you will find a glosssary, an extensive bibliography, and a combined case and subject index.

Witt, Elder, and 20 Congressional Quarterly, inc. Congressional Quarterly's Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court . 2nd ed. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Inc., 1990. - Call no. Q347.7326 C76g - A general work on the U.S. Supreme Court includes chapters on its origin, the federal system, and individual rights.

These can't be checked out of the Library, but can be very useful for finding materials that can be checked out.

WORLD-CAT - Still can't find it? Look here to see if it exists. This connection goes to something called OCLC and you can choose to look for your book in this database. You have several sources here - WorldCat will take to to the place you want to go. You can use the Interlibrary Loan function on WorldCat to request books, or you can go to the Interlibrary Loan department's page to request photocopies of articles. Journal article copies are usually delivered electronically to your Interlibrary Loan account.

Please remember the reference desk in the Communications Library is there to provide assistance on this project. Hours for this semester are:

Monday-Thursday - 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Friday - 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Saturday - CLOSED
Sunday - 5:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.

Education and Social Science Library in Room 100 of the Main Library is another place you can go for help. Hours this semester are:

Monday-Thursday - 8:30 a.m. - 11:00 p.m.
Friday - 8:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Saturday - 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Sunday - 1:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m.

Both libraries provide chat reference so check with Ask-A-Librarian to see who is online when you need help.

If you ever want to set up an appointment to discuss your research process, feel free to call Lisa Romero at 333-6348 or drop her an e-mail at l-romero@uiuc.edu.

It is possible to access the Ask-A-Librarian site almost any of the hours the Library is open. We provide chat and instant messaging through this site or you can come in or call.

The Government Documents Library has provided a page of excellent links that will be very useful for this class and for many, many others.

There is a great big world of information out there on the Internet. It may or may not be helpful to you. Before you try searching for materials, it might help you to decide what exactly you are looking for. A super site to help you learn about assessing information on the Internet can be found here .

United States Supreme Court - The Supreme Court site provides some really current information on cases and arguments heard.

FindLaw - A freqently used and important site for all types of legal information, especially Supreme Court opinions.