Speech Communications 1100
Kristy Maddux
Introduction |Locating Materials in GALILEO 
|Additional Help
This is intended to be a brief guide to locating materials you will need in order to complete your assignment. You will be using a combination of primary and secondary sources. Most of your materials will be scholarly materials, although you may also be using popular materials, such as newspapers. You may also wish to make use of government documents.
Primary sources are sources which provide contemporary accounts of a topic or events. Newspaper articles reporting on your topic are primary sources. Government documents are primary sources. Reports from think tanks may also be primary sources. These sources do not provide commentary, but rather just present the informaton.
Secondary sources, on the other hand, are more reflective and are generally after an event. These sources will provide criticism and commentary or opinion about a topic or event. Articles which are more historical are secondary sources.
Scholarly materials are works prepared by scholars
for scholars. Government documents and articles in medical journals
are examples of scholarly materials. How can you identify scholarly materials?
One way is to notice the journal title where the article appears. If the title
contains journal, quarterly, review, reports or studies, it's
probably a scholarly work. Scholarly works tend to have footnotes and a bibliography
of works cited. Also, if you have the item in your hand (i.e., not an electronic
copy), you'll notice some physical characteristics: the paper is more like book
paper, and is not shiny; there are few photographs, although there may be charts
and graphs; and there are few ads in the journal. And, scholarly journals are
not likely to be available at the local newsstand, nor at the grocery store. You'll find indexing to this type of material in GALILEO .. That's why you should use GALILEO and not Google!
What about popular press materials? These are things you could buy in the check-out lane at the grocery store. As the name implies, they are intended for popular consumption. The pages are slick and glossy, with lots of advertisements, lots of photographs and no footnotes. Time, and Newsweek fall into this category. Depending on the requirements for your assignment, you may not be permitted to make use of this kind of material.
Listed below are some databases in GALILEO you may wish to use
when identifying articles on your topic. These are not listed in order of usefulness!
Academic Search Premier. This database provides some full-text
coverage and includes primary and secondary sources. A good starting place,
but more specialized databases will very likely provide you with more information
on your topic. This will also provide you with full-text coverage of Time and Newsweek.
Alt HealthWatch. Articles on complementary, holistic, and integrated approaches to health. Full-text. Here you should find articles on obesity and health care.
Ecology Abstracts. This database will provide indexing information for topics on Ecology. A good place to search for articles on drilling in the ANWR.
Education Abstracts Full-Text. As the name suggests, this provides full-text coverage of articles relating to education. Evolution/Creationism, from an education standpoint should be included here, as well as immigration, and race in education. Use this in conjuction with the ERIC database.
ERIC (at EBSCOhost) ERIC is one of the premier databases in the field of Education. There are some links to full-text in this database.
GPO Monthly Catalog. The Government Printing Office (GPO) publishes thousands of documents yearly on a wide range of topics. Some records will provide a link to a web site. Others will just have the Government Document Number. To locate paper copies of Government Documents in the UGA Libraries, add J84 to the front of the number and then go to either the Main Library, 2nd Floor, or Science Library, 2nd Floor, to locate what you need. Need more help? Contact Susan Field (by phone on 542-0664), one of UGA's Government Documents Librarians.
Health Source: Consumer Edition This is a full-text database, aimed at the general public.
International Political Science Abstracts and Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. Look here to find scholarly materials on topics in Political Science and policy issues. This is a secondary source.
LexisNexis Academic. Full-text, up-to-the-minute coverage of newspapers from around the world, plus business information, legal information, medical directories, and more. To get newspaper information, select news>general>major papers. The truncation symbol in LexisNexis is the exclamation point: ! (Most databases use the * or ?.)
LexisNexis Congressional. Find full-text documents, reports, testimonies, the Congressional Record and more here.
LexisNexis Statistical. View tables and find statistical information on a variety of topics. Full-text.
MedLine (EBSCOhost) This version of MedLine provides full-text coverage. MedLine is written BY physicians FOR physicians, so it can get very technical. Still, a good resource for obesity-related articles.
Polling the Nations and iPoll. These two databases provide survery
research information on a variety of topics.
Policy File. Here you will find full-text and links to full-text for policy papers from government agencies and think tanks on a wide range of issues. Be aware that think tanks are not unbiased!
PsycInfo. PsycInfo provides indexing and links to full-text articles in Psychology and Psychiatry. Many of the topics for this assignment will be found here, including obesity, civil unions, etc. If the full-text is not included, look in GIL for the title of the journal to see if UGA owns it.
SKS WebSelect. A directory of web resources on a variety of topics.
Sociological Abstracts This will provide information on aspects of sociology. This is not full-text, so you'll have to search in GIL for the title of the journal. DO NOT search for the title of the article, or you will never, ever find it! Topics that may be covered in this database include civil unions, immigration, same-sex adoptions, among others.
If you need additional help, you have a variety of options. First: ASK A LIBRARIAN! Librarians are available to you in all three libraries: the Main Library, the Student Learning Center and the Science Library. Ask in person at any of the Reference Desks or email us your questions. You can also make use of one our newest features, Chat Reference . This service is only available from 8:30 a.m. until 10 p.m., Monday through Thursday and only until 6:00 p.m. on Fridays. For a personal conference of one hour, make an appointment for a research conference. You may also contact the library instructor for this course, Carla Wilson Buss, by email or by phone on 542-6233. The one thing to remember is to ASK~that's why librarians come to work every day.....
Sources used:
http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/VirtualClassroom/case1vc.html
http://www.backcountrysafaris.com/bcs/alaska-rafting-150.php
http://www.wrightslaw.com/bks/nclb/nclb.htm
http://www.nhsd.k12.pa.us/Report%20Card/RC-main.htm
washington-dc.cchm.ca/
Carla Wilson Buss, University of Georgia Libraries, February 15, 2005