Professor Sango
Spring 2009 

• News
• Court Cases
• Troubleshooting Lexis Nexis
  
• Scholarship
• Citing
• Librarian

Finding Newspaper Articles 

Lexis Nexis Academic
Contains full text of thousands of national and international publications, including major world papers like the New York Times, Time (London), and the Washington Post.

Looking for known articles?

Strategy: Put as much information as you have about the title in the first box.  Keep the drop down menu as the default "anywhere in the document." 

**It is important to check the dates being searched as the default is the last three months.  If you are looking for an article that is older, you'll need to change this to another time frame.

Looking for unknown articles?

Strategy:

• Use keywords (issues, people, concepts, events) relevant to your topic.

• Since you are searching these words within the full text of the entire newspaper article, it is helpful to use fields, limiters, and proximity words to focus your search.  
• Useful search fields for limiting:
  • In Headline = the words you enter will appear in headline
  • In Headline & Lead paragraph
  • In Headline, Lead Paragraph, and Indexing

**The assumption with these fields is that if a word appears in the headline, lead paragraph, or indexing, then the article is more likely to be about that topic rather than just mentioning the word anywhere in the article.

• Other important search field limits: "At Least 3 Occurrences" and "At Least 5 Occurrences"

**The assumption with these fields is that if a word appears with more frequency, it is more likely to be relevant rather than just being mentioned once or twice in the article.

• Use Connectors carefully.  LN uses And, Or, and And Not to allow you to combine terms. 
  
  • And=Both terms searched have to be present
  • Or=Either term searched has to be present
  • And Not=This term will not be included

Finding Court Cases

Lexis Nexis Academic
Contains U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Circuit Court, Court of Appeals decisions, state court decisions, all Federal laws from 1988, legal reviews, tax law, EU law, and more. Click on "Legal" Tab under search.

Looking for known cases?

• Select the kind of case for which you are looking from the menu on the left: Federal & State Cases, for example. 
• If you have the name of the parties involved, put their names in the "Case Name" boxes.
• Look at results carefully to make sure that you have the case you need.  There are often related cases, appeals, etc.

Looking for unknown cases? 

• Select the kind of case you want to search.
• Use keywords that you think reflect important concepts or issues raised in the case.
• Because you are searching the full text of the cases, be specific.
• Revise your searches based on your results.
• Look carefully at the subjects listed at the bottom of relevant cases, and use these as subject terms to find more cases like it.

Troubleshooting

Too many results not relevant?

• Use more precision with your proximity operators:

• Use more specific terms, and incorporate subject terms.

**For a list of additional connectors used in LN, check here.

No results?

• Search using the broadest possible field, usually "Anywhere in Document" option. 
• Consider alternative spellings; use "wildcards."  

• Mind your connectors!: Make sure that both the drop down menu options and the words you type in the boxes reflect what you want searched.
• Check the scope of your search, including the sources and time period. Try searching a different group of sources.
• Remove all or as many of your limits.
• Broaden your keywords.  Ex) Instead of using christianity, use religion.

Finding Scholarship

Reference Resources

Reference books (encyclopedias, bibliographies, dictionaries) can help give you an overview of a topic, point you to important work in a field, and clarify concepts. Here are a few:

Encyclopedia of Religion
BL31 .E46 2005
This fifteen-volume encyclopedia features articles on all aspects of religion from prehistory to the present. A bibliography accompanies each entry. Updates the first edition (1987) with substantial new content.

The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
Ref BL31 .O84 1997
8,200 entries cover world religions, sacred texts and sites, important people, customs, and ethics. Cross-references and a 13,000-item topical index facilitate access to the articles.

Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion
Ref BL458 .E53 1999
This two-volume encyclopedia features 600 scholarly articles exploring the roles, perspectives, and contributions of women in world religions.

Take a look at the subject research guide for Religion for more relevant reference works.

Indexes

Indexes provide an organized entry point to the periodical (and sometime monographic) literature.  The indexes below are all electronic, in database format. Indexes are particularly useful for finding recent scholarship in a field as they are updated frequently.  

Religious Studies

• ATLA
• ProQuest Religion

Multidisciplinary

• Academic Search Premier
• Humanities International Complete
• JSTOR
• Project Muse
• ProQuest Research Library

Books

Search BRIDGE to find books relevant to your research topic.   A couple of important things to know about BRIDGE:

If you know the title of a book relevant to your topic, start with a title search in BRIDGE. 

• When you find a book on your topic, examine its subject headings for relevance to your topic.
• Click on a hyperlinked subject heading to perform subject heading search and retrieve related books

Or, you can begin with a keyword search and enter words that describe your topic (names, places, events, etc.).

• Again, when you find a book on your topic, examine its subject headings for relevance to your topic.
• This strategy can be more difficult with theoretical topics

Perform a subject heading search in BRIDGE only if you know a valid Library of Congress subject heading.

• Here are a few headings you might find helpful.  There are many others:
  • Christianity and other religions--[fill in name of religion]
  • Christianity and culture
  • Church and social problems -- [country, or region]
  • Women in Christianity -- [country, or region]
  • Religion--Relations

Citing

Use EndNote or EndNote Web to manage your citations and create bibliographies and notes.