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Almost all of the resources described are accessed through the links on the OSU Libraries’ homepage:
OSCAR is the OSU Libraries’ online catalog. Use it to find records of library materials of any kind (books, audio and videocassettes, maps, etc.) located in the Libraries’ collections. OSCAR also shows records of periodical holdings. Records in OSCAR show the location of the item, the Library of Congress call number, and whether it can be checked out. If the status bar shows “AVAILABLE”, any user at any of the OSU libraries can request it. Items requested from other OSU locations generally arrive within a week but for planning purposes, users should expect that a loan transaction might take two weeks to complete. An OSCAR search defaults to the entire OSU collection but a specific location can be designated instead; the symbol for the Newark Campus Library in OSCAR is NWK.
Searching OSCAR:
The handout that shows the Libraries’ homepage has detailed instructions for doing searches on its reverse side.
OhioLINK is the network of over 80 college, university, community and technical college libraries (plus the State Library of Ohio) to which OSU belongs. There is a link to its central catalog on the Libraries’ homepage; all students, faculty and staff at member institutions may request materials in the same way that they can order items in OSCAR. OhioLINK also provides access to many reference databases such as periodical indexes, online encyclopedias, and other information sources. Also, it sponsors a statewide document delivery service that allows users to request copies of periodical articles and other materials that their own institution does not own.
Searching OhioLINK:
If you click on the link to the OhioLINK catalog on the Libraries’ homepage, and then click the WORDS search option, you get a search screen with the same sorts of directions as the OSCAR directions above.
Periodical Indexes give citations to specific articles in magazines, professional journals, and sometimes to other sorts of information such as chapters in books or Ph.D. dissertations. Increasing numbers of the online indexes have links to the full text of the articles cited; the article can be printed from the record in the index. The NWK library does not charge for articles printed in this way. These indexes will be the most useful for beginning students:
Academic Search Premier:
Citations to articles in hundreds of periodicals with links to the full text of
over 60% of the articles. It
frequently offers a choice of full text or page image if illustrations are
important.
ArticleFirst (OCLC): An index of the items listed on table of contents pages of over 12,000 journals. This index covers articles, news stories, letters and other items. For most items, the database also provides a list of libraries that hold the journal, and full text is available for some as well.
Business Source Premier: Similar to Academic Search Premier but with an emphasis on business periodicals.
Ethnic Newswatch: Full text of newspapers published by and for American ethnic groups.
Facts on File (Facts.com): Events, issues, statistics, people. Coverage of the last 20 years; full text.
Lexis-Nexis Academic: Provides access to a wide range of news, business, legal, and reference information. Various portions of the database are updated daily and most information is full text.
Newspaper Source: Indexes and abstracts articles from 27 newspapers. It has full text.
Sirs Researcher: Full-text articles from journals, magazines, newspapers and government publications. Covers social, scientific, political, economic, historic issues.
World Almanac and Book of Facts (Facts.com): Up-to date information, full text.
Searching the Periodicals Databases:
The help screens in the indexes have detailed instructions for searching.
Periodicals at OSUN—three possibilities:
1. We have a current subscription to it or own a run of back issues. It is either on the shelf (hard copy) or in the microfiche drawers.
2. It can be printed from the index database (Retrieve Full Text).
3. We can obtain a copy of it from another library (Check Availability). There is a .10 per page copying charge.
The Gateway to Information: A massive multi-subject guide to books (generally reference), periodical indexes and abstracts, both hard copy and online, and reviewed web sites. The link to the Gateway is on the Libraries’ homepage. Or use this URL:
http://library.osu.edu/sites/thegateway/
A
Few Tips: The reference collection:
What you need may be in a reference book. Ask the librarian before you waste a lot of time doing
unproductive searches on the Internet. We have many sources of statistical and factual information
in hard copy, many of which are updated annually.
The
Internet as an Information Resource:
The Internet is virtually unregulated: anyone can have a web page and anyone with a web page can publish anything he wishes. And that means that a Web author can perpetuate the most incredible nonsense or the most outrageous misinformation imaginable. It is not necessarily true or accurate just because
it is on the Internet. Students who don’t want to spend huge portions of time evaluating web sites should
find a source of reviewed sites. One source of these is The Gateway to Information; another is the
Libraries’ page of reference resources. To get there, click the link that says Reference on the left side of the Libraries’ Homepage. On the next page, click the link that says Reference Resources. The links on
the next page list hundreds of reviewed Internet resources; if you click on the one labeled Countries of the world you get a page with over 90 internet sites useful for research on this topic.
Search
Engines:
The best search engine in the world is the one that you know how to use. Most of them have an advanced
search capacity. It will tell whether the engine accepts search strings where terms are connected with AND, OR, AND NOT, or whether it recognizes search symbols like + and -.
Using
all available resources:
Members of even the smallest Ohio public libraries have access to research databases subscribed to by OPLIN (the Ohio Public Libraries’ Information Network). Students can use a public library card to access the OPLIN databases using this URL:
Select the public library that issued the card from the list in the window at the top of the page and enter the card number in the space provided.
12/12/02