Resource Spotlight

CREDO REFERENCE

Beginning a research project? CREDO Reference is a great place to start. You can search or browse over 10,000 topic pages containing overview articles, definitions, images, and reference articles. Credo topic pages also link out to other library resources such as the online catalog and EBSCO databases.

When you enter a keyword search in Credo, you will explore topic pages as well as articles from 600 reference books. Topic pages appear at the top of your results. In the left menu, you can narrow your results by subject, type of entry and other criteria. Following a link to one of Jenks Library’s databases or the online catalog will carry your search term over to the new resource.

Credo's Concept Map is an interactive tool that will help explore relationships between ideas as you expand or narrow your research topic.

The Gadgets feature helps find specific kinds of information such as a definition, a person, an image, or a quotation.

Explore CREDO Reference now!

ERIC

ERIC on the EBSCOhost platform is a key resource for education research. The ERIC Collection, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, contains more than 1.4 million records including peer-reviewed journal articles, books, research reports and policy papers. Using ERIC on EBSCOhost allows access to full text articles in other EBSCO databases. If a journal article or a document is available through EBSCO or the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), the record will contain a link to the full text.

It is important to note that all EBSCO search screens, including ERIC, are set to limit your initial search results to articles available at Gordon College – either online or in print. This means you have immediate access to the articles. If you want to search more broadly, just uncheck all three limiters (Print/microform, Full Text and Full Text in Project Muse) and you will also retrieve articles that are not available at Gordon, but can be requested through interlibrary loan.

One of the strengths of ERIC is its thesaurus, a standardized list of education-related terms called descriptors. Using these descriptors in your search can help you find the most relevant articles. Select the “Thesaurus” link at the top of the ERIC search page to search or browse terms. Thesaurus entries often show alternate terms, broader and narrower terms to use. You can select a descriptor and add it to your search. Alternatively, you can enter the descriptor term into the search screen “Find” box and select the field “Descriptors”.

To access help specific to the ERIC database, click “?” just to the right of the search boxes on the ERIC search page. Then look for "Database Help-ERIC" at the bottom of the left menu.

ERIC is available from the Library home page. Go to Electronic Resources and scroll down to ERIC. You will also find this database on the Electronic Resources by Subject – Education page and on the Education Research Guide.

Reference librarians are on hand to help you get started using ERIC and to assist you in constructing searches. Stop by the Reference Desk for a quick walk through and introduction to this useful research tool.

Try searching ERIC now. 

MUSIC ONLINE

Music Online lets you search across five databases offering streaming music, scores, and reference articles. You can also select the databases individually from the “Go to” box at the top left of the Music Online home page.

• Classical Music Library provides streaming classical music you can listen to on your computer. Coverage includes music written from the earliest times (e.g. Gregorian Chant) to the present. Repertoire ranges from vocal and choral music to chamber, orchestral, solo instrumental, and opera. You will find multiple recordings of most major works. You can browse composers, genres, instruments, time periods and more.

Classical Music Library playlists are themed collections of works. After registering for a personal account, you can create and save your own playlists.

While the other four Music Online databases allow unlimited users, Classical Music Library lets three Gordon College people in at one time. If you are not able to enter Classical Music Library, try again later, and if this occurs often, please tell a librarian.

• Classical Scores Library contains both in-copyright and public domain scores, including major composers and lesser known composers and their works. The collection includes works spanning time periods from the Renaissance to the 21st century. You will find full scores, study scores, piano and vocal scores, and piano reductions. You can search the database by composer, work/opus number, genre, instrument, time period, and more.
   
• Reference Databases – Music Online contains three reference sources.
  • Classical Music Reference Library provides reference articles from Baker’s Dictionary of Music, Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, and Baker’s Student Encyclopedia of Music.
  • African American Music Reference offers essays and images covering blues, jazz, spirituals, civil rights songs, slave songs, minstrelsy, rhythm and blues, gospel, and other forms of black American musical expression.
  • Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online contains essays, images, and audio covering music research of all the world’s peoples.

All five databases are also listed individually on the Library Electronic Resources webpage and on the Electronic Resources by Subject – Music Resources webpage.

Try searching Music Online now.

MEDLINE

MEDLINE on EBSCOhost is an excellent choice for finding articles on medicine, kinesiology, neuroscience, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, and more. The MEDLINE database was created by the National Library of Medicine and allows you to search across more than 4,800 journals. Many articles are available online and you can access them from the database. If Jenks Library owns the print journal, you will see a link to the online catalog and information on where to find the issue you need.

It is important to note that all EBSCO search screens, including MEDLINE, are set to limit your initial search to articles available at Gordon College – either online or in print. This means you have immediate access to the articles. If you want to search more broadly, just uncheck the limiters and you will also find articles that are not available at Gordon, but can be requested through interlibrary loan.

MEDLINE is available from the Library home page. Go to “Electronic Resources” and scroll down to the database.

Reference librarians are on hand to help you get started using MEDLINE and to assist you in constructing searches. Stop by the Reference Desk for a quick walk through and introduction to this useful research tool.

• View a tutorial on searching MEDLINE.
• Pick up a help sheet on searching EBSCO in the reference room.
• Try searching MEDLINE now.

BIOGRAPHY IN CONTEXT

Looking for biographical information? Then Biography in Context is a good place to start, with over 600,000 authoritative biographies spanning from ancient times to the present day. You will find information about authors, world leaders, historical figures, scientists, athletes, social reformers and more.

• Reference articles from important sources such as Dictionary of American Biography, Contemporary Authors, Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives and Historic World Leaders
• Articles from newspapers, academic journals and magazines like The New York Times and Presidential Studies Quarterly
• Video and audio selections from archival film clips, NBC and NPR
• Images
• Links to screened, reliable websites

• A search box to explore biographies by name, occupation, nationality, birth place, and death place.
• Five spotlighted individuals
• Nine categories of highlighted people—Select “View More” to see more individuals in each category.
• Featured video and news—Select the video or news caption to view the contents.

• Choose Person Search to find a person when you know the name. Here you can combine facts such as a person’s name, occupation, gender, etc.
• Choose Advanced Search to combine more criteria such as keyword, publication title, author, subject, person name, place name, named work or company name. Here you can limit your results to full text documents or by document type, publication date, etc.

• Navigating the Homepage (1:55)
• Searching (1:32)
• Topic Pages and Documents (2:34)

View or print Biography in Context search tips. (PDF)

GOVERNMENT INFORMATION

• The Catalog of U.S. Government Publications (CGP) is the most comprehensive tool for locating print and online documents. You can limit your CGP search to online documents by changing to the “Advanced Search” and, under “Catalogs,” selecting “Internet Publications”.
• MetaLib is an alternative interface to the CGP which lets you select certain government databases to search. MetaLib lets you narrow your search by subjects like agriculture, business & economy, education, politics & law and science & technology.
• USA.gov provides official information and services from the U.S. Government for citizens, businesses, government employees, and visitors to the U.S. Use USA.gov to contact a government agency, apply for a passport, file your taxes, find career assistance, learn about elections, voting and more.
• Google U.S. Government searches government web sites using Google's search engine. This is a good place to search for specific document titles.

• American Factfinder brings together population, housing, economic, and geographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau. If you are looking for U.S. demographic information, this is an excellent source.
• FDsys contains the official online version of important government publications like The Congressional Record, The Budget of the United States Government, Code of Federal Regulation, GAO Reports, and United States Statutes at Large. You can browse, search and download the current official version of these documents.
• Science.gov searches over 45 databases and 2100 selected websites offering 200 million pages of authoritative U.S. government science information, including research results.
• Thomas, published by the Library of Congress, provides legislative information such as bills and resolutions, activity in Congress, committee information, and more. Here you can follow current legislation and learn about recent action taken by Congress.

NEWSPAPERS

• You can search and read Boston Globe articles from 1980 to present.

• From the New York Times search screen in Academic OneFile, you can search and read articles from 1985 to present.
• From the New York Times search screen in LexisNexis you can search and read articles from 1980 to present.
• From the NYT Archive you can search and read articles from 1851-1922 at no cost, as they are freely available in the public domain. These articles include images.

• Read the online version and search across past issues, with all pictures and charts.
• Sign up for e-mail newsletters, including Academe Today, the Chronicle’s popular daily report.

• Search Massachusetts Newsstand  for articles from twelve Massachusetts papers including The Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Berkshire Eagle, BusinessWest (Chicopee), North Adams Transcript, Patriot Ledger (Quincy), Plymouth County Business Review, Sentinel & Enterprise (Fitchburg), The Sun (Lowell), Telegram & Gazette (Worcester), Gazette (Haverhill), and Standard Times (New Bedford)

• Search Newspaper Source (EBSCO) for selected articles from national, international, and regional newspapers.
• Search LexisNexis Academic for many newspapers from the U.S. and around the world
• Search Regional Business News (EBSCO) for business related articles from journals, newspapers and newswires from metropolitan and rural areas within the United States

• Deutsche Presse (LexisNexis) - search across German language news sources in LexisNexis Academic
• Italian Language News Sources (LexisNexis) - search across Italian language news sources in LexisNexis Academic
• Spanish Language News Combined (LexisNexis) - search across Spanish language news sources in LexisNexis Academic
• Toute La Presse - Français (LexisNexis) - search across French language news sources in LexisNexis Academic

ACADEMIC ONEFILE

Does your research project call for reliable information from a variety of types of publications, including scholarly journals? Then Academic OneFile from Gale/Infotrac is a good choice for you.

Most of the 13,000 sources in this database are journals or magazines covering the sciences, social sciences, the arts, theology, literature and other subjects.

• 7,300 titles are scholarly journals.
• 5,000 sources are available right in the database as full text.

Many sources cover news stories and include the following

• The New York Times from 1985
• The Times (London) from 1985
• The Financial Times from 1996
• Additional papers cover local, business, and industry news
• Podcasts and transcripts from NPR, CNN, and CBS

Academic OneFile also contains reference sets providing background and factual information

• Gale Encyclopedia of Science
• Gale Encyclopedia of medicine
• Encyclopedia of World Biography

From Academic OneFile's advanced search screen you can focus your query by limiting to fulltext or articles from peer-reviewed journals. You can also narrow your search to certain document types like biographies, book reviews, clinical reviews, critical essays and quotations. Finally you can limit your search to certain publications.

You can choose to sort your results by publication date or relevance. Select one of the tabs at the top of the list to view results from academic journals, magazines, books, news, or multimedia. You can limit your results list further by choosing a subject, document type or publication title from the left side.

Not all articles in Academic OneFile are full text. If you find a relevant article and it is not full text, search for the journal title in Periodical List to see if it is available in another database or in the library print periodical collection. If the article is not available in Jenks Library, you can request it through the library's interlibrary loan service.

Academic OneFile offers new features that allow you to

• Create a personal account to save articles and searches for the next time you use the database.
• Download audio versions of articles in MP3 format to listen to later.
• Share information with others through Facebook, MySpace and other Web 2.0 technologies.

When you've found an article to use in your research, look in the upper right of the article page for links to print, email or download. Choose the citation tools link to generate the article citation in MLA or APA format, or to export it to a bibliographic manager like EndNote.

Reference librarians are on hand to help you get started using Academic OneFile and to assist you in constructing searches. Stop by the Reference Desk for a quick walk through and introduction to this useful research tool.
 

Try Academic OneFile now!

EBRARY EBOOKS

ebrary is Jenks Library’s new collection of 50,000 academic ebooks from leading publishers.

Find ebrary ebooks from two places on the library website

• Online catalog – When searching the online catalog, individual ebrary ebooks will appear on your results page.
  • If you want to limit your catalog search to only ebooks, change to "Advanced Search" and select the format "ebook".
  • ebrary is one of several electronic book collections in the catalog.
• Electronic Resources – The ebrary ebook link will take you to their home page, where you can search and explore the entire collection of ebooks.

What kind of books will I find in ebrary?

• Books covering business & economics, literature, life and physical sciences, religion, psychology, sociology, social work, education, humanities, history, political science and more.

What special features does ebrary offer?

• Explore books by navigating to search terms, searching for key words, jumping to relevant chapters, and flipping through pages
• Highlight and take notes
• Sign in to your personal bookshelf to save and organize your research and notes
• Copy and paste text, and print pages and chapters, with automatically created citations
• Collaborate with research partners by emailing your bookshelf folders or sharing them via URL
• Copy persistent links to books

How can I learn more about ebrary?

• Read or print out the Quick Start Guide.
• Watch an online demo.

Try ebrary now! 

BRITANNICA ONLINE

Britannica Online is an excellent place to begin a research project. You will find high-quality, comprehensive encyclopedia articles providing good background information, as well as links to journal articles, recommended websites, and more.

From the Britannica home page, you can search the encyclopedia, and other research tools - Video Collection, Timelines, World Data Analyst, Compare Countries, World Atlas, Notable Quotations, and Gateway to the Classics. The World Data Analyst Online is a comprehensive database of statistics on every nation of the world. On the right side of the page, look for the Britannica Blog, where you can take part in discussions about culture, education, movies, sports, and other topics.

On an article page, you will see a table of contents for longer articles. The text of the article will contain links to other Britannica articles. You can expand your research to find journal articles and websites by clicking on links at the top of the page. At the bottom of the page, you will find the article's citation in MLA and APA formats, ready for you to copy and paste into your bibliography.

Additional content in Britannica Online includes an extensive World Atlas with maps, flags, articles, and statistics. You can also search over 4,000 great quotations in Quotes, as well as public domain works in The Gateway to the Classics.

Britannica Online provides a "Workspace" where you can save and organize articles and other content. You will be asked to choose a username and password. Write it down so you can go back to your workspace at a later time. You can share your workspace content with others if you choose to do so.

You can find this research tool by going to the library homepage and choosing Electronic Resources.

Try out Britannica Online now!

Britannica Guided Tour (PDF)

ACADEMIC SEARCH PREMIER

Academic Search Premier from EBSCO is the most comprehensive and convenient to use research database in the Jenks Library. Indexing over 8,450 journals and containing full text articles from 4,600 of them, Academic Search Premier allows you to search across thousands of publications over many years. While most coverage begins in the 1990s, articles from over 100 important journals go back to 1975 and earlier.

Over 7,400 of the journals indexed are scholarly (peer-reviewed). However, the database also contains newspapers, magazines, and reports. Academic Search Premier covers art, biology, business/economics, chemistry, communication arts, education, history, linguistics, leisure studies, literature, math, music, philosophy, physics, psychology, religion & theology, sociology, theatre arts, and more.

It is important to note that all EBSCO search screens, including Academic Search Premier, are set to limit your initial search results to articles available at Gordon College – either online or in print. This means you have immediate access to the articles. If you want to search more broadly, just uncheck the limiters and you will also retrieve articles that are not here at Gordon, but can be requested through interlibrary loan.

Academic Search Premier is available from the Library home page. Go to “Electronic Resources” and look for it near the top of the list.

Reference librarians are on hand to help you get started using Academic Search Premier and to assist you in constructing searches. Stop by the Reference Desk for a quick walk through and introduction to this useful research tool.

• View a tutorial on EBSCO advanced searching.
• Pick up a help sheet on searching EBSCO in the reference room.
• Try searching Academic Search Premier now.

LITERARY REFERENCE CENTER

Looking for literary criticism, plot summaries, or author biographies? Literary Reference Center is a comprehensive database with information on authors and their works.

• Plot summaries, synopses, and work overviews
• Articles and essays of literary criticism
• Author biographies
• Book reviews
• Full text poems, short stories, and classic texts
• Author interviews

Choose from two interfaces—Traditional EBSCOhost or Enhanced Literary Searching (a highly graphical display with helps for literary research).

Find this rich resource on the Library web site. From the home page, choose "Electronic Resources", then scroll down to Literary Reference Center.

LEXIS NEXIS ACADEMIC

When you need news, business, or legal information, LexisNexis Academic is a good choice. News coverage goes back to 1980 in major newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Financial Times.

The broad range of sources in LexisNexis includes the following news, company, and legal information.

News

• Newspapers and magazines from the U.S. and around the world
• Wire services updated several times a day, including the Associated Press
• Broadcast transcripts from the major television and radio networks
• Non-English newspapers and magazines such as Le Monde, Die Zeit, and El Pais
• Campus news, including the Chronicle of Higher Education
• Business and industry news from periodicals, business and financial blogs, and more

Companies

• Company Dossier–detailed company information and financial performance measures. You can identify and compare companies matching specific criteria.
• Company Profile information from Standard & Poor's Corporate Descriptions, Hoover's Company Records, Hoover's IPO Reports, and more
• SEC filings and reports

Biographical

• Biographical references and directories such as Marquis Who's Who

Countries

• Political and economic information about a specific country from Country Briefings, Walden Country Reports, and recent news stories

U.S. Legal

• Federal and state cases (U.S. Supreme Court decisions and State Court decisions at all levels)
• Shepard's Citations service for federal and states court cases back to 1789.
• Law reviews
• Landmark cases
• Federal statutes, codes, and regulations (U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations)
• State statutes, codes and regulations
• Legal reference–dictionaries and directories
• Patents
• Tax law–journals, rulings and decisions, laws and regulations, and more

International Legal

• Canadian cases, legislation, and law journals
• European Union, Commonwealth, and other nations

In January 2010, LexisNexis released an improved search screen with a clearer navigation menu and a more flexible search form. You can view LexisNexis Tutorials on YouTube to learn more about using this resource. You will also find the same tutorials on the LexisNexis Academic search screen.

Try LexisNexis Academic for your next news, legal, or business related question or research paper. From the Jenks Library home page, choose Electronic Resources and scroll down to LexisNexis Academic.

Free Ebooks and More…

An ebook is also referred as etext, eContent, or a digital book. It is an electronic version of a printed text which can be read on a personal computer or hand-held device. There are a lot of ebooks available through the Jenks Library website Electronic Resources pages. Most government documents and books published before 1924 are in public domain and available online free. Besides books, free eContent may include journals, audio, sheet music, and moving images. There are also many titles in different foreign languages. Take a look at the following websites to find the ebooks that you need:

Google Books
Google Books helps you search within and discover books. Google is working with several major libraries to scan their collections into Google Books. When you find a book that's still under copyright, you'll see only a small portion of the book. If a book is out of copyright or the publisher has given Google permission, you'll be able to see the entire text and may download a PDF copy. In advanced book search, you can limit your search to titles in which you can view the entire text.  

ManyBooks.net 
More than 25,900 ebooks are available free from this site. For each title you select, you can choose from more than 20 different download formats. There are book reviews written by users. You can also find different recommendations, a new titles list, and the most popular ebooks of the year. 

Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg started in 1971 and it is the first and largest single collection of free electronic books. The project continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies. You can download over 30,000 free ebooks to read on your PC, iPhone, Kindle, Sony Reader, or other portable device. Their focus is on books previously published on paper and digitized with the help of thousands of volunteers. 

Internet Archive
The Internet Archive was founded to build an Internet library. It offers permanent access for researchers, people with disabilities, and the general public to many historical collections that exist in digital format. The Internet Archive includes texts, audio, moving images, and software as well as archived web pages in their collections. Their emphasis is on storage and preservation of digital materials. 

NetLibrary eBooks 
Choose from over 4,000 online books, including 800 Christian titles purchased by us and many general interest books provided by a state fund. The NetLibrary collection is available to Gordon College users on or off campus, and to guests when in the library.

More...
Are you looking for free sheet music? Try the IMSLP / Petrucci Music Library or the Choral Public Domain Library. For math and computer science books, try Free Computer Books. For classic and literature titles, take a look at Literature Network and ReadPrint. If you like to listen to books, don't forget we also have Audiobooks from OverDrive. Enjoy!