Reference Sources for Background Information

General

• Biography Resource Center - Detailed profiles of prominent people in all fields of endeavor
• Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology. 2007

Legal

• Bieber's Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations. Clapp Ref KF 246 B46 2001.
• Black's Law Dictionary. Clapp Ref KF 156 B53 2004.
• How to Read a Legal Citation [Cleveland-Marshall College of Law]
• West's Encyclopedia of American Law. An electronic book; legal encyclopedia in lay person's terms
• Encyclopedia of the American judicial system : studies of the principal institutions and process of law. Clapp Ref KF154 .E53 1987

Crime

• Encyclopedia of American Prisons. Clapp Ref HV 9471 E425 1996.
• Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice. 4 vols. Clapp Ref HV 6017 E52 2002
• Encyclopedia of Crime and Punishment. 2002
• Encyclopedia of Juvenile Justice. Clapp Ref HV 9104 .E58 2003

Education

• Encyclopedia of Education. Clapp Ref LB15 .E47 2003 8 vols.

Finding Books

Wellesley College Catalog - Use the Library catalog to find books and other materials (journal titles, NOT journal articles) we have here at Wellesley. Remember to start with "keyword" if you are beginning to research a topic then, when you find something relevant, see what subject headings are listed. You can click on these subject headings to find more useful items. You may find the following subject headings useful:

• Baltimore
• Baltimore Md Politcs and Government

WorldCat - Use WorldCat to find books and other materials not at Wellesley. Use the suggestions listed above. If you find a book you want that Wellesley does not own, use the ILL link within WorldCat to request the book.

Finding Journal Articles

The Wellesley College Library subscribes to many databases that contain information on thousands of articles and other sources of information on a topic. Some of these databases link to the full article online while others are simply an index or contain only abstracts. If the database you are using does not contain the full-text of the article you need, use the Find It! @ Wellesley to connect to the full-text in another Wellesley database. Or, once you have a citation for an article, do a title search in the Wellesley College Library catalog using the name of the journal as the title. Look for a reference to the journal online, or see if we have it in print. Make sure we have the date you need. If Wellesley does not have the journal or issue, you can request it via Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

Suggested databases for this class:

For the following databases start with a keyword search and see what the subject terms or descriptors are for any relevant articles you find. Look for an option to mark records, email records to yourself, or to link to Interlibrary Loan from within the database.

Academic Search Complete and Expanded Academic ASAP - general all purpose databases. Index and abstracts from 1980; selected full text from about 1995-

CQ Researcher - in-depth, unbiased background and analysis on timely political topics. Has summaries, pro/con, bibliography. Use this to find an overview of a topic.

SocINDEX with Full Text - Index to articles on all aspects of sociology and other social science articles, with full text from 400 core sociology journals.

JSTOR - Collection of key scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences & natural sciences, starting from the first issue but not the latest 3-5 years

Project Muse - Academic journals in the humanities & social sciences, from the past five years.

Web of Science - Interdisciplinary subject searching of scholarly articles in the social sciences (1956-present)

ERIC - Education articles and reports, 1966 to present.

PolicyFile - Covers a wide range of public policy topics, linking to reports and papers from think tanks, NGOs, and research organizations, 1990 to present . Watch for bias!

Finding Newspapers Articles

Maryland Newspapers

LexisNexis Academic News > Sources Tab (top left). Choose Country: United States, then Region: Maryland. Under "Select a Category", choose News. Put a check in the box beside Maryland News Sources and click the red Ok Continue button on the right. You may then add your search terms.

• Use w/s or w/p to search for your terms within the same sentence or the same paragraph
• Search for various word endings by using ! For example, wiretap! searches for wiretap, wiretaps, wiretapping, wiretapped, etc.
• Use length> to retrieve more extensive news stories
• Use atl to retrieve items where your term is mentioned a number of times
• Use hlead to find your search terms in the headline and the lead paragraph of news stories
• Results should be ranked by relevance; you can change to results by date.

Westlaw Campus Research > Publications List (top left). Check the the box beside Maryland Newspapers - Campus and click OK. In the resulting search form, note that the default date is the last 3 years.

• Put phrases in quotes
• Search for various word endings by using ! For example, wiretap! searches for wiretap, wiretaps, wiretapping, wiretapped, etc.
• Use /s and /p to search for words or phrases in the same sentence or the same paragraph.
• Use /n to search for words or phrases close together. For example, Hillary /2 Clinton.
• Search in the document title by using TI(). For example, TI(executive compensation) searches for either executive or compensation in the document title. TI("executive compensation") searches for the phrase executive compensation in the document title.
• You can choose to search only the headline and the lead paragraph by checking the box on the search screen.
• Results are ranked by date, then by publication title. There is no way to re-sort.

LexisNexis State Capital - State bills and laws, constitutions, proposed and enacted regulations

Baltimore Newspapers

• Baltimore Jewish Times - 1991 to present
• The Afro-American - 2003 to present
• Baltimore Sun - only past 6 months in LexisNexis Academic News. The Baltimore Sun is available in Westlaw Campus Research from 1990 to the present. Use the Publications tab and search for Baltimore Sun.
• Baltimore Sun Web site archives - search the full text of articles 1990 to the present. You must pay for articles older than 2 weeks. Use Westlaw Campus Research for older articles.

Washington Post 1877-1971 (PDF) and 1977-present (HTML)

Internet Links

NOTE: Using a search engine to search for material is very tempting but is to be used with caution. You will find a lot of information on social issues but many are advocating a particular point of view which must be recognized in order to write a scholarly paper. Use the following criteria to evaluate any websites:

• Who is the author of the information?
• Can you find information about the author? What are his/her credentials?
• How current is the information? Is there a "last updated" date?
• Who is the intended audience for the information?
• Is the content objective or is it coming from a certain viewpoint?
• Is the information advocating a cause?

U.S. Government Websites

• United States Department of Education
  • No Child Left Behind
  • No Child Left Behind summary
• Teen Pregnancy from the National Institute of Health
• Adolescent Reproductive Health from the Centers for Disease Control
• National Criminal Justice Reference Service - the U.S. Dept. of Justice conducts studies on justice topics in states and cities. Use this link to find them. If you only find an abstract, put the title of the article/report in quotes into Google.
• National Institute of Justice
• Office of Justice Programs
• Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
• United States Department of Justice

Maryland State Government Agencies

• State of Maryland
• Education
  • No child Left Behind
• Maryland School Performance Assessment Program
• Maryland Assistance Programs
• Department of Juvenile Services
• Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
• Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration
• Office of Health Care Quality
• Department of Housing and Community Development
• Department of Public Safety & Correctional Services
• Office of Crime Control and Prevention
• Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission and Maryland Lawyers' Rules of Professional Conduct
• Maryland Judiciary

City of Baltimore Government Agencies

• City of Baltimore
• Crime
• Baltimore Police Department
• Baltimore City Public Schools
• Baltimore County Public Schools
• Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems
• Health Department

Interviewing

Tips for conducting an interview

Finding Someone to Interview

• Look for a name on state or local government agency web sites
• Note names mentioned in journal or newspaper articles

Finding Interviews already Conducted

• LexisNexis Acedemic News - In the Sources box, try US Newspapers and Wires, Transcripts, and Magazine Stories
• Westlaw Campus Research. You will see them listed when you look at a state’s Sources. Type Maryland in the Publications List search box.
• Do a Google search for interview and [name of person in quotes]. Carefully evaluate the quality of the interview you find.
• Try Google Scholar for interview in academic journals
• Try searching for interviews in any of the journal article databases mentioned above.

How to Cite your Information

Remember: if you find the full text online, you should cite the online source. Look for information within our Wellesley databases, or electronic books, on how to cite what you find.

MLA handbook for writers of research papers. Clapp Ref LB 2369 .G53 2003

Writers' Workshop MLA Style Handbook

Frequently Asked Questions about MLA Style

Documenting Electronic Resources in MLA

Return to the main Writing page.

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