Valpo Core 2008-09: Library Resources
Who Can Help Me?
Ask Us! http://www.valpo.edu/library/ref/question.html
- If you would like us to respond to you via email, an online form is available for your use.
- If you would prefer to speak to someone in Reference, call us at 219.464.6890 during regular Reference Desk hours.
- If you didn't go through Fall Welcome, consider the general CCLS Orientation overview.
- We also provide a quick list of contact points for specific questions.
- There are many Library User and Research Guides available for your referral.
- Christopher Center floorplans are also useful for getting to know your way around the building.
Librarian Subject Specific Help
All of our librarians can help you with any area of research, but we also
have areas of specialty. Valpo Core's librarian is Prof.
Trisha Mileham. If you would like to consult with a librarian in a different
subject area, please view our subject liaison
site for your subject specialist's contact information.
Especially Highlighted or Created for Valpo Core
While there are many library resources (and faculty and staff) available to help with your research needs, here are some resources highlighted/created especially for Valpo Core:
Core Reading List with Recommended Resources: selected, evaluated resources (print and electronic) that provide you with background or contextual information for your Core readings.
- Creation & Birth Unit
- Coming of Age & Education Unit
- Citizenship & Service Unit
- Love Unit
- Work & Vocation Unit
- Death & Life Unit
Core Blogs: While not library-related resources, the Core blogs offer both quick access to information about activities and events as well as providing a forum for continuing the discussions begun in the classrooms.
- The Core Information Blog provides you with up-to-date information on Core-approved 5th Hour events and other Core-related resources.
- The Multi-Core-tural Forum, Core's discussion blog, offers a chance for questions and discussions to continue across the curriculum, not just within the individual classrooms.
GALILEO, VU's Library Catalog
Think of this resource as the "VU libraries' database"--through it, you can search for and locate all of the print and media resources (books, DVDs, etc.) owned by both VU libraries (The Christopher Center and The Law Library). GALILEO does not provide content access to any of the items found when you search it--only information about the item and where it can be located.
You may also use GALILEO to also search Encyclopaedia Britannica. After completing an author or keyword search, click on the the "Search Britannica" button to retrieve a number of useful sites on the biography, historical background, and relevant research information for your search terms, as well as links to related sites on the web.
More information about GALILEO
Recommended Article Databases & Resources
These are five very useful databases that will help you easily locate journal, magazine, and newspaper articles for your class topics. For off-campus access to these databases, use the appropriate Proxy Server setting.
| Academic Search Premier |  |
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Containing quite a bit of full-text materials, this is "the world's largest academic multi-disciplinary database. Academic Search Premier provides full-text for more than 4,600 scholarly publications, including full-text for more than 3,500 peer-reviewed journals. Coverage spans virtually every area of academic study and offers information dating as far back as 1975."
| Biography Resource Center | |
|
"An excellent, full-text database offering more than 415,000 biographies on more than 325,000 people from over 880 volumes of more than 135 respected Gale Group sources." In other words, an great resource to use for finding information about authors and other public figures.
| LexisNexis Academic | |
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Another all full-text database, "LNA covers newspapers, magazines, wire services, federal and state court opinions, federal and state statutes, federal regulations, and SEC filings. Research areas in LNA cover top news, general news topics, and news transcripts; foreign language news sources; company, industry, and market news; legal news; company financial information; general medical and health topics and medical abstracts; accounting, auditing, and tax information; law reviews; federal case law; U.S. Code; and state legal research."
| CQ Researcher | |
|
"Published in print and online 44 times a year, each single-themed CQ Researcher Report offers in-depth, non-biased coverage of political and social issues, with regular reports on topics in health, international affairs, education, the environment, technology and the U.S. economy. Each 13,000-word CQ Researcher Report is a unique work, investigated and written by a seasoned journalist." Fall 2007 topics include "Wounded Veterans, "Corporate Social Responsibility," "Cuba's Future," "Students Under Stress," "Prosecutors and Politics," and "Debating Hip-Hop."
| Europa World Plus | |
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One of the best resources anywhere for authoritative, up-to-date information about any country in the world. "Europa World Plus is the online version of the Europa World Year Book and the nine-volume Europa Regional Surveys of the World series. First published in 1926, the year book is renowned as one of the world's leading reference works, covering political and economic information in more than 250 countries and territories."
For access to all of our over 100 databases, this webpage offers subject or alphabetical categories listing.
JournaLocator
If you already have a journal title, search with JournaLocator to determine if the library subscribes to the journal, either in the physical (in-library) holdings or full-text online. JournaLocator does not provide direct searching access to articles; to do that, use the databases noted above.
"The Worker Paper" Assignment
Library support for the assignment (updated and linked
when assignment is made)
For specifics, refer to the assignment your Core faculty has assigned to you. In general, this assignment calls you to research a profession and issues affecting it, drawing from interviews of a person in that profession, research within library materials, and personal reflection.
"The World into Which You Were Born" Assignment
Library support for the assignment (updated and linked
when assignment is made)
For specifics, refer to the assignment your Core faculty has assigned to you. In general, this assignment calls for a summary of an article from a news magazine of newspaper that was published during the week of your birth, dealing with science, technology, medicine, or religion, including what made the issue or event newsworthy then and how significant you think it is now.