Locating Articles, Books, and Items

ARTICLES | BOOKS | ITEMS

LOCATING ARTICLES

Now that you have some background information on your subject, you are ready to explore the journal literature. Articles from scholarly journals often provide the most current and detailed information on a subject. Listed below are a few of the general and subject oriented indexes useful in education research. Washburn students, faculty and staff may access electronic search services from off-campus by using your Washburn ID number.

Education Index. (EducationIndex). 1983-to-date. Indexes leading publications in the field of education. Covers every age and sector of the educational community from preschool through college. Provides citations for every article of at least one column in length taken from English-language periodicals and yearbooks published in the United States and elsewhere. Includes selected series and supplements and book review citations. Does not offer the full text of articles.

ERIC. 1966-to-date. This is a comprehensive index to journal articles, documents, theses, curriculi, conference papers, standards, guidelines and some books. The official ERIC Web Page (http://www.eric.ed.gov) leads you to a world of information about ERIC as well as to four different sites from which to search the database in a variety of ways; the full-text of selected ERIC documents is available at some of these sites. These sites are available to anyone with Internet connectivity. In addition, the Mabee Library provides access for its students and faculty to a vendor-supplied version of ERIC. Note: a guide to learn how to search ERIC is available here.

Expanded Academic ASAP. 1980 - present. Indexes and abstracts more than 1900 academic journals and popular magazines covering virtually every academic discipline and includes full text of more than 900 of these titles.

These are not the only databases which might assist you in your research. The Mabee Library subscribes to over 100 electronic databases in science, music, psychology, medicine, social work, criminal justice, humanities, nursing, history, business and more. Search other electronic databases using the same search strategy you used in ERIC or Education Index to see if they contain relevant articles on your topic. Other useful indexes include:
    Dissertation Abstracts - contains citations and abstracts (since 1980) to every doctoral dissertation completed in the U.S. since 1961. [To locate copies of theses and dissertations written by Washburn students, conduct a general subject search in the library catalog for "Washburn Student Theses and Practicums."]
    Criminal Justice Abstracts - comprehensive coverage of the major journals in criminology and related disciplines, extensive coverage of books, and reports from government and non-governmental agencies.
    Social Work Abstracts - contains more than 35,000 records, spanning 1977 to the present, from social work and related journals.
    Periodical Abstracts - general subject matter, limited coverage, full-text
    PsycINFO - from 1967 this indexes journals and books dealing with psychology and related disciplines - a separate database lists historical materials published between 1887 and 1966

Fulltext Electronic Journal Holdings:
Check this searchable database to find which electronic databases index the fulltext of specific journal titles.

Electronic Journals:
The Mabee Library provides Washburn students, faculty, and staff access to electronic journals, which are duplicates of paper journals available online in HTML or PDF formats.

Search aids:
    Thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors (shelved near the public netstations). Click here for the searchable online thesaurus of ERIC Descriptors.
    Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms (shelved near the public netstations)
    Tips for searching ERIC and EducationIndex
    FindArticles.com (the first free online article-search service. Search for quality articles in more than 300 reputable magazines and journals.)

A few frequently-used periodicals in EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH (located at Mabee Library) are:

Advances in Educational Research	Journal of Research and Development in Education
American Educational Research Journal	Journal of Research in Childhood Education
California Journal of Educational Research	Journal of Research in Science Teaching
Colorado Journal of Educational Research	Journal of Research Services
Educational Communication and Technology	Research in the Teaching of English
Educational Research Quarterly	Review of Educational Research
Journal of Educational Research	Theory into Practice

You may also want to browse: History of Education | History of Education Quarterly

Books are good for concepts, history and theory. Check ATLAS, the library catalog, to find a recent book on your subject. ATLAS lists all of the materials held in the Mabee Library and its branch library, the Curriculum Resources Center, as well as four other libraries in the Topeka area. Once you find a book on your topic, check to see if it contains a bibliography of other books and journal articles which might be of help. If Mabee Library does not own a title you need, you might also want to check the Kansas Library Catalog or WorldCat to identify other libraries from which you might borrow the book through interlibrary loan.

The two most useful ways to search ATLAS for uncovering information on a topic are the Keyword and General Subject search.
The Keyword method searches the entire record (author, title, subjects and contents) for the word or words selected.
The General Subject method is a more accurate search method. It retrieves only those records that have one or more of the selected terms as a subject heading. To find useful subject headings for your topic, consult the Library of Congress Subject Headings in the Mabee Library Reference Collection, or use the Library of Congress Classification schedule to identify relevant call numbers. In addition to specific subject headings related to your topic, you may also want to try these broader subject headings:

Education Research
Action research in education
Educational reports

Educational statistics
Educational surveys
Proposal writing in educational research

The Mabee Library provides Washburn University faculty, students and staff access to full-text electronic books through NetLibrary. The full text of the ebooks may be checked out and read online, searched, or printed a page or two at a time. You may search ATLAS, the library catalog, by author or title to find links to these ebooks. All of these titles may be called up also by searching "NetLibrary" as an AUTHOR: this search also retrieves the title Animal Rights, which is owned by the Law Library. Select the link which says Connect to this electronic book via the World Wide Web (Washburn students, faculty, and staff only) to access the ebook. You will need to create a personal account at NetLibrary upon your first visit there. Your account gives you access to the Washburn University ebook collection. Future visits to NetLibrary will require you to login using the username and password you chose for yourself in the process of creating your account.

The Mabee Library has many of the journals indexed in Education Index and a smaller percentage of those indexed in ERIC (remember that ERIC is a comprehensive index). Check the Library catalog, ATLAS, for call numbers and holdings information; perform a periodical title search to check if Mabee Library subscribes to a particular journal. You may also check the Mabee Library Periodicals Holding List (copies at Mabee and the CRC) to determine if the article is available in the library or check the fulltext electronic journal holdings database to locate other electronic databases which index the fulltext of journal articles. Each journal title is listed alphabetically with the years the Library holds and their location (in stacks or on microfilm/microfiche) . If the Library does not own or have access to a particular book or journal, you may request a copy of the article or the book through Interlibrary Loan (connects to Mabee Library ILL Department); this free service normally takes 1-2 weeks. Ask a reference librarian about Document Delivery if you need a journal article more rapidly.

To locate items from ERIC it is essential to note whether the item has an "EJ" (journal) or "ED" (document) number at the top of the record in the database. EJ numbers refer to journals; proceed as above. ED numbers are the call numbers for the full text of the document; these are microfiche and are located in filing cabinets on the lower level of the Mabee Library. Microfiche readers/printers are also available; there is no charge for printing these documents. Those ED numbers which are not available on microfiche are usually books; check for these titles in the Library's catalog, ATLAS.