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GOVT 2306 SO Allen: Find Articles

Basic Federal Government Overview

Databases to Try

Database Tips

Magazine and journal articles are found using an online tool called a database.  Search the databases to find articles from both scholarly and popular sources.  Remember:  When off campus, you must login with your Web Advisor username and password to access a database through TCC libraries.

Improve your search by thinking of various keywords that relate to the subject and combine them in an advanced search.

Examples:

  • "American Revolutionary War"
  • segregation OR "separate but equal"
  • Rosa Parks AND "Montgomery bus boycott"

Topic: Cuban Missile Crisis

Database: U.S. History in Context from Gale

Example search:

  • Cuban Missile Crisis

Example results in MLA format for "Works Cited" Page

  • JOURNAL ARTICLE:  Davidson, Janine. "The contemporary presidency: civil-military friction and presidential decision making: explaining the broken dialogue." Presidential Studies Quarterly 43.1 (2013): 129+. U.S. History In Context. Web. 8 Mar. 2013.
  • JOURNAL ARTICLE:   Zegart, Amy B. "The Cuban missile crisis as intelligence failure." Policy Review 175 (2012): 23+. U.S. History In Context. Web. 8 Mar. 2013.
  • ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLE:   "Cuban Missile Crisis." Cold War Reference Library. Ed. Richard C. Hanes, Sharon M. Hanes, and Lawrence W. Baker. Vol. 2: Almanac Volume 2. Detroit: UXL, 2004. 213-232. U.S. History In Context. Web. 8 Mar. 2013.

Topic: Andrew Jackson's Indian Wars

Database: ProQuest

Example searches:

  • "Andrew Jackson" AND "Native Americans"
  • "Native Americans" AND "Indian Removal Act"

Example results in MLA format for "Works Cited" Page

  • JOURNAL ARTICLE: Hershberger, Mary. "Mobilizing Women, Anticipating Abolition: The Struggle Against Indian Removal in the 1830s." The Journal of American History 86.1 (1999): 15-40. ProQuest. Web. 11 Jan. 2015.
  • JOURNAL ARTICLE:  Remini, Robert V. "Andrew Jackson Verses the Cherokee Nation." American History 2001: 48-56. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 8 Mar. 2013 .
  • JOURNAL ARTICLE:  John, D. W. Guice. "Jackson's Way: Andrew Jackson and the People of the Western Waters." The Journal of Southern History 68.3 (2002): 690-1. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 8 Mar. 2013.

Journals, Magazines, and Newsapers

The library subscribes to local and national newspapers, and a variety of print journal and magazines.  Please visit the reference desk for more information.

Help - Types of Sources

How do I know if a resource is scholarly (academic)?

Scholarly Sources:

  • are often written by professors, researchers, and experts in the field with advanced degrees
  • are written for other scholars, professionals, and students
  • have a list of references 
  • use technical language of the field
  • often provide research findings, statistics, and literature reviews

What about Popular sources, like magazines?

Popular Sources:

  • are for the general population
  • avoid technical terminology and use easy-to-understand language
  • usually do not have bibliographies or references
  • often written by staff writers with little specialized knowledge
  • are written for entertainment and general knowledge

 

Source: Cornell University 

What about Primary sources?

Primary sources:

  • provide first-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation without evaluation or interpretation.  
  • contains the information from which a secondary or tertiary source is derived and is written by someone directly involved in the historical event or primary research. 
  • includes original documents such as diaries, speeches, letters, audio transcripts, emails, autobiographies, and interviews
  • includes creative works such as photographs, novels, poetry, music, and artworks 

What about Science?  

In the sciences, a primary source is the published result of experimental or observational research.

Source: University of Maryland Libraries