First Year Seminar: Forensic Science: perception and reality

Locating Background Material:

Specialized encyclopedias give overviews of topics from the perspective of the discipline they cover. They can provide definitions for unfamiliar terms, and leads on the identities of accepted experts and the titles of some books or articles they have authored.

Reference 363.20973 E56e	Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement, 2005.
Reference 363.2503 B433e	Encyclopedia of Forensic Science, 2004.
Reference 363.2503 B435f	Facts on File Dictionary of Forensic Science, 2004.

Locating Books:

Search for books and journal titles in the Drew Library Catalog. If you know the title or author of the book or journal, use the browse feature. Also try browse>subject for finding books on a specific topic. The site will direct you to the correct subject headings and tell you the number of holdings for each subject, with links to the items. When you find the item you want, be sure to check our holdings at the bottom of the record to find the complete call number (for a book), status, and location of the item within the library.

Library Maps will help you locate books, periodicals, the interlibrary loan office and other library resources and services.

Searching Databases for Journal and Magazine Citations on a Topic:

From the Library home page, choose Research, then Online Resources to access lists of subscription databases.

Use either the Resources By Name list or the General Resources lists to find two of our multidisciplinary databases which contain many full text articles are:

Academic Search Premier indexes nearly 3,200 newspapers, magazines, and journals, with full-text available for most of them.
ProQuest Direct indexes 1,900 magazines, journals, and newspapers, with full text available for the majority.

Specialized databases that might be useful include:

Biological Abstracts is a huge database covering 3700 journals in the life sciences that includes citations, abstracts, and some full text links, from 1995.
Chemical Abstracts (Student Edition) indexes 250 journals and includes biochemistry, chemical physics, pure and applied chemistry and more.
General Science Abstracts offers citations to (mostly) scholarly articles; no full text; indicates Drew Library holdings.
Lexis Nexis Academic contains full text of 5700 news, business, law, and popular interest, going back to the 1990s. It also offers full text of newspapers, including the portion of the New York Times not covered below.
New York Times (Historical) offers full text and images covering 1851-2003

Access Research Help to find the numerous Database Guides, Course Guides (including this guide!), and Subject Guides for extra help using our databases, and using our resources for a specific course or subject.

Finding the Journals and Magazines that Contain the Citations You Found:

Sometimes accessing full text of an article will be a few easy clicks from the database in which you found the citation. Click on a link or . If that does not produce full text, then use the information in the citation (journal title, year, volume, issue, page, article title) and follow the steps below in order until you find what you need:

Enter the journal title into the Full Text Electronic Journals Holdings list (dropping the initial article, if any). If we have electronic full text access, click the links until you find the volume, issue, and page number you need.
If there is no electronic access to the full text of the article, check the Drew Library Catalog. Use the browse function, enter the journal title (dropping the initial article, if any), and choose Periodical Title for the search. If we have the journal, scroll to the bottom of the record to determine the time range format and location of our holdings.
If you still have not found the journal article you need, request the article through Interlibrary Loan for a small fee. This can take up to four weeks, so it requires planning ahead. Scroll down the Interlibrary Loan Form page to find the form for periodicals requests.

Links to More Help:

Identifying Scholarly Journals (Drew Library web page)
Writing Sources on the Internet from the Drew Writing Center. This is the place for links to online style guides (APA, MLA, Chicago), grammar help and other assistance with writing.
Evaluating Websites--a checklist from the University of Maryland.
Government Information from federal and state agency websites that will be useful for this course at this searchable site.

Still Have Questions?

Contact Cathy Ryan, x3483.
Stop by at the reference desk 9-5 weekdays, and 6-10 pm Sunday-Thursday.
Check out the Ask a Librarian link on many of our library web pages.

Last updated 08/29/2006 by Cathy Ryan