First Year Seminar: Happiness in Contemporary Society

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 150.3 E566e 2000

 Encyclopedia of Psychology, 2000.
Reference 152.403 E56e 1999 Encyclopedia of Human Emotions, 1999.
Reference 301.03 E56e 2000 Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2000.
Reference 612.003 E56e Encyclopedia of Human Biology, 1997.
Reference 612.8203 E56e Encyclopedia of the Human Brain, 2002.
Reference 616.89 E56e Encyclopedia of Mental Health, 1998.

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 Getting Started/General 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:

  • Abstracts in Anthropology--scholarly articles on cultural and physical anthropology and other topics.
  • EconLit --citations and some abstracts for more than 400 journals; international coverage.
  • Lexis Nexis Academic--indexing and full text for 5700 news, business, law, and popular interest, going back to the 1990s.
  • New York Times (Historical)--search for page images of articles that appeared 1851-2003.
  • Sociological Abstracts--citations to articles in sociology and social policy back to 1963.
  • Social Sciences Abstracts --citations to (mostly) scholarly articles; no full text; indicates Drew Library holdings.
  • PsycINFO --citations and some abstracts for scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences. (Click here for a demo of Advanced Searching.)

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 . (Click here for a demo.) 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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

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 09/17/2005 by Cathy Ryan