SOCIAL MOVEMENTS:
A Guide to Library Resources for your Sociology 340 Research Paper

Welcome! This site has been created to assist you finding and using library resources for your Sociology 340 research paper. Our library is the largest publicly funded university library in the world. It can be a bit overwhelming at first, but it is truly a treasure trove for scholars. All of the UIUC Library's resources are available to you as you do your research, so explore, have fun, and don't hesitate to ask questions!

FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND

We have over 40 departmental libraries on our campus. The libraries you will likely find most useful for this class are the Education and Social Science Library and the History Library. They are both located in the Main Library building. You might also hear it referred to as the Graduate Library, but don't let that stop you from coming in here and taking advantage of the resources we can provide. It's your library, too!

LIBRARY HOURS

Education and Social Science Library, 100 Main Library, Summer I semester:

FINDING ARTICLES

Journal articles are one of the primary means of communicating research and ideas in academia. They will be an important component of your research paper and give you some insight into ongoing debates and scholarly conversations about your topic.

Finding articles is a two-step process:

• First, find the citation to the articles you want. You can use bibliographies or suggested readings lists, or you can search for the topic you are interested in by using one of the article databases listed below. If you get stuck, ask your professor or a librarian for help getting started.
• Next, find the actual text of the articles you want. Some of our journals are online, but most still live on the shelves. If the article is not available electronically, you will need to use the Online Library Catalog to look up the source of the citation you have retrieved from the article database.

WHICH ARTICLE DATABASES WILL WORK BEST FOR THIS CLASS?

• America History and Life - America: History and Life is a complete bibliographic reference to the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Published since 1964, the database comprises almost 400,000 bibliographic entries.
• ArticleFirst - A general index of over 12,600 journals in science, technology, medicine, social science, business, the humanities, and popular culture. Covers 1990-present, updated daily, but no subject indexing.
• JSTOR (Journal Storage) - An excellent source for searching the full text of older journal articles. Hint: Select the subject area form the list at the bottom of the search page, then enter your search terms.
• LexisNexis Academic Universe - A good source for news, business, and legal information, with full text and abstracts. Includes foreign news sources, major U.S. newspapers, regional U.S. news, radio and tv transcripts, and many other sources. Newspapers are updated several times daily, and wire services hourly.
• Sociological Abstracts - The preeminent database for citations to scholarly journals in sociology. Indexes and abstracts over 2,600 journals and other serial publications, plus conference papers, books, and dissertations. Covers 1963-present, updated monthly.
• Online Research Resources - Search a variety of online research resources to find citations to articles of interest.

FINDING BOOKS, JOURNALS & OTHER MATERIALS

• Online Library Catalog - Look here to find books, magazines or journals containing articles that you need, DVDs, and many other resources. In addition to the 10 million volumes we have on this campus, you can connect to 43 other libraries in Illinois and request books be sent to you.
  
  When you find something you want in the catalog, write down the following:

  Location - in which library the item is kept (or libraries, if we have multiple copies)
  Call Number - this number is essential for finding the item on the shelf
  Status - is it available for you to check out?

  Hint: Library catalogs are used for two purposes. First, if you know exactly what you are looking for - an exact title or author - you can use the catalog to locate your material. This works for book titles and journal titles. Second, you can use library catalogs to discover material that might be helpful to you by doing subject and keyword searching.
• WorldCat and Interlibrary Loan - The places to verify citations for books and request books and articles you cannot find elsewhere. Ordering books and journals via interlibrary loan is free and generally fairly quickly.

WHERE ELSE CAN YOU GO FOR INFORMATION?

• Library of Congress's American Memory digital collections are a rich collection of primary source material relating to U.S history and culture. This site provides access to over 7 million digital items, including photographs, newspapers, sound recordings, field notes, manuscripts, cartoons, letters, legal documents, and more. Try searching the "Social Sciences" collection.
• Annual Review of Sociology is an annual compendium of review articles summarizing the current state of research on a particular subject. A good way to find out what questions are being asked by sociologists doing research on you topic. Also a good source of citations to both current and retrospective publications. The online version allows you to search the full text of all isssues from volume 1 (1975) to present.
• Social Movements and Culture is a gateway to all sorts of infromation on contemporary social movements ranging from Globalization to Gay/Les/Bi/Queer movements. It includes links to activist organization websites, as well as online articles, bibliographies, course syllabi, and glossary of theoretical approaches to undrstanding social movements. Hosted by the American Studies Department at Washington State University at Pullman.

CITING SOURCES IN YOUR BIBLIOGRAPHY

Style and Writing Guides - How to format citations, write papers, and do research in the social sciences.

Refworks - A great tool for writing papers, Refworks helps you export bibliographic records from databases, change the citation styles as needed and import the citation directly into a Word document so you can create bibliographies on the fly. For help using this utility, see Refworks Help.

MORE HELP ON USING THE LIBRARY

Library Research Guide for Sociology - A guide to sociology-related sources in the Education and Social Science Library.

Research Process - A step-by-step guide to research that takes you through the entire process, from choosing your topic to citing sources.

How Do I...? - A great source on how-to use the UIUC Libraries.

ASK-A-LIBRARIAN FOR HELP WITH YOUR RESEARCH