Research Guides
    
  COURSE : HSS4 : Martin Luther King & Mid-century America
    
  Contact
   
 

Thomas Micchelli
Subject specialist film, video and art.
email: micche@cooper.edu
 
 
 
  Library Web Site
 

http://www.cooper.edu/facilities/library/library.html (February 1, 2008).

   
 
  Search Strategy
 

Recommended Search Strategy: Analyze your topic & Search with peripheral vision.
U.C. Berkeley Library.
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Strategies.html (February 1, 2008).  

 
  Citing sources
 

Sources: Their use and acknowledgement.
Dartmouth College.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Esources/index.html (February 1, 2008) .  

   
 
  ONLINE CATALOG
    
 

BobCat  (http://www.bobcat.nyu.edu) is the catalog for our Library) Consortium. It includes book titles and periodical holdings information for the Cooper Union Library, most NYU libraries, the New School University libraries and others.
 
 

Please note: With rare exceptions, you cannot find specific periodical articles in the online catalog. Use one of the databases in the Article Databases section below to search for articles on a particular topic.
 
 

Subject Headings
    
  In addition to the sub-heads under King, Martin Luther, the following subject categories may be useful::
    
 
  African Americans -- Attitudes -- History -- 20th century.
                African Americans -- Civil rights -- History.
  African Americans -- Intellectual life -- 20th century.
 

African Americans -- Politics and government.

      Civil rights workers -- United States.
 

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
  Presidents -- United States -- Racial attitudes.
  Race relations in literature.
  Racism -- United States -- Political aspects -- History.
 

Segregation -- United States.
 

Southern States -- Race relations.

  Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (U.S.).
  United States -- Politics and government -- 20th century.
 

United States -- Politics and government -- 1945-1989.
 

United States -- Politics and government -- 1961-1963.

 

United States -- Politics and government -- 1963-1969.

  United States -- Race relations.
  Subject Encyclopedias  
    
  Subject encyclopedias provide specific information on your topic as well as bibliographies to aid you in your research.
    
 
NYU Bobst
  
E185 .E54 1996   
   Encyclopedia of African-American culture and history
         
NYU Bobst
   E185.96 .A83 2002   100 greatest African Americans: a biographical encyclopedia
         
NYU Bobst
REF1 E174 .A535 1997   The American Heritage encyclopedia
of American history
         
NYU Bobst
   REF1 E184. A1 C47 2000   Civil rights in the United States
         
NYU Bobst
   REF1 E185 .E54 2006   Encyclopedia of African-American culture and history: the Black experience in the Americas
         
NYU Bobst
   REF1 E185 .S58155 2003   Encyclopedia of African American politics
         
NYU Bobst
   REF1 E185.61 .E54 2003   The Greenwood encyclopedia of African American civil rights: from emancipation to the twenty-first century
         
NYU Bobst
   REF1 JC599.U5 A93 2002   Minority rights in America
         
NYU Bobst
  
REF1 JC599.U5 E53 2005
  The encyclopedia of civil liberties in America
         
NYU Bobst
   REF6 E184.A1 E574 2000   Encyclopedia of minorities in American politics
         
NYU Bobst
   REF6 E185.61 .G895 1993   The ABC-CLIO companion to the Civil Rights Movement
         
         
NYU Bobst
   E902 .D68 2004  

The broken promises of America: at home and abroad, past and present : an encyclopedia for our times

         
NYU Bobst
     
 REF1 E174 .D52 2003       Dictionary of American history
         
NYU Bobst
REF1 E174 .O94 2001   The Oxford companion to United States history
NYU Bobst
REF1 E174 .T56 2000   Cassell's dictionary of modern American history
         
NYU Bobst
REF1 E174.5 .N47 2003   The New York Public Library American history desk reference
   
 
  OTHER LIBRARIES (See our Web site for links to Other Library Catalogs.)
    
 
  • Bobst Library -- NYU's main library. Part of our Library Consortium.
    70 Washington Square South
    http://library.nyu.edu/     (February 1, 2008).

  • Fogelman Library -- New School University. Part of our Library Consortium.
    65 Fifth Avenue, lower level (between 13th and 14th Streets)
    http://www.newschool.edu/library/fogelman.htm (February 1, 2008) .

    Your Cooper Union ID admits you to both Bobst and Folgelman and serves as your library card.
    Be sure you have a current validation sticker and register with the Cooper Union Library before going there.
    Cooper students may borrow books and use other materials.

  • Humanities & Social Sciences Library -- one of the Research Libraries of New York Public Library.
    Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street
    http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/index.htm    l (February 1, 2008).
      
    The Humanities & Social Sciences Library is open to the public, but you need an Access Card to use their books. All materials there may only be used at the Library. Most of the books are in closed stacks. You submit a call slip to the Information Desk and wait for them to retrieve the item. For information about the Access Card, see http://www.nypl.org/research/access.html (February 1, 2008) .
    
  ARTICLE INDEXES / DATABASES
    
 

General Tips
  
You will usually find more recent information in periodicals than in books. The term 'periodical' includes magazines, journals, newspapers, and conference proceedings. Use an article index to identify articles on a topic. For articles published within the last 10-20 years, databases will speed up that initial stage of searching (identifying the articles you want). To find older articles, you usually need to use printed indexes.

Finding a complete article (a.k.a 'full text') often requires several steps. Some of the indexes listed below contain full texts, but more often you will find only citations. To find the complete article, search BobCat for the journal title. Then look closely at the date ranges of the issues held by each library to find the specific issue you need.
  
Indexes and Full Text Databases in The Cooper Union Library

The Cooper Union Library subscribes to many different article indexes and full text databasese. See our Web site under Article Indexes for a complete list of the databases. The following should be useful for this course:   

 
  • JSTOR Arts & Sciences III
    Focused on the arts and humanities, the Arts & Sciences III Collection contains 150 journal titles. The collection makes available additional journals in language and literature, as well as important titles in the fields of music, film studies, folklore, performing arts, religion, and the history and study of art and architecture.  
      
  • The New York Times
    In addition to its online resources, the CU Library has a complete run of The Times on microfilm, with more recent months on paper.

    The Historical New York Times
    Full text in PDF format images (photos, etc.). Dates: 1851-2004.

    The New York Times Archive
    Full text current and archived articles, directly from The New York Times Web site.
      
  • National Newspaper Index
    Front-to-back indexing of the Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal from 1979 to the present; national and international news stories written by the staff writers of The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times from 1982 to the present. Citations only.
      
  • Custom Newspapers
    Over 150 full text newspapers, national and international. starting from 1996.
      
  • New York State Newspapers
    Full text from major New York State newspapers including The New York Times (most recent 365 days), the New York Post (2000- ), and the New York Observer (2001- ). Others included are the Buffalo News (1996- ), Journal News (Westchester, 1999- ), Post-Standard (Syracuse, 1996- ), Press & Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, 1999- ), and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle (1999- ).
      
  • Readers' Guide Abstracts
    Covers popular magazines and The New York Times. (See also more info on The New York Times above.) Updated monthly, starts with 1983. Includes some full text.
      
  • Humanities Abstracts
    Covers core periodicals in disciplines such as language and literature, archaeology, area studies, classical studies, folklore, history, journalism and communications, religion and theology, and philosophy. Updated monthly, starts with 1984. Availability: campuswide (from our Web site). Includes some full text.
      
    For articles published from 1974-1983, use the printed Humanities Index. For articles published from 1968-1974, use the printed Social Sciences & Humanities Index. Availability: on the Library's main floor in the Index collection, located before the beginning of the Reference stacks, shelved alphabetically by title.
      
  • Art Abstracts
    Starting date: 1984 (1994 for abstracts). Corresponds to the printed Art Index. Covers over 400 leading publications, including periodicals, yearbooks, and museum bulletins. Includes bibliographies, notices of competitions and awards, exhibition listings and reviews. Includes some full text.
      
  • Art Index Retrospective
    1929-1984. Covers the earlier years of Art Index. Citations only.
      
  • ArticleFirst
    Index to articles from thousands of journals, covering a wide range of subjects. Updated daily, starts with 1990. Includes some full text.
  • Wilson Select Plus
    Full text articles from indexes such as Social Sciences Index, Humanities Index, and Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. Updated weekly, starts with 1994.
       
  • EBSCOhost Masterfile Select
    Full text from over 750 periodicals, some including images; indexing and abstracts for over 2,000 periodicals covering nearly all subjects. Starting dates and update frequencies vary.
    
  Indexes and Full Text Databases in NYU's Bobst Library
  
  See their Web site for a complete listing of databases with descriptions:
http://library.nyu.edu/collections/find_articles.html (February 1, 2008)

 
Below are descriptions of a few of the databases available at Bobst. They are available at computers in the Reference department on the ground floor.
  
 
  • JSTOR
    Complete subscription.

  • Alternative Press Index
    Citations to articles published in over 250 alternative, radical, and leftist publications in the U.S. Starts with 1991.
      
  • Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe
    Hundreds of newspaper and news sources (similar to EBSCOhost MasterFile Select). Starting dates and update frequencies vary.

  • Wall Street Journal
    Economic news and information on trends and issues facing the business community. Full text except for financial tables. Starts with 1991.

  • Modern Language Association (MLA) Bibliography Online
    Starting date: 1963. Updated quarterly (but can lag as much as two years behind).
    Indexes journal articles (except book reviews), books, collections and festschriften, audiovisual materials, reference works, conference papers and proceedings on literature, language, linguistics, folklore and film. Print counterpart: MLA International Bibliography, 1921 to present.
    
  Other Resources in NYU's Bobst Library
  
 
 
 
 
  Interlibrary Loan / Referrals / Article Orders
    
  If an item you need is not available in the Consortium or New York Public Library collections, we can usually locate a copy for you. If it's in an academic or private NYC library, we can issue a referral card for admittance to that library; if the item is in a collection outside the city, we can arrange an interlibrary loan or, if it is a periodical article, we can place an order for a photocopy.
  
In most cases, the Library shoulders the cost of article orders and interlibrary loans; however, if fees for a particular request are exorbitant, we will discuss it with you before ordering.
 
 
  • Catalogue information for hundreds of libraries is accessible via the OCLC WorldCat database. You can search it from our Web site by following the links under Online Catalog -- Other Library Catalogs.
  • Electronic request and delivery methods are used whenever possible to minimize turnaround time.
   
 
  Evaluating Internet Resources   
 
 
   
          
  Last updated February 12, 2008