The Cooper Union Library
Research Resources for HSS4:
The Rhetoric of Democracy.
                                       
Contacts:    

Carol Salomon, Engineering/Science & Archives Librarian (salomo@cooper.edu )
or any of the Cooper librarians (see Library website under Personnel).
                        
Library Web Site:   http://www.cooper.edu/facilities/library/library.html

Research Guides:  http://www.cooper.edu/facilities/library/research_frameset.html

BobCat Tips:

• Web version of BobCat is still buggy.  If you encounter odd errors or unexpected results, try the search again, varying search terms if possible.  ( New catalog system is expected by Fall 2008 )
   
  
• The default for a Keyword search is the Boolean "And":  any two or more words listed in a single keyword search box will be searched as  "x and y and z"
   
  
• A Keyword search may also be done for a word string.  As in web searching, a word string should be enclosed in quotation marks.   Example:  "campaign speeches"
   
  
• Some, but not all, electronic books and journals owned by the libraries have records in the catalog.  See also the CU Library web site and the consortium libraries' sites for links to many other electronic resources.
   
  
• Web links in the online catalog may not work unless you are at the library which is paying for access to that resource.  (Many are proprietary resources, not freely available on the internet).
   
• Recall feature:  If a book is checked out at any of the consortium libraries, Cooper included, you can Recall the book: click the green Recall-Hold button to the left of the book record in BobCat, and fill in the requested data.  A Recall insures that the patron who has the book will not be able to renew it, and makes the due date earlier if the book is not due for more than two weeks. You wil be notified via email when the book is returned, so make sure your patron record at the Cooper    Library Circulation Desk has your current e-mail address.
  

Searching BobCat for Speeches:

You may wish to try a phrase search for the general subject heading "Speeches, addresses, etc."
or use a more specific subject heading such as "Campaign speeches."
A keyword search for speeches by a specific individual should include the keywords "speeches or oratory."

Selected Sources for American Speeches:

Sources for Printed Texts of Speeches:   

Vital Speeches of the Day:  

NYU offers electronic access to Vital Speeches from 1995 to date.
NYU has print version of Vital Speeches from 1934 to date .
    Call no.:   PN6121.V5   (some also on microfilm)
Use  Readers Guide, Readers Guide Retrospective, or ABI/Inform  index databases to find specific speeches prior to 1995 in the print version of Vital Speeches.

NYU has volumes from 1937 to date:   1951 to date in PS668 .B3;   1937-1950 on microfilm.
Volume indexes:  Cumulative Author Indexes in 1959/60, 1969/1970, 1979/1980 volumes;
after 1980 each issue contains a cumulative author index.   

Public Papers of the Presidents -  issued by the U.S. Government Printing Office:  includes    
public messages, speeches, and statements of each presidency. 

1991 to date  (George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush):  
Free access via U.S. Government Printing Office:              
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/pubpapers/search.html 
                                                                                                                                     
1929 to date  (Print version)    NYU:    Bobst 6th Floor Reference area:  USDocs AE2.114: 

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents:   updated every Monday by the Office of the Federal Register, this compilation includes transcripts of the President's news conferences, public speeches, messages to Congress, etc.

1993 to date: Online at  http://www.gpoaccess.gov/wcomp/search.html
1965 to 1977: Print version at NYU, 6th Floor,  Gov.Docs.Reference,  AE 2.109: GS 4.114:

Commission on Presidential Debates: Debate Transcripts 
http://www.debates.org/pages/debtrans.html
Includes transcripts of presidential and vice-presidential debates back to 1960 (Kennedy-Nixon).

Presidents     
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/
Website at the University of Groningen (Netherlands): provides text of inaugural addresses, State of the Union addresses, and other important speeches of U.S. presidents from Washington to G.W. Bush.

NEWSPAPERS

New York Times (The Historical New York Times): 

Full text and page images (PDF) of The New York Times from 1851 to 2004.   
Available at Cooper and NYU libraries.

New York Tribune:  

1879-1899 -  Cooper Union Library:  microfilm
1900-1910 -  Freely available via Library of Congress (see below, Chronicling America)
1900-1910 -  Available electronically at NYU  (The Historical New York Tribune)
1841-1924 -   On microfilm at NYU.

America's Historical Newspapers, a.k.a. Early American Newspapers:
Search full text of newspapers from 1690-1922:    at NYU

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers (BETA)
Only covers 1900-1910 so far, but this venture of the Library of Congress promises to be an important historical resource when fully developed.     
http://www.loc.gov/chroniclingamerica/       
Freely available to the public.

Searching Cooper Union in Early Newspapers
                                                                                         
In the 19th century, many newspapers referred to Cooper Union as "Cooper Institute" or, less commonly, "Cooper's Institute."  A thorough search for events at Cooper requires that you search for  "Cooper Institute" as well as "Cooper Union."

The Cooper Archives
                                                                                                                                          
Cooper Union was a prime venue for speakers in the 19th century, and events here were generally thoroughly reported in the local newspapers of the following day.   If you know the date that someone spoke here, you can often find a description and sometimes a transcript in the next day's newspapers.

The Cooper Archive maintains a list of Notable Great Hall Speakers, including the dates that they spoke here.  A copy of the list is on Reserve for your class at the Cooper Library Circulation Desk. 
  
The Archives has transcripts of more than two dozen speeches given here by U.S. presidents and others.  Look up individual names in the Archives card catalog (next to the Reference Librarian's desk). 
See also A Historical Study of the Speechmaking at Cooper Union, 1859-1897 (Ph.D. dissertation, 1964), by Richard A. Ek, in the Archives book collection, call no. C 5CD A1 E36.

Sources for Audio/Video versions of Speeches:    

American Memory: the Library of Congress      
main page: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

American Memory:  Sound Recordings search page:  
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/browse/ListSome.php?format=Sound+Recording

American Leaders Speak: Recordings from World War I and the 1920 Election
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/nfhtml/

American Rhetoric: Online Speech Bank       
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speechbank.htm
Includes over 5000 full text, audio and video versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, etc.    Annoying ads, popups

The History Place: Great Speeches Collection
http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/previous.htm
Includes text of more than 60 notable speeches; mostly American presidents, but also world figures and social activists.  

Digital History  
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/speeches/speeches.cfm
Includes speeches selected for their relevance to American History.  Some are from The History Channel (see below), but Digital History search interface is easier to use.

The History Channel:  Speeches       
http://www.history.com/media.do
Search by name or by topic, or click "Great Speeches" tab for highlighted speeches.   Also Includes some early 20th-century recordings of individuals such as Samuel Gompers, Clarence Darrow, and Theodore Roosevelt.

See also extended list of sources at the University of Iowa Dept of Communication Studies website: 
http://www.uiowa.edu/~commstud/resources/speech.html

Vanderbilt Television News Archive, Vanderbilt University   
http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/
A collection of network television news programs and other news‑related programming since August 5, 1968.  Loan copies of videos are available for a fee from the Archive.

Sources for Background Information and Analysis

PAIS International (Public Affairs Information Service):
Index and abstracts of articles, books, government documents, and other literature on public affairs.
Includes publications from more than 120 countries.  Newspapers and newsletters are not included.
At NYU.   Many links to full text via NYU's electronic subscriptions.

America: History and Life (now combined with Historical Abstracts):  1954 to date.   At NYU.
Citations, with abstracts, to literature on all aspects of U.S. and Canadian history, culture, and current affairs from prehistoric times to the present.   Covers books, dissertations and articles from over 2,000 journals.   
Many links to full text via NYU's electronic subscriptions. 

Wilson Select Plus:  1994 to date.    At Cooper and NYU.  
Full text articles from a subset of H.W. Wilson's indexes, including Social Sciences Index,  Humanities Index, Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature.   Includes articles from more than 2300 periodicals.
                                                                                                                                                        
Center for Public Integrity  
www.publicintegrity.org
Supposedly nonpartisan site makes available documents and statements from top public officials relating to important national issues.   Freely available to the public.
 
For more sources:
                          
NYU's  listing of databases by subject area:
                                  
http://library.nyu.edu/collections/databases.html      
                                                                   
http://library.nyu.edu/collections/find_articles.html  
Previous version of database list has better descriptions of database contents, more subject categories, better layout.  Why NYU changed it is a mystery .... ) 

Other Library Catalogs:    follow links from Library web page to selected other libraries, including the New York Public Library, and other university libraries.

Library Union Catalogs
A union catalog shows the holdings for more than one library.
We subscribe subscribe to the WorldCat database, with more than 76 million records for materials
and journals in 30,000 libraries worldwide.   Access:  you must connect from a  computer within the Cooper domain, or log in remotely via the Cooper Library web site.

Note:   Cooper, NYU, and New School books and journals  may not yet all be listed in WorldCat, due to data loading delays.   Please check BobCat for the title before assuming we don't have an item!

If the item you need is not available locally, we can usually obtain it for you via Interlibrary Loan.  
See the Interlibrary Loan section of this document for more information. 

Remote Access to Cooper Library Databases

You can use our databases from computers outside the cooper.edu domain, but you need to be in good standing with the Library to do so (i.e., no fines totaling five dollars or more, and no other blocks on your library registration record).  On the main Cooper Library web page, click on Off Campus Database Access  (just below the Article Indexes section).  Enter your Library barcode number (on the back of your Cooper I.D. card), and you will see a list of databases to which the Library subscribes.

Citing References:    Be consistent!  Be complete!   

When citing web sources, also note the date that you visited the website.
For citation formats, check the following:

Chicago Manual of Style,  15th ed., 2003.   
Cooper  Reference   Z253 .U69 2003
Brief summary of Chicago style basics:   http://library.osu.edu/sites/guides/chicagogd.html  
(Ohio State University, c2006; accessed Feb. 6, 2008)

Sources: Their Use and Acknowledgment,  Dartmouth College, 2001.
http://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Esources/index.html (January 24, 2008)
         
Walker, Janice R.  Columbia Guide to Online Style
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos2006/basic.html  
(Excepts from the book, including examples of online resources cited in Chicago style)    (Feb. 6, 2008)
Cooper Reference   PN171.F56 W35 2006    (Complete, print version)   

Interlibrary Loan and Referral Services

If the item you want is not available within our consortium, we can usually locate a copy for you.
If it is at another library in New York City, we will give you a referral card to gain access to that library.  If it is outside Manhattan, we will request an interlibrary loan or a photocopy of the item..  

Once you identify an item you need, check BobCat.  If the book or journal title is not in BobCat, try searching the New York Public Library catalogs (www.nypl.org), or talk to one of our librarians.
  
You may also wish to search for the item in the WorldCat database (see above); then talk to a Cooper librarian about getting a referral card or an interlibrary loan.