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2003-4 Ocean Policy Topic Guide

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Introduction

Long before the Internet, Lexis/Nexis, and the Elibrary, people walked up hill to school both ways and researched their tails off in the library. Now, debaters can just sit at home and call up hundreds of thousands of useful articles which they can conveniently process into briefs through their word processors.

Well I only wish electronic searching were that simple. The Internet is very difficult to search because there is no cataloging system. Lexis/Nexis is incredibly expensive and doesn't contain a lot of very good periodicals and journals (for debate purposes), the Elibrary does not have enough documents for you to complete thorough debate research, and there are only a couple decent books available on-line. You have to learn how to use the library, and use it well. Although I've already offered some tips for using the library in the Researching to Achieve essay, I want to offer some particular suggestions for targeted library research: how to master usage of electronic card catalogs and other electronic citation databases.

Using the Electronic Card Catalog

The single greatest invention that has made finding books in the library easier is the electronic library card catalog. If you wonder why it is called a "card catalog" your family and school are simply too high tech. Less than nine years ago, hardly any libraries in the United States had the functioning electronic card catalog systems that you are used to today. When I went to debate institute at the University of Michiganwhich has the third largest library system in the United Statesthere were only a few functioning electronic card catalogs and institute students were not permitted to use them. Two years ago, when I went back to teach there, the wooden card catalog had been eliminated.

Card catalogs are/were drawers of index cards filed by subject heading and author that you could use to search for the call number of a particular book in the library. You found books by rifling through a series of very long drawers.

There are three reasons why the electronic card catalog is a far superior system. First, it saves a lot of time. You do not have to dig through hundreds of individual cards scattered in many drawers. Second, it makes it easier to get along with peopleyou don't have to push them out of the way to get to the drawer that they are using. Third, you can search for keywords. Keyword searches search titles and book abstracts for any words you enter. It simply was not feasible to search for keywords with the card catalog system. It would have required the creation of millions of additional cards.

Keyword searching is probably what you are accustomed to. Most modern search engines, both in the library, on the Internet, and other electronic databases such as Lexis/Nexis default to keyword searching mode. In fact, keyword searching is the only way to search the Internet.

There are a number of advantages to keyword searching. First, subject classifications (to be discussed momentarily) do not exist for every potential keyword. You are dependent on the classifiers to put the book under the appropriate subject heading, and what the appropriate subject heading is for some books is difficult to determine. Second, I doubt anyone knows what all of the subject classifications are so it makes searching by subject, especially on a new topic, rather difficult. If you don't put the right thing in the subject line you will not get anything back. Third, keyword retrieved searches in the electronic card catalog are easy to view. Most catalogs return them by date and then in alphabetical order so you always get the most recently published books first. If your keyword search does not return your books in date order you can usually select a "sort by date" option that will then organize your return by the most recent publications. Subject searches just return a random assortment of subject classifications, and then you need to search every one of them.

In the essay on how to use the library, I delineated a couple of the drawbacks to heavy reliance on keyword searchingirrelevant hits and too few books. For example, when I typed the keywords "nuclear war" into the Wake Forest University card catalog system I only found three good titles of books relating to nuclear war. I did go to the stacks to browse for some additional books, and found some, but I still was not satisfied with what I found. My next step, however, which I encourage you to follow, produced some very good results.

Whenever the computer returns a hit from a keyword search and you pull up the full record of the book to find the call number and to see if it is checked out, the record will list all of the subject headings that the book was listed under. Sometimes there will just be two or three subject headings, other times there will be ten or twenty subject headings. You need to write a few of these down and then do a subject search (s=) for the subject heading. The drawback to subject heading search returns is that the results are not listed by date, but if your system has the sort function that should help some. Don't try a subject heading search before you try a keyword search, but you should definitely try some once you have done a few keyword searches and know some subject headings to search.

Other Citation Databases

In addition to the electronic card catalog, most other indexes that you can use to find articles relating to a targeted research assignment are also available in electronic form. What is available to you may vary by library but most libraries will contain at least a couple of the following. Do not think that just because you have access to Lexis-Nexis, the Elibrary, or the Internet that you do not need to use these databases. Many of the databases index scholarly, academic articles that you will not find in any of the other databases. Not only are these articles written by the most qualified people, but the articles are usually based on extensive research and contain large bibliographies. In the electronic research age, don't forget these other citation databases.

What follows is a list of some of the best databases for debate research and what you are likely to find in them.

ABI/Inform.  This is best for searching popular periodicals and business journals.

Academic Search.  This is a great database to search if you do not have access to the magazines file and CURNWS files on Lexis. It references a lot of the popular press and better public policy magazines.

Article First.  Indexes a smattering of some of the best journal articles in a variety of fields. It also indexes more popular press, scholarly journals such as POLICY REVIEW.

Contents1ST.  Contents First is very similar to Article First, although more comprehensive. It indexes the table of contents of all major journals.

Current Contents.  This is another general index which indexes more popular magazines and journals.

EconLit.  Econlit indexes all the major journals in the economic studies literature. This index will help you a lot if you are researching school choice.

First Search/Article First.  This is an excellent citation database to use if you can gain access to it. It indexes over 12,000 scholarly journals throughout the world. College libraries will subscribe to a large number of these journals and these journals will have some of the most qualified evidence in them.

Infotrac.  General magazine index.

Legal Trac. I Indexes law review articles, legal magazines, and legal newspapers.

PAIS.  Public Affairs Information Service. PAIS indexes scholarly journal articles that deal with public policy issues. This is one of the best places you could research this topic.

Philosphers Index.  Useful when researching critiques.

Policy File.  Indexes articles that deal with issues of public policy.

PSYCHInfo.   This index is particularly useful on this topic because it indexes psychology journals.

Social Science Citation Index. This indexes articles by author. A great way to research is to track down additional articles or books written by authors that are favorable to your position. This is a great place to do that research.

 SocioFile.  Sociofile indexes journals in sociology. You will search these indexes the same way you searched the electronic card catalog: keyword or subject heading.

You will probably need to enter the title of the journal back into the card catalog to see if the library has it in their current collection.

 Study Questions

1.Where does the card catalogue get its name?

2.Why should you consult the subject line in the card catalogue when you find a good book?

3.Which electronic database is best for research about nuclear proliferation?

4.List two databases that specialize in indexing articles about public policy.

5.Which database should you use if you have found a good article by an author and you wish to find other pieces written by the same author?

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