Helmke Library now offers savvy foragers more rewarding results when hunting for a definition or a lead into the literature thicket. Our new E-Reference Collection offers access to hundreds of high-quality electronic reference works published by major publishers such as Berkshire, Oxford, Cambridge, Macmillan, Sage, and others. Find dictionaries, encyclopedia articles, facts, and more, including audio pronunciation files and full-color images of artworks, places, and geographic features.
Every publication in the E-Reference Collection digital library is also licensed for access in IUCAT Catalog (Indiana University's online library catalog). You are welcome to Ask a Librarian to show you how to integrate E-Reference Collection tools into your foraging repertoire.
This new E-Reference Collection OneSearch tool supports simultaneous searching across four databases. Search results are displayed in the order that they are returned from each resource. This federated-search approach gives you a reliable place to start your research and is an advantage when you are trying to discover just how much information is out there. Once you get a feel for the range of your quarry, you may profit from searching independently in one or more of the databases below.
E-Reference Collection DatabasesHere are some special features of these amazing electronic reference collections. Read the full description of what each resource offers. Try them all, and compare your results to Wikipedia. Be sure to read the commentary below about the pros and cons of this free Web site compared to the licensed resources offered by Helmke Library.
Gale Virtual Reference Library (Thomson-Gale) Many of Helmke Library's most popular specialized reference works, such as College Blue Book, Encyclopedia of Bioethics, Encyclopedia of Religion, or West's Encyclopedia of American Law, are now accessible online to IPFW users 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Oxford Reference Online Premium (Oxford University Press) Search authoritative subject dictionaries and reference works like the Oxford Companion series and the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations in one easy search interface.
Let's admit it. Sometimes the best strategy is to take the easy way out. Use Wikipedia with caution and be critical about the information presented. Unlike the peer-reviewed, licensed resources offered by Helmke Library, this online encyclopedia is an openly collaborative project with little to protect its integrity. Many IPFW instructors will not accept citations from Wikipedia. To read more about Wikipedia's successes and failures, search for wiki* in Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost), and discover more critical commentary like the following.
Read, Brock. "Can Wikipedia Ever Make the Grade?" Chronicle of Higher Education 53 (October 27, 2006): A31-A36.
Paumgarten, Nick. "Dirty Wikitricks." New Yorker 82 (November 6): 48-50.
Schiff, Stacy. "Know It All." New Yorker 82 (July 31): 36-43.
|
|
|
