HIST 1122 - Hensley (Floyd) - Fall 2017: Articles (Databases!)

READ ME FIRST!!!!

There are some important things you need to know about articles and databases.

GALILEO is chock-full of information, but some of its contents would not be appropriate for college-level work.  For example, you would never want to use the following in any assignment requiring scholarly or peer-reviewed sources:

• Book Reviews
• Encyclopedia entries
• Dictionary entries

Why do I point this out?  Because these kinds of results can often appear in your searches, and you need to be able to recognize them.

For book reviews, look in the first few sentences for things like a book title with an author, or phrases like "this is a review of the book Blah Blah Blah"  Sometimes in the basic citation link - even before you click into it - you will see the words "book review".  Just say NO!

Encyclopedia and dictionary entries are even easier to spot.  Look at the citation link for the words "encyclopedia" or "dictionary."

All this is to remind you to PAY ATTENTION to what you're reading!  If you make sure you have excellent sources right from the start, you'll have a much easier time when you get down to writing your paper.

Journals, magazines, and newspapers can be divided into four basic categories (ranked here from most reliable to least reliable):

1. Scholarly

2. General Interest / Substantive News

3. Popular

4. Sensational  (Think about it - if you were preparing a presentation on political parties, would you trust The Journal of Political Science or the local supermarket tabloid with aliens from Mars on the cover? That's the difference between scholarly and sensational!)

SCHOLARLY journals require articles to be reviewed by other experts or scholars in the same field (thus "peer reviewed") who must agree that the article in question meets the standards of that profession.  This ensures that the content of the article is as valid and reliable as possible.

So how do you tell if a journal is scholarly? 

• Look for an abstract.
• Look for complete citations (Bibliography or Works Cited list.)
• Check to see if the author has a degree in the subject.
• Check the "Peer Reviewed" box in GALILEO! Don't forget the library databases allow you to modify your searches to include only those materials that are peer reviewed!

(More information on the four basic categories can be found here!)

We  have a "Discovery" search, which searches *most* of GALILEO all at once.  It can be very cumbersome, however, so if you feel overwhelmed try the individual databases to the right... or ask your friendly embedded librarian for assistance!

Looking for a good place to get started?  Here are a few databases, ready-made for your topic!