School of Communication, Information
and Library Studies
SOURCES OF LITERATURE
ON
COMMUNICATION/INFORMATION TOPICS
Methods of Inquiry
Syllabus:514
Gustav W. Friedrich
An ability to locate, organize, and use the literature on
communication/information topics is important for those who do
research. It enables the investigator to define the frontiers
of the discipline, identify potential research topics, place research
questions in perspective, locate procedures and instruments that
have proven useful, and avoid unintentional replication of previous
studies.
These advantages, however, are not easily achieved. Louis
Martin, associate editor of the Association of Research Libraries
in Washington, DC, points out: "The amount of new information
in staggering. If an average reader tried to catch up with one
year's output of learned publications in the sciences, it would
take about 50 years of reading at 24 hours a day for seven days
a week." The situation in communication/information is even
more complicated since the researcher must not only keep up with
the research literature of her/his colleagues, but must also be
alert to relevant contributions from such fields as psychology,
linguistics, sociology, and education. As a result, it is imperative
that a researcher be efficient when locating, organizing, and
using the literature. Listed below are a variety of resources
that can increase this efficiency.
1. Theses and Dissertations
Dissertation Abstracts International
(Dissertation Abstracts prior to Volume 30, 1970, and Microfilm
Abstracts prior to Volume 12, 1952) is a monthly compilation of
doctoral dissertations submitted to University Microfilms by more
than 300 cooperating institutions in the United States, Canada,
and other countries. It is divided into two sections-(A) Humanities
and Social Sciences and (B) Sciences and Engineering-beginning
with Volume 27. In 1973, Xerox University Microfilm compiled a
37-volume index to virtually all of the 417,000 dissertations
accepted in the American doctoral programs since they began in
1861, the title of which is Comprehensive Dissertation Index (CDI).
In 1983, the CDI Ten-Year Cumulation 1973-1982 was published in
38 volumes. The CDI Five-Year Cumulation 1983-1987 was published
in 22 volumes. CDI supplements were published in 1988, 1989, and
1990. These supplements include doctoral dissertations from nearly
50 universities in Great Britain and from other universities worldwide.
Since 1962, University Microfilms has also published abstracts
of selected masters theses in Masters Abstracts. Complete theses
or dissertations in microfilm or photocopy can be purchased.
An online computer data base equivalent of the above (DAI)
is available online from the Rutgers
University Libraries Homepage and can be accessed from desktop.
Digital Dissertation Abstracts includes citations for materials
ranging from the first U.S. dissertation, accepted in 1861, to
those accepted as recently as last semester; those published from
1980 forward also include 350-word abstracts, written by the author.
Citations for master's theses from 1988 forward include 150-word
abstracts. Of the 1.5 million titles listed, UMI offers over a
million in full text. For these titles, the database citation
includes UMI's order number. The database represents the work
of authors from over 1,000 North American graduate schools and
European universities.
2. Convention Papers
Because research frequently appears in the form of convention
papers or unpublished monographs before being published formally,
it is wise to be aware of researchers who are working in your
area of interest. Most professional associations publish Programs
of papers presented at the annual convention. Whether or not you
are able to attend the convention, it is possible to scan the
Program and write the author(s) for a copy of papers that interest
you-obtaining the necessary addresses from the Directory of Members
published by such organizations. Identified below are the major
national organizations for communication/information professionals.
A wide variety of resources are available on their web sites (including
links to related organizations).
Communication/Journalism related:
The American Communication
Association (ACA) is a not-for-profit organization, a virtual
professional association with actual presence in the world of
scholars and practitioners alike. ACA was created to promote academic
and professional research, criticism, teaching, practical use,
and exchange of principles and theories of human communication.
The
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
is an international association of more than 3,300 journalism/mass
communication faculty, students, administrators, and professionals.
AEJMC's members come from more than 28 countries, with the majority
working in the United States and Canada. Founded in 1912, AEJMC
is the oldest and largest association of journalism and mass communication
educators and administrators at the college level.
The International Communication
Association was formed in 1950, bringing together academicians
and other professionals whose interest focused on human communication.
The Association maintains an active membership of more than 3,400
individuals of which some two-thirds are teaching and conducting
research in colleges, universities and schools around the world.
Other members are in the media, communication technology, business
law, medicine and other professions.
The National Communication
Association (NCA) is a non-profit organization of approximately
7,100 educators, practitioners, and students who work and reside
in every state and more than 20 foreign countries. The purpose
of the Association is to promote study, criticism, research, teaching,
and application of the artistic, humanistic, and scientific principles
of communication. NCA is the oldest and largest national organization
to promote communication scholarship and education. Founded in
1914 as the National Association of Academic Teachers of Public
Speaking, the society incorporated in 1950 as the Speech Association
of America. The organization changed its name to Speech Communication
Association, in 1970. It adopted its present name in 1997.
Library & Information Science Related:
Association for Library and
Information Science Education (ALISE). The mission of ALISE
is to promote excellence in research, teaching, and service for
library and information science education.
American Library Association
(ALA) Get the latest scoop on library plans, Goals, Legislation
and developments at the Washington Office. Either browse the sections
or Search for items of interest.
American Society for
Information Science (ASIS) The mission of the American Society
for Information Science is to advance information professionals
and the field of information science.
Association of Research Libraries
(ARL) The mission of the Association of Research Libraries is
to shape and influence forces affecting the future of research
libraries in the process of scholarly communication. ARL programs
and services promote equitable access to, and effective use of
recorded knowledge in support of teaching, research, scholarship,
and community service.
Coalition for Networked Information
(CNI) Welcome to the Coalition for Networked Information's website.
CNI is an organization to advance the transformative promise of
networked information technology for the advancement of scholarly
communication and the enrichment of intellectual productivity.
Founded in 1990 by the Association of Research Libraries, Educom,
and CAUSE, CNI is supported by the members of an institutional
Task Force representing higher education, publishing, network
and telecommunications, information technology, and libraries
and library organizations.
International Federation of
Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) IFLA is created
to provide information specialists throughout the world with a
forum for exchanging ideas and promoting international cooperation,
research and development in all fields of library activity and
information service, including bibliography and the education
of personnel. IFLA is one of the means through which libraries,
information centers and information professionals worldwide can
formulate their goals, exert their influence as a group, protect
their interests and find solutions for global problems.
3. Journal Articles
In addition to publishing paper journals in an electronic
format, some organizations are beginning to publish electronic
journals. An example is: American
Communication Journal. Commissioned by the American Communication
Association's Board of Directors at the 1996 Annual Convention,
The American Communication Journal
is a completely online, blind-reviewed publication, dedicated
to the conscientious analysis and criticism of significant communicative
artifacts.
Index to Journals in Communication
Studies. Edited by Ronald J. Matlon. Published by the
National Communication Association, 5105 Backlick Road, Building
E, Annandale, VA 22003, (703)750-0533. Articles in the following
journals are indexed by (a) journal, (b) contributing author(s),
and (c) subject matter: The Quarterly
Journal of Speech, Communication Monographs, Communication Education,
Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Southern Communication
Journal, Western Journal of Speech Communication, Communication
Studies, Communication Quarterly, Association for Communication
Administration Bulletin, Philosophy and Rhetoric, Journal of Communication,
Human Communication Research, Journalism Quarterly, Journal of
Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Argumentation and Advocacy,
Text and Performance Quarterly, Communication Research, Journal
of Applied Communication Research, and
Women's Studies in Communication.
An electronic version of this resource is published by the National
Communication Association as COMM Search and is available on CD-ROM
at the Alexander Library Reference Desk.
Major Library and Information Science
Journals: College & Research
Libraries, Information Technology and Libraries, Information Processing
& Management, Journal of Academic Libraries, JASIS (Journal
of the American Society for Information Science), Journal of Youth
Services in Libraries (JOYS), Knowledge Quest, Library Administration
& Management, Library Resources & Technical Services,
Library Quarterly, School Library Media Quarterly,
and School Library Media Research.
Communication Abstracts.
Published four times annually by Sage Publications, it covers
major communication-related articles.
Various disciplines publish brief abstracts of the many articles
and research reports, which are published each month. Many of
these resources are available online from the Rutgers Library
Homepage. Especially relevant are:
Child Development Abstracts and Bibliography.
Published three times a year, it contains abstracts from professional
periodicals and review books related to the growth and development
of children.
Educational Index. Published
monthly (except July and August), it is a cumulative index to
educational publications in the English language.
LLBA (Linguistics and
Language Behavior Abstracts). First appearing in 1967, it covers
over 1,200 journals in over 70 subject areas to produce a compendium
of nonevaluative abstracts, which reflect the world's literature
in language behavior, linguistics, and related areas. It is published
quarterly by Sociological Abstracts Inc., with an annual Cumulative
Index.
Language Teaching: The International
Abstracting Journal for Language Teachers and Applied Linguistics.
Covers 400 journals from all parts of the world.
Psychological Abstracts.
Monthly compilation of nonevaluative summaries of the world's
literature in psychology and related disciplines.
Sociological Abstracts.
Published five times a year, each issue provides a collection
of nonevaluative abstracts that reflect the world's serial literature
in sociology and related disciplines.
Women Studies Abstracts.
Published quarterly since 1972.
Two multidisciplinary guides to the
social science literature are:
Current Contents: Social and Behavioral
Science. Each weekly issues reproduces-in their original
format and frequently in advance of publication-the table of contents
of more than 1,3000 journals reporting worldwide research and
practice in the social and behavioral sciences. To facilitate
writing for reprints, an Author Index and Address Directory is
in the back of each issue.
SSCI (Social Sciences Citation Index).
A multi-disciplinary coverage of the social sciences literature
which covers over 4,300 journals (1,500 fully and 2,800 selectively).
The SSCI consists of the Citation Index (identifying all items
cited by other authors during a current period), the Source Index
(author index to all items), the Corporate Index (with two sections-Geographic
and Organization), and the Permuterm Subject Index (subject index
based on significant words in the title).
4. Books
Textbooks can help one locate reference material on any particular
topic. Scan relevant chapters in the book. Use the author's index
at the end of the book. Search the extensive bibliographies that
appear either at the end of particular chapters or at the end
of the book as a whole.
Many professional journals (e.g., The
Quarterly Journal of Speech, Communication Education,
and Communication Theory)
contain book reviews in each issue. Psychology and Sociology both
have journals devoted to book reviews: Contemporary
Psychology: Journal of Reviews and Sociology: A Journal of Reviews.
To locate books at Rutgers
University Libraries, one can use IRIS (Integrated Rutgers
Information System) through which one can find bibliographic information
about books held in 22 Rutgers Libraries. IRIS is a web-based
catalogue and contains many self service functions such as "Request
this Item" or "Rutgers Request Service" (to borrow
materials from another campus) or "Interlibrary Loan Service"
(to borrow materials from outside Rutgers system). All these functions
are available as self-help once you open IRIS. If you are lost
when using these functions, just click a button that says "Ask
a Librarian."
5. Internet Based Resources:
Learning
to Effectively Use WWW Search Tools. It is important to recognize
that searching the WWW will lead to sound and very scholarly sites
as well as superficial and poorly conceived presentations. Search
engines do not distinguish the great from the not so great. When
you enter search terms the retrieval process will yield useful
data but also data that is useless. Learning to move among various
search engines will increase the quality of your search but it
may not increase the quality of reported sites.
Copyright
Resources on the WWW. Copyright resources on the WWW are plentiful.
This site draws together a number of links that explore the divergent
issues in copyright, particularly the aspect of the law called
"fair use." There are a number of tutorials that clarify
and help order thinking on these issues. International coverage
is included so that some understanding of copyright law in other
parts of the world is provided. Links to important copyright papers
and sample guidelines statements are included.
Codes
of Professional Ethics. Many professions have codes of ethics
intended to govern the behaviors of their members. All of us need
to be mindful of such statements from our own professional associations
and those from allied professions. The following is a selected
list of codes of ethics pertinent to members of the SCILS community.
Reference
Refdesk. A marvelous site of containing facts and links in
all areas of information such as news, services, etc. A real treasure-trove!
Social Science Information Gateway.
The Internet has become an invaluable tool for supporting education
and research. More and more key information providers such as
academics, researchers, governments and organizations are now
using the Internet as a means of disseminating or publishing information.
However, the vast quantity of information available, together
with the fact that this information is located on computers around
the world, makes it very difficult for users to find and retrieve
relevant information. SOSIG aims to offer social scientists a
quick and easy way of finding quality networked information that
can support their work.
Explore
the Internet [Library of Congress]. An well-organized list
of resources that offer direct links to information as topical
guides, search tools, and government resources.
Library of Congress: This
is a key to vast resources held in the Library of Congress including
access to the catalog, Thomas, the legislative data base, American
Memory, the Copyright Office, Exhibits and other vast resources.
[ An alternative URL since this site is always busy is http://lcweb.loc.gov/]
DLib
Edu COLLABORATORY FOR DIGITAL LIBRARIES EDUCATION. The focus
is education for digital libraries. The DLib Edu Collaboratory
is a voluntary association of people and institutions working
on that task, regardless of disciplinary, professional, or organizational
affiliation. It is also an electronic laboratory without walls
or borders.
IR
and IE on the WWW. This site is a collection of online resources
for research in the field of information retrieval and information
extraction from the web. These pages contain materials that are
related to the state of the art IR and IE techniques used for
and on the web. Such techniques use, as well as traditional techniques,
hypertext structure and meta-data, the structure and nature of
the web, observed human behavior on the web, other search engines,
and more.
PICK:
Quality Internet Resources in Library and Information Science.
PICK is a gateway to quality library and information science (AKA
LIS or Librarianship) resources on the Internet, constructed by
Thomas Parry Library, University of Wales Aberystwyth in the UK.
Internet
Library for Librarians. A comprehensive Web database designed
to provide a one-stop shopping center for librarians to locate
Internet resources related to their profession. The Table of Contents
is exhaustive.
Scholarly
Electronic Publishing Bibliography (University of Houston)
Tremendous work by pioneer, Charles Bailey, Jr. Provides citations
to hundreds of articles, books, electronic documents, etc. concerning
published scholarship via the Internet. The majority of cites
cover from 1990 to the present.
The Communication Ring.
A ring is unique method of organizing a group of sites on the
WWW. Sites that agree to link to each other in this special way
can be followed from ring site to ring site. If you kept going
long enough, you'd eventually come across the site where you started
(hence the name "ring"). What's more, the sites within
a ring create a community of sorts. A visitor to any one of the
sites within the ring now has access to a select group of related
sites. The communication ring is dedicated to the study and teaching
of communication, rhetoric, and related topics. A site within
the communication ring will generally fit one of these categories:
a department or organization site, an individual's personal/professional
home page, or a project site. Dan Oetting, a graduate student
at Northwestern University, manages the communication ring. The
Web ring service is made possible by the originators of this sort
of thing, Webring. Webring is a non-profit organization. So is
Mr. Oetting.
Web
Pages that Perform Statistical Calculations! Over 300 Links
- And Growing! The web pages listed here comprise a powerful,
conveniently accessible, and FREE multi-platform statistical software
package. There are also links to online statistics books, tutorials,
downloadable software, and related resources.
Research Methods Resources
from the College of Education at Arizona State University
Social Science
Research Methods: Resources for Teachers collects and organizes
material of interest to teachers of research methods in the social
sciences. It is compiled and maintained by Roland K. Hawkes. It
is sponsored by the Department of Sociology at Southern Illinois
University
Introduction
to the Journal of Statistics Education. The
Journal of Statistics Education disseminates knowledge
for the improvement of statistics education at all levels, including
primary, secondary, post-secondary, postgraduate, continuing,
and workplace education. The intended audience includes anyone
who teaches statistics, as well as those interested in research
on statistical and probabilistic reasoning.
5. Combinations.
Rutgers University
Libraries. With holdings of over three million volumes, the
Rutgers University Libraries rank among the nation's top research
libraries. Comprised of twenty-five libraries, collections, and
reading rooms located on Rutgers' campuses in New Brunswick/Piscataway,
Camden, and Newark, the Libraries provide the resources and services
necessary to support the university's mission of teaching, research,
and service.
There are two large research libraries on the New Brunswick/Piscataway
campuses: the Library of Science and Medicine, which houses the
primary collections in behavioral, biological, earth and pharmaceutical
sciences, and engineering; and the Archibald S. Alexander Library,
which provides extensive humanities and social sciences collections.
The Mabel Smith Douglass Library supports undergraduate education
and houses the primary collections for women's studies and the
performing arts. The Kilmer Library is the primary business library
in New Brunswick and provides support for undergraduate instruction.
There are also several specialized libraries and collections in
the New Brunswick/Piscataway area including Alcohol Studies, Art,
Stephen and Lucy Chang Science Library, Chemistry, East Asian,
Entomology, Mathematical Sciences, Music, Physics, and Special
Collections and University Archives. The John Cotton Dana Library
in Newark (which also houses the Institute of Jazz Studies) supports
all undergraduate and graduate programs offered on the Newark
Campus with an emphasis on business, management, and nursing.
The Robeson Library houses a broad liberal arts collection, which
supports all undergraduate and graduate programs offered on the
Camden campus. Law Libraries are also located on both the Camden
and Newark campuses and have separate policies and online catalogs.
The Libraries provide numerous electronic resources to the Rutgers
community. Library users can search IRIS, the online catalog,
through the Libraries' web site. IRIS identifies materials owned
by Rutgers libraries located in Camden, Newark, and New Brunswick/Piscataway,
and contains records for most items acquired since 1972. Students,
faculty, and staff can also access a variety of electronic indexes
and abstracts, full-text electronic journals, research guides,
and library services online. The Libraries provide hundreds of
CD-ROM titles in addition to online resources.
The Rutgers Request Service and Interlibrary Loan Service allow
library users to request books and journal articles located at
distant Rutgers libraries or outside the university. The loan
period for faculty, staff, and graduate students is one full semester.
All other borrowers, including undergraduate students, may keep
materials for twenty-eight days. Library Statistics 1997/98:
Collections
Monographs: 2,512,496
Bound Periodicals: 656,102
Current Subscriptions: 22,869
Government Documents: 2,552,845
Microform Items: 4,173,170
Audio/Visual Materials: 118,853
Information Files: 214,361
Services
Circulation: 986,103
Reference questions: 522,483
Classes taught: 1,380
Building use: 3,417,677
[http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/]
ERIC (Educational Resources
Information Center) is a nation-wide information network for
acquiring, selecting, abstracting, indexing, storing, retrieving,
and disseminating the most significant and timely educational
research reports. As of June 1, 1972, the ERIC
Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills has focused
on the acquisition and dissemination of information on all aspects
of communication. There is also a direct ERIC
Clearinghouse on Information and Technology. The first step
in a search for information in the ERIC system is the compilation
of a set of descriptors located in the Thesaurus
of ERIC Descriptors. The researcher then consults the subject
indexes of Research in Education (monthly journal for announcing
conference papers, speeches, monographs, research reports, bibliographies,
etc. that have been added to the ERIC collection) and Current
Index to Journals in Education (monthly journal that indexes
articles in over 500 educational periodicals). All documents reported
in RIE are filed on microfiche in the ERIC collection.
The Communication Institute
for Online Scholarship (Comserve) is a U.S. Federal Tax Code
501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization supporting the use of computer
technologies in the service of communication scholarship and education
located at Rensselar Polytechnic Institute. The CIOS is an organization
supported primarily through individual and institutional memberships,
through publication of The Electronic Journal of Communication,
and through sales of software products to assist communication
scholarship (e.g., ComIndex). The CIOS was inaugurated in 1990,
being designed to function as a parent organization for the set
of online activities that had been initiated in 1986 as the Comserve
service. It provides some free access to resource materials for
communication education, research, and professional development.
It can be accessed through electronic mail or conversational messages
sent from any campus mainframe or minicomputer that is attached
directly or indirectly to the Internet. Messages should be addressed
to: Comserve@Rpicicge. Comserve has produced ComINdex a computer
communication journals index.
To return to the Syllabus