Off The Shelf

The Capella Library has recently acquired The World Education Encyclopedia which can be found in the Gale Virtual Reference database.  Here is the description of this resource from the publisher:

This 3-volume country-by-country survey of educational systems provides detailed essays on the histories, legal foundations, and primary and secondary educational systems of 233 countries. This updated and expanded edition gives users up-to-date coverage of reorganized educational systems and high-interest topics such as technological advances.

Here are samples of the entries for India and Ecuador.

Let us know what you think of this new resource!

Robin

PsycBOOKS added the following titles to its coverage list in January 2010. Of the titles added, 4 were APA books and 20 were designated classic books. Classic books are landmark titles in psychology and are selected by APA experts.

APA Books

1. The development of giftedness and talent across the life span, © 2009, by Horowitz, Frances Degen (Ed.); Subotnik, Rena F. (Ed.); Matthews, Dona J.(Ed.) ISBN: 1-4338-0414-X

2. Integrated behavioral health in primary care: Step-by-step guidance for assessment and intervention, © 2009, Hunter, Christopher L.; Goodie, Jeffrey L.; Oordt, Mark S.; Dobmeyer, Anne C. ISBN: 1-4338-0428-X

3. Interpersonal theory of suicide: Guidance for working with suicidal clients, © 2009, by Joiner Jr., Thomas E.; Van Orden, Kimberly A.; Witte, Tracy K.; Rudd, M. David ISBN: 1-4338-0426-3

4. Obesity in youth: Causes, consequences, and cures, © 2009, by Heinberg, Leslie J. (Ed.); Thompson, J. Kevin (Ed.) ISBN: 1-4338-0427-1

Classic Books

5. The book of good examples; drawn from authentic history and biography; designed to illustrate the beneficial effects of virtuous conduct, © 1847, by Frost, John

6. The constitution of man, considered in relation to external objects (from the 3rd enlarged Edinburgh ed.), © 1845, by Combe, George

7. Curiosities of human nature: By the author of Peter Parley’s tales, © 1846, by Goodrich, Samuel G.

8. A discourse of the Baconian philosophy, © 1844, by Tyler, Samuel

9. A discourse of the Baconian philosophy (2nd ed.), © 1846, by Tyler, Samuel

10. The doctrine of the will, applied to moral agency and responsibility, © 1841, by Tappan, Henry P.

 11. Eclectic moral philosophy, prepared for literary institutions and general use, © 1847, by Boyd, J. R.

12. An essay on transcendentalism, © 1842, by Anonymous

13. Fundamental philosophy, or, Elements of primitive philosophy; being the first division of a complete system of philosophical science, © 1848, by Krug, William Traugott

14. The human brain: Its structure, physiology and diseases, with a description of the typical forms of brain in the animal kingdom (2nd London ed.), © 1848, by Solly, Samuel

15. Introduction to ethics, including a critical survey of moral systems (Vol. 1), © 1848, by Jouffroy; Channing, William H. (Trans.)

16. Introduction to ethics, including a critical survey of moral systems (Vol. 2), © 1847, by Jouffroy; Channing, William H. (Trans.)

17. Memory and intellectual improvement applied to self-education and juvenile instruction (25th ed., improved), © 1850, by Fowler, O. S.

18. Parental instructions; or, Guide to wisdom and virtue designed for young persons of either sex, selected mainly from the writings of an eminent physician, © 1847, by Percival, Thomas

19. The Philosophy of life, and Philosophy of language, in a course of lectures, © 1847, by Schlegel, Frederick von; Morrison, A. J. W. (Trans.)

20. Psychology, elements of a new system of mental philosophy, on the basis of consciousness and common sense, © 1842, by Schmucker, S. S.

21. The revelation of rights (2nd ed.), © 1847, by Ellmaker, Elias E.

22. Sketches of modern philosophy, especially among the Germans, © 1842, by Murdock, James

23. A treatise on man and the development of his faculties (A facsimile reproduction of the English translation of 1842 with an introduction by Solomon Diamond), © 1842 (Reprinted 1969), by Quetelet, Lambert A. J.

24. Youth’s book on the mind, embracing the outlines of the intellect, the sensibilities, and the will: Introductory to the study of mental philosophy, © 1842, by Pearl, Cyril

Note: To read any of the these ebooks – go to the Articles, Books, and More page.  Scroll down and click PsycBOOKs.  Once  in the database, type in the title.

~Jennie

We’ve been getting a lot of questions recently about annotated outlines and annotated bibliographies.  Both are ways to make familiar tools much more robust.

Basically, an annotation is a bit of extra information added on.  They are most often short paragraphs that provide context and explanation.

While you may grumble at the extra work, annotated outlines and bibliographies can help focus your thought and be quick reminders later on.  This is especially true of the annotated bibliography: you can go back months or years later and quickly see which article contained what information.  You don’t have to waste time rereading whole articles, because you already boiled it down into a useful nutshell.

You can also put annotations in the notes field in RefWorks.

For help creating annotated outlines and bibliographies, you can see these great guides from the Online Writing Center:

• Annotated Outline
• Annotated Bibliography

- Erin

Legal research is always challenging, but Google Scholar is now providing an option that allows you to do some legal research which might make it a little easier.

Sometimes the toughest part of conducting legal research is trying to find a legal case on a specific topic.  It’s difficult to search the millions of state and federal cases using keywords and Law Reviews can also be time consuming to search for cases on a topic.

Google Scholar has added legal cases to their search by providing an option to search Legal opinions and journals.  See below for an example how to use this new tool.

Caution: As with anything on the free web, Google Scholar can make mistakes.

Search Example Topic: Lawsuits involving universities

1) Go to www.scholar.google.com.

2) Select the radio button to search Legal opions and journals and type your keywords in the search box.

3) Use your results to identify case names or citation numbers.

4) Go to LexisNexis and search using either a case name or citation number.

-Sommer

We’ve recently added some subject specific encyclopedias to our Gale Virtual Reference Library database.  Subject encyclopedias are a great place to go for an overview of a topic and learn the fundamentals and basics.  They’re an excellent place to start your research, as they provide a wealth of background information that will help guide your search.

The recently created Capella University Library Tutorial Finding Resources for Your Dissertation Literature Review: Leaving No Stone Unturned has been recognized by the American Library Association/Association of College and Research Libraries Instruction Section’s  Peer-Reviewed Instructional Materials Online (PRIMO) as an example of exemplary online instruction materials.

Whether you are working on your dissertation or a Literature Review for a class this tutorial has many helpful interactive pieces that will help you find the resources you need to analyze and synthesize in your review.

Here are some interactive pieces in the tutorial you may want to check out: 

• Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Resources
• Keyword Searching
• Bibliographic Mining and Cited Reference Searching
• Searching by Methodology
• Finding & Using Dissertations in Research
• Basic RefWorks

Robin