Research Help

Local History Online

2010-07-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

Are you looking for information about Park Forest's history? Check out the Park Forest Historical Society webiste. You can read about the history of Park Forest, take a photo tour of the 1950's Museum, and find events coordinated by the Park Forest Historical Society.
If you're looking for photos, check out the photos online at Park Forest: An Illinois Planned Community.

Abortion

2010-01-12T18:33:00.000-08:00

Think about the keywords you might use when searching for information on abortion. Will you write about the history of abortion, legal issues, late-term abortions, or underage abortions? Do you want to include anecdotes or just facts and statistics? Make sure you get multiple viewpoints when writing about a controversial topic.

Books at the Park Forest Public Library

Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation by Ronald Reagan (363.46 REA)
The Abortion Conflict: A Pro/Con Issue by Deanne Durrett (363.46 DUR)
The Abortion Debate by Claudia Caruana (Y 363.46 CAR)
Abortion: Opposing Viewpoints (363.46 ABO)
The Choices We Made: 25 Women and Men Speak Out about Abortion (363.46 CHO)
Feminism (305.42 FEM)
A Question of Choice by Sarah Ragle Weddington (363.46 WED)
Roe v. Wade by Laurie Collier Hillstrom (Y 363.46 HIL)
Roe v. Wade: The Abortion Rights Controversy in American History by N.E.H. Hull (342.73 HUL)
The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service by Laura Kaplan (363.46 KAP)
The Worst of Times by Patricia G. Miller (363.46 MIL)

Database Searches

Databases Suggestions: MasterFILE, Newspaper Source Plus, Science Reference Center, History Reference Center, Student Research Center, Points of View, Consumer Health Complete, History Resource Center, Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center, Science Resource Center

Keyword Suggestions: Abortion, Abortion and government policy, Abortion and religious aspects, Abortion and complications, Abortion and law

Limit Suggestions: Full-text, peer-reviewed, Abortion

Internet Searches

Medline Plus: Abortion
Access basic medical information, statistics, and articles about abortion.

Boston University: Abortion Research Guide
Lists several resources that may be helpful for a research paper. At the bottom of the page are links to websites with different standpoints.

Illinois Statutes
Parental Notice of Abortion Act of 1995

Illinois Abortion Law of 1975

Immigration

2009-12-18T12:00:00.000-08:00

Think about the focus of your paper. Will you write about the history of immigration, the immigration debate, borders, or legal restrictions? You can use these terms as keywords in your search for resources.

Books at the Park Forest Public Library

American Muslim Women: Negotiating Race, Class, and Gender within the Ummah by Jamillah Ashira Karim (305.697 KAR)
Children of Immigrant Families (305.23 CHI)
Gangs (Y 364.1066 GAN)
Gangs in Garden City: How Immigration, Segregation, and Youth Violence Are Changing America's Suburbs by Sarah Garland (364.106 GAR)
Homeland Security (363.32 HOM)
Illegal Immigration (325.73 ILL)
An Immigrant Class: Oral Histories from Chicago's Newest Immigrants by Jeff Libman (325.77311 LIB)
Immigration (304.8 IMM)
Immigration (304.873 IMM)
Immigration: Opposing Viewpoints (325.73 IMM)
Immigration and Illegal Aliens, Burden or Blessing (325.73 IMM)
Immigration in the United States (304.873 IMM)
National Security: Opposing Viewpoints (355.033 NAT)
New Americans: An Oral History: Immigrants and Refugees in the U.S. Today by Al Santoli (325.73 SAN)
There's No José Here: Following the Hidden Lives of Mexican Immigrants by Gabriel Thompson (305.906 THO)
U.S.A. Immigration Guide by Ramon Carrion (342.73082 CAR)

Databases

Database Suggestions: MasterFILE, Newspaper Source Plus, History Reference Center, Student Research Center, Points of View, History Resource Center, Opposing Viewpoints

Keyword Suggestions: Immigration, Border Security, Illegal Aliens, Immigration Laws, Immigration Reform

Limit by: Full Text, Peer-Reviewed

Narrow Results by Subject: Debates & Debating, Emigration & Immigration, Illegal Aliens

Internet

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
See how the government manages immigration and citizenship.

U.S. Census Bureau: United States Foreign-Born Population
Access statistics on the foreign-born population in the United States.

Library of Congress: Immigration Challenges for New Americans
Access primary source materials, including images, relating to immigration in the United States.

The White House: Immigration
Check out the White House's stance on immigration.

Immigration Policy Center: New Americans in the Prairie State
This site provides statistics on immigration in Illinois.

Migration Policy Institute
This non-profit group conducts studies on migration.

Searching for Articles

2009-12-08T14:34:00.000-08:00

The library has several databases for finding articles online. Our databases have articles from magazines, newspapers, journals, and reference books. They are the same articles you would find in the print source, but you can get them much faster using our databases. Log in from home with your Park Forest library barcode number and last name.

EBSCO

When you log into EBSCO, you will see a list of databases.

Click on EBSCOhost Web databases to select and search several databases at one time. MasterFile and Newspaper Source Plus are two great databases for doing research.

Other databases that are good for general research are Student Research Center and Points of View.

In the search box, type your topic. If you don't get many articles, try another word or phrase that means the same thing.

Some results may be only a citation and not the article. To find just results that are full articles, click the box next to "full text."

Gale

When you log in to Gale, you will see a list of databases.

You can search several of the Cross-Searchable databases at once. Click the box next to each database you would like to use.

Academic OneFile, General OneFile, and Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center are great for general research.

Searching works the same way. Type in your topic and click the box next to full text to get full articles.

War in Afghanistan

2009-12-03T14:49:00.000-08:00

This current topic requires sources that were published 2001 and later unless you are getting background information on Afghanistan. Look for current articles from newspapers, magazines, and government Web sites for this ongoing conflict.

Books at the Park Forest Public Library:

Afghanistan (958.1045 AFG)
American Soldier by Tommy Franks (355.0092 FRA)
Good Muslim, Bad Muslim: America, the Cold War, and the Roots of Terror by Mahmood Mamdani (320.557 MAM)
Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of U.S. Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan by Doug Stanton (958.1047 STA)
The Hunt for bin Laden: Task Force Digger by Robin Moore (958.1047 MOO)
In Afghanistan: Two Hundred Years of British, Russian and American Occupation by David Loyn (958.103 LOY)
In the Name of Osama bin Laden: Global Terrorism & the bin Laden Brotherhood by Roland Jacquard (958.1046 BIN)
Invisible History: Afghanistan's Untold Story by Paul Fitzgerald (958.1 FIT)
Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and Al Qaeda by Gretchen Peters (958.1047 PET)
The Taliban and the Crisis of Afghanistan (958.1046 TAL)

Databases:

Best databases for this search: EBSCOhost MasterFILE, Newspaper Source Plus; Student Research Center; Points of View; Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center; and for information on Afghanistan try Lands and Peoples

Try the keywords: Afghan war 2001 or Afghanistan War

Limit Suggestions: Full text, peer reviewed, date range changed to 2001-current year.

Narrow Results by: Afghan war, 2001-

Internet:

CIA World Factbook
The government collects statistics on all the countries of the world. You may want to look up some statistics on Afghanistan for your paper.

East Carolina University: The War on Terrorism, Afghanistan and the Taliban
This Web site gather links to several sites about the war in Afghanistan.

Pirates

2009-11-28T13:37:00.000-08:00

Pirates? Yes, pirates. They're a big problem for cargo ships. What will you write about? The history of piracy, piracy today, depictions of pirates?

Books at the Park Forest Public Library:

The Buccaneers of America by A.O. Exquemelin (917.29 EXQ)
Empire of Blue Water: Captain Morgan's Great Pirate Army, the Epic Battle for the Americas, and the Catastrophe that Ended the Outlaws' Bloody Reign by Stephan Talty (972.904 TAL)
The Golden Age of Piracy by Hugh F. Rankin (910.453 RAN)
In Pirate Waters by Richard Wheeler (910.453 WHE)
Pirates by David J. Mitchell (910.453 MIT)
Pirates in History by Ralph T. Ward (910.453 WAR)
Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life among Pirates by David Cordingly (910.45 COR)

Databases:

Suggested databases: EBSCOhost MasterFILE, Newspaper Source Plus, and History Reference Center; Student Research Center; Points of View; History Resource Center; Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center

Keywords: Pirates, Piracy

Limit to: Full text, peer-reviewed

Narrow results by subject: Pirates, Hijacking of Ships, Piracy

Internet Search:

Library of Congress: Exploring the Early Americas: Pirates and Privateers
http://myloc.gov/Exhibitions/EarlyAmericas/AftermathoftheEncounter/CompetitionforEmpire/PiratesandPrivateers/Pages/SlObjectList.aspx
Check out these images about the historical pirate problem.

America.gov: Piracy links
http://search.state.gov/search?oe=utf8&output=xml_no_dtd&lr=lang_en&client=americagov&proxystylesheet=americagov&getfields=*&site=americagov&q=Piracy
View these articles on piracy from the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Information Programs.

Searching Google

2009-11-25T07:33:00.000-08:00

If you're doing an Internet search for a research paper, you have to be careful about what Web sites you use. Usually, Web sites made by the government (.gov), universities (.edu), and some non-profit organizations (.org) have the best information.

Quick Google tip: After your keyword, add one of these-

site: gov

site: edu
site: org

You'll have fewer Web sites to look through, and they'll be more reliable than a lot of .com Web sites.

Epidemics

2009-11-23T11:31:00.000-08:00

Before you begin, think about the focus of your paper. You may want to consider historical epidemics, the effects of epidemics, vaccine supplies, or the likelihood of future epidemics. Will you focus on one disease or discuss the differences between different diseases?

Books at the Park Forest Public Library:

AIDS (Y 616.97 AID)
AIDS/HIV (Ref 362.1 AID 2008)

The Black Death, 1346-1353: The Complete History by Ole Jorgen Benedictow (614.5732 BEN)

The Devil's Flu: The World's Deadliest Influenza Epidemic and the Scientific Hunt for the Virus that Caused It by Pete Davies (614.518 DAV)

The Encyclopedia of Infectious Diseases by Carol Turkington (Ref 616.9 TUR)

Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It by Gina Bari Kolata (LT 614.518 KOL)

Global Epidemics (614.4 GLO)

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston (614.57 PRE)

Infectious Diseases Sourcebook (Ref 616.9 INF)

The 1918 Influenza Pandemic by Stephanie True Peters (616.518 PET)

Pandemics by Debra A. Miller (Y 618.92 MIL)

Secret Agents: The Menace of Emerging Infections by Madeline Drexler (614.4 DRE)

Smallpox in the New World by Stephanie True Peters (616.912 PET)

When Plague Strikes: The Black Death, Smallpox, AIDS by James Giblin (Y 614.49 GIB)

Databases:

EBSCO: Student Research Center, Points of View, Consumer Health Complete, EBSCOhost: MasterFILE, Newspaper Source Plus, Science Reference Center, History Reference Center

Gale: History Resource Center, Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center, Science Resource Center

Keyword Suggestions: Epidemic, Pandemic, Swine Flu, Spanish Flu, Bird Flu, H1N1, Mad Cow, AIDS, Ebola, Plague, Smallpox, Whooping Cough

Limit Suggestions: Full text, peer-reviewed

Narrow results by subject: Epidemics, Pandemics, Influenza, Avian Influenza, Swine Influenza

Internet Resources:

National Archives and Records Administration: The Influenza Epidemic of 1918
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/influenza-epidemic
This government Web site has images and documents from the 1918 Influenza Epidemic (Spanish Flu).

World Health Organization: Diseases Covered by Global Alert and Response
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/en
Access current updates on outbreaks of disease throughout the world

Center for Disease Control
http://www.cdc.gov/
Get updates on various diseases and on vaccine information

Harvard University Library Open Collections Program: Contagion
http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/contagion
Access historical perspectives on the science and public policy of epidemiology.

Citations

2009-11-20T09:01:00.000-08:00

If you are using MLA to cite your sources, try http://www.easybib.com/. It's a free resource that will create your citations for you.

If you are using APA to cite your sources, try http://citationmachine.net/.

For official rules, see the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (R 808.027 MLA) and Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (R 808.02 PUB).

Below is a sample of an APA citation.

Global Warming

2009-11-20T07:39:00.000-08:00

Before you begin, think about what aspects of global warming you want to research. Is your focus on greenhouse gases, anthropogenic warming, polar icecap melting, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), local effects, historical aspects, or solutions to global warming? You can use these terms as your keywords when searching our catalog, databases, or online.

Books at Park Forest Public Library:

Climate Code Red: The Case for Emergency Action by David Spratt (363.73874 SPR)
Dead Heat: The Race against the Greenhouse Effect by Michael Oppenheimer (363.7387 OPP)
The Discovery of Global Warming by Spencer R. Weart (551.6 WEA)
Early Spring: An Ecologist and Her Children Wake to a Warming World by Amy Seidl (363.738 SEI)
Earth, the Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming by Fred Krupp (621.042 KRU)
Earth Under Fire: How Global Warming Is Changing the World by Gary Braasch (363.738 BRA)
The Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet by Edward Humes (333.72 HUM)
The Global Ecology (363.7 GLO)
Global Warming (Y 363.738 GLO)
Global Warming: Opposing Viewpoints (363.73874 GLO)
An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do about It by Albert Gore (363.73874 GOR)
Is Global Warming a Threat (363.73874 IS)
On Thin Ice: The Changing World of the Polar Bear by Richard Ellis (599.786 ELL)
Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis by Albert Gore (577 GOR)
The Satanic Gases: Clearing the Air about Global Warming by Patrick J. Michaels (363.7387 MIC)
Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle over Global Warming by Chris Mooney (363.738 MOO)
The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth by Tim F. Flannery (363.73874 FLA)
A World without Ice by H.N. Pollack (551.31 POL)

Databases:

EBSCO: Student Research Center, Points of View, EBSCOhost: MasterFILE, Newspaper Source Plus, Science Reference Center

Gale: Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center, Science Resource Center

Try keywords like: Global Warming, Climate Change

Limit searches with: Full Text, Peer Reviewed

Narrow Results by Subject: Climatic Changes, Global Warming

Internet Resources:

United States Global Change Research Program
http://www.globalchange.gov/publications/reports/scientific-assessments/us-impacts
Access the report Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States for comprehensive and authoritative information on the effects of climate change on the United States, now and in the future.

U.S. EPA: Climate Change
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange
Access basic information and scientific studies on climate change.

IPCC: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
http://www.ipcc.ch/
Access reports on climate change, impacts, and mitigation.