Research Guide for:
Comm 12 Technology and Communication
and
Comm 162 Communication Technology & Policy

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please read the descriptions and instructions for using each database very carefully. I've tried my best to keep it brief, but the databases you are using are complex, so the details could do you in if you aren't attentive!

IMPORTANT TECHICAL DETAIL: The hotlinks to databases in this guide will take you to a short alphabetical database list. Find the database you need on that page and click on it.

Click on the closest match to what you want to find.

Current, readable summary of the issues.

For this you could use a current, substantial magazine article. The quickest place to get this the kinds of topics you are dealing with is the database Academic Search Elite

TIPS for searching Academic Search Elite:

• In each box of the search grid, enter a keyword describing your topic. For example, if you are interested in the use of internet filters in libraries, you can enter Internet filters in the first box, and libraries in the second box. You can use the asterisk* to truncate when relevant. For example: librar* would retrieve both library and libraries.
• In the same box, you can always enter synomyns linked by the operator OR. For example, if you are interested in the issue of privacy at work, you can enter privacy in the first box and work or employment in the second box
• Scroll down the page until you come to Number of Pages: Enter >3 (This often eliminates the really short news blurb and the editorial.)
• Use the Published Date boxes to restrict your search to the last year or less. Items are displayed with the most recent first anyway, so this is not critical.
• When you find one good article, always scrutinize it for other ideas for better words/phrases to use.
• Don't stop with just one article. Get several, even many. Finding good stuff takes some time and patience.

Another good place to look for background information on your topic would be the CQ Researcher database, an online weekly publication covering current and controversial issues of the day complete with summaries, insights into all sides of the issues, bibliographies, and more. Using CQ Researcher is easy. Just enter keywords describing your topic in the "Quick Search" box, for example enter Internet Filters. You will get a list of all the issues of CQ Researcher dealing with the topic.

Find the names of interested parties,
e.g. agencies, organizations, people.

You should be able to find these in current articles in magazines or newspapers. Follow the procedure described under Current, readable summary of the issues. Keep in mind that it may take several, even many, articles to get a good list.

Homepages of named constituents (could be an organization, government agency, etc.)

This is where a good web search engine should shine! I recommend these three because of their Advanced Search mode options. In their advanced search screens, they all have the option to limit by domain, so you can specify gov for federal agencies, org for an organization (even though all orgs are not nonprofits, all nonprofits will have an org domain).

In each case, search using the name of the group/agency, putting it in quotes for a phrase. Then use the domain option to specify type, gov or org. If you don't find the page you want immediately in one search engine, try another. That is the key to getting the most from a search engine.

A couple of examples:

• For the U.S. Department of Commerce, phrase search, "department of commerce", and specify domain:gov
• For the American Library Association, phrase search, "american library association", and specify domain:org

For anything that is part of California State government, start with the California state page It has a very elaborate Search engine. The Advanced Search allows for the use of Boolean operators and truncation.

Voice of an authority in the field.

This is when you need to turn to one of the very large, sophisticated subject databases. Think in terms of WHO would be an authority, what kind of person, academically speaking. One obvious possibility for Communication topics is Communication! There is a good database, Communication Abstracts, that indexes and abstracts all the major communication research journals.

Beyond that, though, you need to think of other perspectives. For the topics that often come up in this class, some possibilities are:

For more choices, see the library's list of Databases by Subject.

IMPORTANT NOTE ON THESE DATABASES

Some of these databases provide the FULLTEXT of articles, but most do not. They will give you only a citation or reference and maybe an abstract. To get the article itself, in electronic or print form, you need to look the JOURNAL TITLE up in the Electronic and Print Journals list. This should telll you if the full text is available in another database or in paper format in the library.

What's happening in Congress?

Start your search for what's happening on Capital Hill in the CQ Weekly database. It will give you the specifics you need to move into the congressional documents themselves. The specifics you will need include:

• Names/Numbers of specific Bills
• Dates of "events," e.g. testimony, votes, hearings, etc.
• Names of people introducing, speaking, testifying, etc.

For example, if I wanted to find out if anything was happening in Congress related to "carnivore", the FBI's software, I could simply type that word in to an article search. I would then get short articles that would outline pending, upcoming, and recent past legislation related to that topic. Those specifics could then be used in Lexis-Nexis Congressional.

Lexis-Nexis Congressional is a massive, complex database that contains more than you want to know about what's happening in Congress. A few critical searching tips are most certainly in order here:

• You have to select a database or file from within the Universe. These include:

• Committee reports
• Bills
• Testimony
• Members and Voting Records
• Publications (full-text of congressional reports and other documents)
• Hot Bills/Topics

• Always click on Hot Bills/Topics first -- you might get lucky and find YOUR topic there!
• Most of the items that will be most useful to you will be under Publications.
• Come armed with specifics, like
  • a Bill Number, e.g. HR 2975
  • name/date of a certain person's testimony
  • name of responsible committee

   

Position papers & such from interested "nonprofit" organizations.

There is an entire database of just this. It's called PolicyFile. It includes public policy research and analysis from think tanks, university research programs, and research organizations.

How about a few SEARCHING TIPS:

• On the the Keyword Search line, you can enter logical keywords and use the Boolean AND, OR, AND NOT operators. Do not use parentheses, however. It does not understand phrases, but defaults to AND.
• You can truncate as in Oscar with the asterisk (*) at the end of words. You can also use a ? for a single character wildcard.
• From the short Record display, click on the title you want to get the full record with link to the full-text of the document (when available), and link to the homepage for the issuing organization.

Copy of a report or paper mentioned somewhere.

This is where a good web search engine should shine! I recommend these three for two reasons:

• they are very large and rank differently.
• their Advanced Search mode options, which can come in handy. In their advanced search screens, they all have the option to limit by domain, so you can specify gov for federal agencies, org for an organization (even though all orgs are not nonprofits, all nonprofits will have an org domain). You can also put in dates in some form, so, if you read that the report was issued on such-and-such a date, you can add that, if necessary to limit your results.

In each case, though, start with a simple search putting the title of the report, if you have it, in quotes. Don't get fancy if you don't need to. If you don't find the page you want immediately in one search engine, try another. That is the real key to getting the most from a search engine.

Discussion of the legal issues/arguments.

Although you can quickly get fulltext legal journal articles through the Lexis-Nexis Academic legal database, it is difficult to do a good subject search there. It is infinitely better to begin searching your topic, using good keywords, in Index to Legal Periodicals and Books and then taking those specific titles to Lexis-Nexis Academic. Follow the simple steps outlined below.

Here are a couple of tips to help you zero in on the best stuff:

• Start with a simple keyword search in Index to Legal Periodicals and Books , entering words describing your topic in each of the search boxes. For example, enter filter* in the first box and librar* in the second box.
• Look carefully at any good items retrieved to get ideas of other, better words to use. Look particularly at the SUBJECTS used to describe a good article. It can give you ideas for a new keyword search.

• Find the fulltext of the articles you are interested in by going to the database Lexis-Nexis Academic, and clicking on the option SOURCES (located on the upper menu). You can then look for th title of the journal you are interested in. If the journal is there, click on the option Search This Title and enter the title of the article. Be sure to change the default dates to cover the date of the article you are interested in.
• If you need an article from a law journal not in Lexis-Nexis Academic, look it up in Oscar. The Heafey Law Library may have it. The reference librarian can sign your Oscar printout so Heafey will let you in to retrieve the article.

This page created by Gail Gradowski, Orradre Library, Santa Clara University.