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Print Sources

Finding Print Sources -- Variations Created by AIs
AIs can use this page to upload exercises/assignments/approaches they have created or modified for their course.

1.  Background/Common Pitfalls/Suggestions for AIs Requiring Print Sources

Facts about the UT Libraries Print Collections
The Libraries receive a great deal of content electronically rather than in print. If we have the option to get a journal electronically rather than in print, we will go with the electronic subscription. We currently receive about very few US newspapers in print, but have access to thousands through databases such as LexisNexis and Library Press Display. We have some popular magazines in print, but the vast majority are available through databases such as Academic Search Complete and Academic OneFile.
(Tip: For more information about how to search the databases listed above, see Resources/Databases.)

There are very few print periodical indexes. Instead, databases serve as those indexes, pointing researchers to the sources on their topic and in many cases providing the full text of that source as well.

What May Happen When You Require Print
If you require a student to find one article in print in the library, the result is often that the student ends up focusing more on the format than the content. They will find the article citation using a database and then pretend the article isn't full text in that database. If we don't have it in print, which may frequently be the case as explained above, they just go on to the next article in their search results list. If we do have it in the stacks, they go find it and make a photocopy (which incurs a cost that emailing it to themselves from the database does not).

But I Really Want My Students To...Know that Everything Isn't Available Online/Set Foot In a Library
We want that too! If you do decide to require a print source, you might find it most productive to require students to find a book for unit 3. One of the suggestions in the essay prompt is to use credible sources to support the position being advocated. They can mine books for facts as well as viewpoints. For example, if they are advocating that the federal government should subsidize child care for mothers on welfare to make it easier for them to return to work, they may find a book that includes an interview or personal narrative from a mother affected by the welfare-to-work program, or a book that includes analysis of the welfare-to-work program such as "From welfare to child care : what happens to young children when single mothers exchange welfare for work?" One thing to keep in mind, though, is that the Libraries also subscribe to hundreds of thousands of e-books.

2.  Explanation that Can Be Used in All Classroom Environments:

Explain to students that books can be useful for finding many types of information including facts, statistics, analysis, viewpoints and personal narratives. Because they are often on broader topics than articles since they are longer and can cover more ground, students may have to find books on the broader topic and then use the table of contents or index to find out where in the book information pertinent to their position is. In addition, since books take a while to be published, they are not going to cover very current topics. Instead, students will have to find the broader topic within which to place their current controversy (ex: should the US Government reform health care right now in light of the federal deficit? - find books about the health care or economic recessions in the US).

3.  Next Steps - No Technology in the Classroom:

Give students this Guide to searching the Library Catalog. You may also assign the Exercise accompanying the guide or simply require a book as a source in their bibliography.

4.  Next Steps - Instructor Station Only:

Show students how to search the Library Catalog for books on their topic and give them the Guide as a takeaway.
You can then have students do an exercise to find a book or simply require it a book as a source in the bibliography. See Searching the Library Catalog in the Resources/Databases section of the wiki for guidance.

5.  Next Steps - Hands-on/Networked Classroom:

Show students how to search the Library Catalog. Give them time to search on their own and have them write down the titles, call numbers and locations (libraries) of a few books they'll want to find after class. See Searching the Library Catalog in the Resources/Databases section of the wiki for guidance.

6.  Suggested Resources/Databases

See the Finding Articles section and the Books section