Thursday, March 26, 2009

Social Sciences Quick Search

A new form added to several online communication research guides lets you search for articles directly from the guide without having to first click on the name of a database.

Using this form – labeled Social Sciences Quick Search –you can enter search terms and look for results at once in several key CSA Illumina databases including Communication Abstracts, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, PAIS, ERIC, and others.

Results, with abstracts, will then appear in the familiar CSA Illumnia interface, including the FindIt button for locating the full articles.
The form also includes a link to the Advanced Search screen, which offers options for more defined and precise searching in this same group of databases.

The new form can be found in the following guides:
Interpersonal Communication
CO 372: Mass Communication Theory
CO 451: Gender Roles & Communication
CO 463: Media & Popular Culture

Give it a try, and let me know what you think.

Monday, March 09, 2009

Online Highlight: Speeches of the American Presidents

The full texts of 200 major speeches by U.S. presidents, from George Washington through the first inauguration of George W. Bush, are available online for BC researchers through the database Biography Reference Bank Select.

Each speech is prefaced by a description of the date, place and circumstances of its composition and delivery. In addition, the speaking style of each president is described and his use of public address as an instrument of power is evaluated.

Here, for example, is an excerpt from the description of John Adams’ speaking style:

During his years with the Continental Congress, Adams was known, in the words of a col¬league, as a “most sensible and forceful speaker.” Jefferson said of him that he “was not graceful nor eloquent, nor remarkably fluent, but he came out occasionally with a power of thought and expression that moved us from our seats.” Short and stout, often moody and irascible, he did not have the physical presence of a great orator; but so attractive was the display of his intellectual powers that when he spoke, according to another colleague, his listeners “fancied an angel was let down from heaven to illumine the Congress.” By the time of Adams’s election to the presi¬dency, when he was 61, he was afflicted with palsy and had lost most of his teeth, so that he rarely spoke in public.

To acccess a president’s entry, look up the president by name in the database, then click on the hotlinked name. There will be a link along the left side of the screen to the Speeches of the American Presidents pages for that president.