This document provides an introduction to finding scholarly and news sources for a speech on a current issues topic. It outlines the goals of being able to distinguish between scholarly and popular sources, find articles in databases, and email articles to oneself. It defines the differences between scholarly and popular sources and provides examples of scholarly databases like Academic Search Complete and news databases like Newspaper Source and Gale Infotrac Newspapers. It emphasizes using the library homepage and asking librarians for help in researching and writing.

1. Introduction to Finding Sources Ngaire Smith

2. Goals At the end of this class session, you will be able to: Find the Bell Library homepage Distinguish between scholarly and popular sources Find a scholarly article in a database and email it to yourself Find a news article in a database Use these sources to write and deliver a speech on a current issues topic

3. The Role of the Library It can steer you toward quality sources It can help you write quality papers It can save you time and money! Library homepage: http://rattler.tamucc.edu/ Librarians love to help – ask us a question!

4. Scholarly v. Popular Long articles/in-depth analysis Written by experts Written for scholarly readers Articles structured Illustrations may include tables of statistics, graphs, maps, or photographs Articles evaluated by board of experts A list of works cited is always provided Short articles, broad overviews Written by journalists Written for anyone to understand No specific format or structure Illustrated with glossy or color photographs and advertising Articles evaluated by editors Bibliography usually not provided Scholarly Popular Adapted from University of Texas, San Antonio Libraries: http://lib.utsa.edu/Research/Subject/scholarlyguide.html

5. Academic Search Complete Academic Search Complete Contains fulltext articles from both scholarly journals and popular news sources. Covers a wide array of subjects. Search for articles. Limit your search to full text only or scholarly/peer reviewed only. Email articles to yourself.

6. News Sources Newspaper Source This database provides full text for more than 40 national and international newspapers as well as selective full text for nearly 400 regional newspapers. It also includes radio and television news transcripts. Gale Infotrac Newspapers A full text newspaper database that lets you search newspapers by title, date, headline.

7. Remember: Use the Library Homepage Get help from a librarian Find links to the PORTAL catalog Get access to databases, course guides, and more Find tips on researching, writing, and citing Remember: librarians are here to help – stop by the reference desk or ask us a question.