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Library guides: English 1 Contemporary San
Joaquin Valley Issues
Valerie Ehrlich,
Instructor
Gina Haycock, Librarian
March 26, 2008
The address of this page is:
http://www.cos.edu/library/libraryguideseng1ehrlich9-06.htm
Newspaper Databases/Indexes for Searching
Local Issues:
-
Fresno
Bee - This full-text database
covers 1985 to the present
(Annual Cost $2,310)
- Los
Angeles Times - This full-text database
covers 1985 to the present
The COS Library does not subscribe to a database that
provides full-text articles of the Visalia Times Delta or other Tulare County
Newspapers; however, Tulare County Library does have
access to a Newsbank database containing the Visalia Times Delta. You
must have a county library card to access this database.
The Visalia Times Delta does have an online
archive search at its web site; however, the
full-text of the articles must be purchased and there are other restrictions as
well.
The newspapers to which the Library subscribes are located in
the Periodicals Department on the library's first floor. The
local/California subscriptions along with the retention schedule are as
follows:
-
The Fresno Bee - Current 2 months
-
Hanford Sentinel - Current 2 months
-
Los Angeles Times - current 2 months (1980 - Jan.15, 1994 microfilm)
-
San Francisco Chronicle - Current 2 months
-
Tulare Advance Register - Current 2 months
-
Valley Voice -20001+
-
Visalia Times Delta - Current 6 months
Searching with Key Words and Boolean
Operators:
When you type words into the search box, the computer will look in the
databases for those words and bring back all the records/entries that contain
the words you requested (not necessarily the topic or
subject matter). In keyword searching, you need to use the most important
words that describe your topic.
Example 1: What crimes
are committed by teens in the San Joaquin Valley?
Key words: crimes
teens San Joaquin Valley
Example 2: What
impact are mortgage foreclosures having in the San Joaquin Valley?
Key words:
mortgage foreclosure San Joaquin Valley
Example 3:
Is there a problem with childhood obesity and diabetes in the San Joaquin
Valley?
Key words: childhood obesity diabetes San Joaquin Valley
Phrase
Searching
Words that need to be searched together in a
specific order are usually enclosed in quotation marks.
Examples:
"San Joaquin Valley"
"Central Valley"
Truncation
Truncation lets you find all forms of the
root word. The symbol most often used is an *.
Example: child* will find children or
childhood
teen* will find teenage or teens
Boolean Operators
Keyword searching uses Boolean Operators to
link the search terms together. The Boolean operator you will use most often is
AND.
The Boolean Operator AND
means that the terms connected by it must be in the search results. In
Example 1 the keywords were crimes and
teens and San Joaquin Valley, so my search
query would be crime* and teen* and "San Joaquin Valley"
This would ensure that all those
terms would have to be in the record or the computer would not retrieve it.
OR is another
Boolean Operator. It is used when you have two words that mean the same thing or
are very similar in meaning, and you want to find all the articles regardless of which
term is used.
Examples:
San Joaquin Valley OR Central Valley
teen OR youth
When an OR search is
combined with an AND search the
OR search must be placed in parentheses ( ). This
separates the searches for the computer. This search technique is called
nesting.
Examples:
crimes and (teen OR youth) and (San Joaquin
Valley OR Central Valley)
(obesity OR overweight)
Keywords for Searching Newspaper
Databases/Indexes:
| San Joaquin Valley |
K-8 |
teen |
childhood obesity |
immigrants |
prison reform |
| Central Valley |
elementary school |
youth |
obesity in childhood |
illegal aliens |
early release programs |
| Great Valley |
high school |
young adult |
diabetes |
day laborers |
recidivism |
| The Other California |
secondary school |
crime |
overweight |
emigration and immigration |
overcrowding |
| rural areas |
college |
teenage |
health |
children of immigrants |
rehabilitation |
| answer |
higher education |
teenager |
diet |
border patrol |
correctional facility |
| problem solving |
public schools |
juvenile justice |
body mass index |
alien labor |
incarceration |
| problem |
|
juvenile delinquency |
type 2 diabetes |
|
penal reform |
| issue |
|
youth offenders |
weigh control |
|
|
| prevention |
|
youth gangs |
youth |
|
|
| solution |
|
adolescent delinquency |
adult-onset diabetes |
|
|
| analysis |
|
street gangs |
|
|
|
| statistics |
|
|
|
|
|
| homelessness |
air quality |
voting |
health care |
community |
mortgage rates |
| vagrancy |
smog |
apathy |
uninsured |
social connect6ion |
interest rates |
| indigent |
air pollution |
voter registration |
working-poor |
community relations |
foreclosures |
| needy |
clean air standards |
political involvement |
medical care |
civic culture |
local economy |
| poverty |
air pollution control district |
political participation |
employer-sponsored health insurance |
socioeconomic group |
retailers |
| soup kitchens |
asthma |
voting statistics |
universal health coverage |
neighborhood |
housing market |
| shelters |
allergies |
voting research |
medical savings accounts |
bridge-building |
home values |
| faith-based |
transportation |
youth political activity |
health care reform |
social isolation |
new construction |
| housing |
dairy industry |
civic engagement |
pay for performance |
community building |
|
| urban homelessness |
urban sprawl |
young adults |
health care costs |
gated community |
|
| |
methane gas pollution |
cynicism |
managed care |
connection |
|
Periodical Indexes
for Broader/National Issues:
- CQ
Researcher -
Your complete source on the most current and controversial
issues of the day with complete summaries, all the pros and cons,
bibliographies and more. (Annual Cost $523)
-
Infotrac -
I
nfotrac
provides articles from more than 500 scholarly, trade and general-interest
publications, as well as references for The New York Times. The databases
integrate core titles in every major academic concentration; area and
issue-specific journals; academic journals with application in the
professions; and publications with national news coverage and commentary. The
time period it covers is current year to date + the previous 3 years. The
optional backfile extends coverage as far back as 1980.
(Annual Cost $9,732)
SIRS (Social Issues Research Series) -
SIRS contains all full-text articles from a variety of newspaper and magazines
covering current social issues.
(Annual Cost $1440)
Lexis/Nexis -
LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic Universe
provides access to a wide range of news, business, legal, medical and
reference information.
(Annual Cost $5,518) Not available off campus!
ERIC -- Educational Resources Information Center
- ERIC provides free
access to more than 1.2 million bibliographic records of journal articles
and other education-related materials and, if available, includes links to
full text. ERIC is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, Institute
of Education Sciences (IES)
Student Research Center -
This site provides access to the Columbia
Encyclopedia as well as government reports, magazines, news
transcripts, Primary Source Documents and more.
Web Sites for Local Issues:
The Great Valley Center
- This organization's mission is to support the economic, social and
environmental well-being of California's Great Central Valley. This is a good
place to start for on overview as well as specific information on agriculture,
arts & culture, civic behavior, education, employment, healthcare, land use,
population characteristics, resources & the environment, technology and youth
development. There are a couple of ways to obtain information from this
web site :
-
To focus on our area type "Tulare County" or a city name such
as Visalia in their search engine box.
-
Click on Publications on the left hand menu then choose a
specific subject area such as youth development.
Their publications and many others listed on this page are available in .PDF format
only and requires
an Adobe Acrobat Reader to view and print their documents. You can download
the software for free at:
http://adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. All COS Library computers
already have this software loaded.
California
Research Bureau (CRB) Reports summarize
statistics for the eight counties of the San Joaquin Valley. Topics include the
use of the land, population and its characteristics, employment, and industry.
Statistics are drawn from public sources, primarily federal and state, and
displayed in charts for the region as a whole and for each of the counties in
the region. CRB Reports can be found at:
http://www.library.ca.gov/crb/CRBSearch.aspx
Valley Public Radio produces a local program called
Quality
of Life, a public forum on the air. The program discusses issues
affecting the Central Valley. Listeners call in and participate. It is broadcast
on Tuesdays from 9 AM to 10 AM on FM89.3 radio. The link also provides podcasting of
archived programs.
Public Policy Institute of
California Publications (.pdf format)
Crime
Statistics
Education
Employment/Labor Force
Cities and County Government
Newspapers
Statistics and Census
The above web sources are from the web page:
Fly, Connie. Library Guide-Tulare County. 2006 College
of the Sequoias Library. 28 Sept 2006
<http://cos.edu/library/tularecounty.htm>
You are visitor number:
This page was created September 2006. This page was last updated:
04/25/2008
For questions and comments, please mail to:
ginah@cos.edu
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