Trout Library Blog

If you are looking for topic ideas or general information about a subject in order to begin your research, the SIRS Issues Researcher database is a good one to use. In this blog post, I am going to describe the contents of this database and how to search it.

To access SIRS Issues Researcher, click on the Databases icon under Quick Links on the Library’s homepage. This will bring you to an alphabetical list of all of our databases. Scroll down to SIRS Issues Researcher and select it. If you are off campus, then you will need to enter a username and password. To find this information, log into Harcum Hatch and click on the Quicklinks tab on the right-hand side of the page. Scroll down to Library Database Password List, click on the link, and choose the username and password for SIRS Issues Researcher. A visual description of this process can be found on the Database Tutorials page.

When you enter the database, on the initial page you will find a list of Trending Topics and Editors’ Picks:

Click on one of the options for a summary of the issue, a comparison of two different viewpoints, critical questions, and an historical timeline. The viewpoints section, which contains article links, is especially useful:

Scroll down a little further on the initial page for more topic ideas:

SIRS also allows you to do a general article search. Type some terms into the box at the top of the screen and click the search button to the right. You will get a list of results containing links to full-text articles, mostly from newspapers and magazines. Although some peer-reviewed journal articles are included, this is not the best resource to use for scholarly research. When you click on an article title to get the full text, to the right you will see options for citing, printing, saving, and emailing.

More detailed instruction on the contents and use of SIRS can be found in our video database tutorial. Choose Database Tutorials under Quick Links on the Library’s homepage and then select SIRS Issues Researcher.

Remember that if you have questions about this resource or any other, please don’t hesitate to ask us. You may visit the Library during the hours posted on the Library's homepage, email us at library@harcum.edu, or call us at 610-526-6085.

We are reaching the point in the semester where you might be starting to think about research projects. The Trout Library is here to help you with that! 

We subscribe to many databases that you should find very useful as you pursue your research. A significant number of these databases use the EBSCO platform, which provides a uniform appearance as well as very similar search options and methods. In this blog post, I am going to list the EBSCO databases that we have and briefly explain their features.

Our EBSCO databases cover a wide range of subject areas. The following is a list of the ones that are available through links on our A-Z Databases page:

• Academic Search Complete (Multidisciplinary – All Subjects)
• Business Source Premier (Business articles as well as market research reports, industry reports, country reports, company profiles and SWOT analyses)
• Business Book Summaries (Business books)
• Regional Business News
• CINAHL (Health-related material, much of it peer-reviewed)
• Consumer Health Complete (Health-related material, much that is not peer-reviewed)
• Dentistry & Oral Sciences Source (Dentistry and Dental Hygiene)
• Criminal Justice Abstracts (Criminal Justice)
• Violence & Abuse Abstracts (Sociology and Criminal Justice)
• eBooks Academic Collection (Full-text eBooks)
• ERIC (Education)
• Teacher Reference Center (Education)
• GreenFile (Environment)
• Library Information Science & Technology Abstracts (Library Science)
• Newswires
• OpenDissertations (Abstracts of dissertations with links to some full text)

Our Discovery Service, which is a federated search across a large number of our databases as well as our book catalog, also uses the EBSCO platform. The Discovery Service can be accessed through our A-Z Databases page and also by using the search box at the top of the Library’s homepage.

The EBSCO databases are subscription databases, which means that they are available only to members of the Harcum community and not to the general public. (Subscription databases are indicated by the white bear icon on the Databases page.) As a result, to access these databases from off campus, you will need a username and password that can be found in the Library Database Password List under Quicklinks in Harcum Hatch. The login information is the same for all the EBSCO databases. If you are on campus, no username and password are needed.

The EBSCO databases are straightforward to search. You may search an individual EBSCO database or multiple EBSCO databases simultaneously. When you enter them, you are brought to a screen containing three search boxes and a variety of limiters. The limiters vary from database to database but generally include full-text availability, peer-reviewed articles, published date, source type, and number of pages. Some of the databases also feature a thesaurus that will help you narrow down your search terms. Once you execute a search, you are able to refine your results further if you wish to do so. Choose an article and you are able to save it, print it, or email it. In addition, EBSCO provides a tool that will generate citations in APA (7th Edition), MLA (8th Edition), and AMA (11th Edition) among other formats. If you use this tool, always remember to confirm the accuracy of the citation using our Cite Sources guide.

For a detailed visual demonstration of how to search EBSCO databases, please visit our Database Tutorials page. There you will find individual video tutorials (5-10 minutes each) for a number of the databases listed above, including Discovery.

Remember that if you have questions about these resources or any others, please don’t hesitate to ask us. You may visit the Library in person during the hours listed on the homepage, email us at library@harcum.edu, or call us at 610-526-6085.

This week marks the 20th anniversary of a monumental event in American history: the September 11 terrorist attacks of 2001. Many of you are too young to remember that sunny but tragic Tuesday morning, or perhaps you were not even born yet. For those of us who were around, the day left an indelible mark. We all remember where we were and what we were doing as the events unfolded. Some have family members who were affected. Others who were first responders or who were lucky enough to escape from the Twin Towers and the Pentagon suffer from lingering health effects, both physical and psychological. The attacks also influenced our national security and foreign policy for years afterward as indicated by our recent withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Whether the events of 9/11 are seared into your memory or predate it, we invite you to explore my 9/11 Library Guide in order to learn more about this important and historic event. Find the guide by clicking on Library Guides under Quick Links on the Library's home page. Then select "9/11" under Special Topics.

In the guide, you will find websites, useful articles, books, eBooks, and videos on the topic. Find much material that is geared toward the needs of Harcum students and faculty, emphasizing narratives of the event as well as its various health implications. At the top of the Websites and Databases page, there is a link to a Smithsonian article entitled, "Twenty Years After 9/11," in which people recall the day when loved ones, friends and colleagues perished in the terrorist attacks. Highlighted websites include the September 11 Digital Archive, the Smithsonian 9/11 Collection, and Voices Center for Resilience, an organization providing long-term support and resources that promote mental health care and wellness for 9/11 victims’ families, responders, and survivors. Under the Websites & Databases tab, you will also see several links to 9/11 teaching materials and lesson plans.

Along the Slatwall just inside the Library entrance, we have created a 9/11 20th Anniversary book display featuring all nine books listed in the Books tab of the Library Guide. Everyone is welcome to come in and check out any of the books in the display. I would particularly recommend the three narratives listed in the guide as well as the following book:

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff

Call Number: 973.931 .G736 2019

ISBN: 9781501182204

Publication Date: 2019

Tells the story of September 11, 2001 as it was lived, in the words of those who lived it, drawing on transcripts, recently declassified documents, original interviews, and oral histories from nearly five hundred government officials, first responders, witnesses, survivors, friends, and family members.

 

Find additional books on the topic under the eBooks tab. I would recommend the following book from EBSCO eBooks Academic Collection:

 

Tower Stories: An Oral History of 9/11 by Damon DiMarco

Call Number: eBook

ISBN: 9781595800213

Publication Date: 2007

A collection of firsthand accounts from people who were involved in or witnessed the attacks at the World Trade Center.

 

 

* Note: To access EBSCO eBooks Academic Collection from off campus, you will need a username and password that you will find in the Library Database Password List under the gray Quicklinks tab in Harcum Hatch.

 

The following eBook, which is available through Internet Archive Open Library, is particularly gripping and reads like a novel:

 

102 Minutes: The Untold Story of the Fight to Survive Inside the Twin Towers by Jim Dwyer; Kevin Flynn

Call Number: eBook

ISBN: 9780805076820

Publication Date: 2005

Reported from the perspective of those inside the towers, captures little-known stories of ordinary people who took extraordinary steps to save themselves and others.

 

 

 

Under the Videos tab, find links to CNN and NBC live coverage of the event as it happened along with some survivor stories and numerous Kanopy films. I would especially recommend that people watch the following two Kanopy videos:

 

Days That Shaped America: September 11th

Publication Date: 2018

Runtime: 87 minutes.

From the History Channel, a chronicle of the day's events told by people who experienced them firsthand.

 

In the Shadow of the Towers: Stuyvesant High on 9/11

Publication Date: 2019

Runtime: 32 minutes.

From HBO Documentary Films, this production weaves footage of the attack with compelling commentary from student eyewitnesses from nearby Stuyvesant High, who, as young teenagers, found themselves in the heart of the danger zone, fleeing debris, and with a harrowing journey home.

 

*Note: To access Kanopy videos, you must first create an account. Click here or here to find the instructions for creating a Kanopy account.

If you have any questions about these resources or any others, we are here to help you. Please visit us in the Library, call us at 610-526-6085, or email us at library@harcum.edu.