Introduction | Reference Sources | Indexes & Databases | Internet Resources | Citation Styles

The USM Libraries are here to assist in your research needs and we welcome an opportunity to work with you. In-person and telephone assistance are available on all three campuses. See the library information section on the USM Libraries homepage for hours and phone numbers. Online assistance is also available via the Ask-A-Librarian service. For in-depth research assistance appointments with a librarian can be made using the online appointment form.

This guide serves as a resource of reference titles and indexes and databases available to the USM community as well as relevant Internet sites that serve as research sources in the subject area of multiculturalism.

In order to find books, journal titles, videos, government documents and other materials held in the University of Maine System consult URSUS, the online catalog. Because journal article citations are not individually included in URSUS use a discipline-specific index to find this information (see Resources by Subject). To find materials located elsewhere in Maine, check Maine Info Net.

To obtain materials not located at your USM campus, but located using URSUS, click on the Request button on the URSUS screen and enter your name and barcode number (found under the barcode on your USM Card, always beginning with 25022....). Your barcode will first need to be activated at the Circulation Desk.

For more information see the Services for Faculty or Services for Students pages.

To find books, journal titles, videos, government documents and other materials not available through the University of Maine System or Maine Info Net, please check WorldCat, which includes bibliographic records for more than 36 million items held at OCLC member libraries throughout the world and is updated daily.

If the item is not available through the University of Maine System (URSUS) or Maine Info Net you can request it via Interlibrary Loan (ILLiad)

Reference sources are useful tools to obtain background information and to develop a vocabulary of possible search terms. The following items are selected print resources available within the University of Southern Maine system.

Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience
POR and LEW Reference DT14 .A37435 1999
Provides an alphabetically arranged list of entries.

American Immigrant Cultures: Builders of a Nation
POR and GOR Reference E184 .A1A63448 1997
Arranged alphabetically by immigrant groups, each entry includes a narrative essay. A bibliography is also provided.

American Jewish Desk Reference
POR Reference E184.35 .A44 1999
This volume is divided into 14 topics with a discussion of each topic and its leaders included. Each topic also has a further reading section.

Civil Rights in the United States
POR Reference E184 .A1C47 2000
This volume is an alphabetically arranged encyclopedia of terms, individuals, events, etc. and includes an index.

The Civil Rights Movement
POR Reference E185.61 .C6124 2000
Provides alphabetically arranged entries as well as appendices with a time line, bibliography, and an index.

Encyclopedia of African-American Society
POR Reference E185 .E546 2005
Each alphabetically arranged entry includes a brief further reading section. An index is also available.

Encyclopedia of Japanese-American History: An A to Z Reference from 1868-Present
POR Reference E184 .J3 E53 2001
Each alphabetically arranged entry includes a brief further reading section. An index is also available.

Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World
POR Reference BP40 .E525 2004
Alphabetically arranged entries include a brief bibliography. An index is also provided.

Native America Today: A Guide to Community Politics and Culture
POR Reference E98 .T77P75 1999
Subdivided into three sections: Contemporary Issues; Contemporary Profiles of Tribes and Groups; and Documents: Acts of Congress, Executive Orders, Court Decisions, Laws and Resolutions.

1001 Things Everyone Should Know About African American History
POR Reference E185 .S798 2001
Divided into six parts: Great Migrations; Civil Rights and Politics; African Americans in the Military; Culture and Religion; Inventors; Science and Medicine; Sports. Each part includes brief entries of relevant individuals, events, etc.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas
POR Reference E184. S75O97 2005
Alphabetically arranged entries of terms, individuals, events, etc. with a brief bibliography for each entry. An index is also provided.

The USM Libraries are fortunate to have a rich collection of research resources related to diversity in Maine through the Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine. This collection, consisting of the African American Collection of Maine; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Collection; and Judaica Collection, are housed in the Special Collections Department of Glickman Library. Please check this site for service hours.

Because of the lengthy publishing cycle for a book, information in a book is not always current. Periodical articles are current sources of information. There are two main types of periodicals: scholarly and popular. Scholarly periodicals are usually referred to as journals. Articles in journals contain reports of primary research; the articles are written by experts in the field and for other researchers/scholars; use terms and language specific to that discipline; may include graphs, charts, etc. related to the topic; most often are peer reviewed via an editorial board; are published by professional organization or society, university, research centers, scholarly presses; and often include a bibliography. Popular periodical articles contain general information; are written using easily understood language that appeals to a varied audience; are usually written by journalists or others who are not experts in the field; do not include citations; has a limited or non-existent editorial review board; and may contain glossy photographs. The Finding Articles tutorial provides more information on how to find articles.

To find scholarly articles it is necessary to consult a discipline-specific electronic or print index/database. The following are electronic indexing sources available to the University of Southern Maine community.

America: History and Life
Date coverage: 1964-present
Index to research on the history of the United States and Canada, from prehistoric times to the present. Includes references to journal articles, books and book reviews, dissertations, and collective works. For non-U. S. history see Historical Abstracts.

AnthroSource
Date coverage: current with archive back to 2003
An online resource developed by the American Anthropological Association containing complete electronic archive of all AAA journals through 2003,access to a core collection of journals in the field of anthropology as well as current issues of eleven critical peer-reviewed publications.

CINAHL
Date coverage: 1982-present
Premier database for nursing and allied health literature.

Contemporary Women's Issues
A multidisciplinary, full-text database that brings together relevant content from mainstream periodicals, gray literature, and the alternative press -- with a focus on the critical issues and events that influence women's lives in more than 190 countries. Contemporary Women's Issues includes English-language titles from East and West Africa, Asia, and South and Central America, the Caribbean, North America and Europe. Updated weekly.

Directory of Open Access Journals
Provides full-text articles from over 1145 free peer-reviewed journals covering all scholarly and scientific subjects. Over 310 journals can be searched by article title. Most articles are in English. Law and Political Science are a major grouping.

ERIC (education)
Date coverage: 1966-present
The Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) provides education information for K-12 teachers, school administrators, education faculty, school psychologists and education students. ERIC is sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education. This bibliographic database of more than 1.1 million citations goes back to 1966. More than 107,000 full-text non-journal documents (from years 1993-2004) are included in the database. Full-text articles are also available from more than 80% of the 1,000 education-related journals indexed.

GPO Access: Catalog of U. S. Government Publications
Date coverage: 1994-April 2005
Index to print and electronic publications of federal agencies.

Historical Abstracts
Date coverage: 1969-present
Index to articles, dissertations, and books on the history of the world, except the United States and Canada, from 1450 to the present. For United States and Canada see America: History and Life.

In the First Person: An Index to Letters, Diaries, Oral Histories and Personal Narratives (Alexander Street Press)
"...provides in-depth indexing of more than 2,500 collections of oral history in English from around the world."

IngentaConnect
Date coverage: 1988-present
Indexes 17,000 English-language periodicals. Updated daily.

Medline
Date coverage: 1966-present
Index to more than 3,600 journals covering all areas of clinical and experimental medicine, nursing, dentistry and health administration. Updated weekly.

PAIS International
Date coverage: 1972-present
Citations for articles, books, conference proceedings, government documents, and book chapters. The print index is available in the POR Reference collection at call number POR Reference Z7163 .P9 (1915-1990).

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
Date coverage: 1861-present; abstracts 1980-present; thesis abstracts 1988-present
Source for current research and trends.

Proquest Newspapers
Date coverage: Varies according to source Full text of more than 500 U.S. and international news sources. Includes the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and the Times of London, plus hundreds of other news sources and news wires.

PsycINFO
Date coverage: 1887-present
Index to the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines, including medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, and other areas. Coverage includes references and abstracts to over 1,300 journals in more than 20 languages, and to book chapters and books in the English language. The database includes information from empirical studies, case studies, surveys, bibliographies, literature reviews, discussion articles, conference reports and dissertations.

Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature
POR and GOR Reference AI3 .R48 (1900-1995)
Provides access to journal and magazine articles from earlier time periods.

Sociological Abstracts
Date coverage: 1974-present
Covers sociology and related disciplines including anthropology, criminology, demography, education, gerontology, mental health, minority studies, political science, public health, social psychology, social work, rban studies, welfare programs, and women's studies. Comprehensive and international in scope.

Women and Social Movements in the United States: 1600-2000
A collection of documentary projects pertaining to women and social movements in the United States. Primary source materials include books, images, manuscripts, journal articles, pamphlets, letters, commentaries and bibliographies, documenting the multiplicity of women's reform activities

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Date coverage: 1975-present
This database supplies citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law and public administration/policy.

There is no authority control for the Internet. In choosing Internet resources it is imperative to evaluate the authenticity of the source. Thinking Critically about Discipline-Based World Wide Web Resources (UCLA College Library) provides excellent evaluation criteria. The following selected resources have been chosen because of authenticity and comprehensiveness of coverage.

Al Bawaba: The Middle East Gateway
This site provides links to information pertaining to individual Middle Eastern countries.

African-American Studies Resources (New York University)
Provides links to a variety of resources.

African Studies Internet Resources (Columbia University)
Provides links to a variety of resources.

Asian Studies WWW Virtual Library
Provides links to a variety of resources.

CLNet Diversity Page (University of California)
Provides links to a variety of resources arranged by ethnic group.

Handbook of Latin American Studies (Library of Congress)
Bibliography of materials relating to Latin America, providing citations and annotations.

REESWeb: The World Wide Web Virtual Library: Russian and East European Studies
(University of Pittsburgh)
Provides links to a variety of resources.

Voice of the Shuttle: Minority Studies
Created at the University of California-Santa Barbara, this site provides links to a variety of other web-based resources on various multicultural topics.

WWW Virtual Library: Regional Studies
Includes links to a variety of resources on different regional studies areas.

This category contains information on how to properly cite your sources. In using resources it is imperative that they be used ethically and legally. The sources listed here provide assistance in this process.

USM has a site license for EndNote, a personal reference database program. The main functions this program include maintenance of a database of reference, downloading reference from other databases, using the database to link to references in word-processed document, and generating a bibliography in the correct style for publications. See the EndNote Help for further information.

Writing Handbook

A Writer's Reference, 5th Edition
POR and GOR Reference PE1408 .H2778 2003
Includes sections on composing and revising, design, sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, writing, and documentation. The Student Companion web site includes online help.

Citation Style: APA

APA Documentation (University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center)

APA Style.org

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th edition
POR and GOR Reference BF76.7 .P83 2001; LEW Reserve BF76.7 .P83 2001

Online: A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources

Using American Psychological Association (APA) Format (Updated to 5th Edition) (Purdue University Online Writing Lab)

Citation Style: Chicago

The Chicago Manual of Style
POR Reference Z253 .U69 2003

Chicago/Turabian Documentation (University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center)

Online: A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources

Turabian and Chicago Styles Citations (University of California-Berkeley)

Citation Style: MLA

Citing Sources (MLA) (Indiana University)

MLA (University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center)

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th edition
POR Reference LB2369 .G53 2003

Online! A Reference Guide Using Internet Resources

Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Format (Purdue University Online Writing Center)

Created by: William Sargent
Created on: 02.05.2006
Last Updated: 02.06.2006