Writing 172
The Computing Age
Spring 2005
Sharad Malik

1. Background Information

Use these sources to provide a context, answer factual questions, and for the recommended readings in their bibliographies.

AccessScience
An electronic version of the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. Offers authoritative articles, news updates, and biographical information on leading scientists.

The concise encyclopedia of the ethics of new technologies. San Diego: Academic Press, 2001.
[Firestone Library, Trustees Reading Room QH332.C662 2001]
A collection of essays assessing the ethical implications of a variety of new technologies, not only medical. Each signed article includes a glossary of terms and a bibliography.

Chadwick, Ruth F. Encyclopedia of applied ethics. San Diego: Academic Press, 1998. 4 vols.
[Firestone Reference BJ63 .E44 1998]

Clarke, Paul A.B. and Andrew Linzey. Dictionary of ethics, theology, and society. London ; New York: Routledge, 1996.
[Firestone Reference BJ63 .D53 1996 and also online through Ebrary]

CQ Researcher
These are in-depth, non-biased reports published 44 times a year about a single political and social issue, with regular reports on topics in health, international affairs, education, the environment, technology and the U.S. economy.
"Each 12,000-word report is a unique work, investigated and written by a seasoned journalist. It can be read in its entirety or by section, which include a background and chronology; an assessment of the current situation; tables and maps; pro/con statements from representatives of opposing positions; and bibliographies of key sources."

FACTS.com
This service outlines the critical events, central issues, descriptive statistics and key people making news year by year from 1940 to the present. The Issues & Controversies section contains reports of some depth on selected topics, with information drawn from daily newspapers and supplemented by a variety of other publications. The reports include bibliographies and provide links to related information.

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2. Finding books on your topic using the Main Catalog

• Search the Main Catalog to find out what books, journals (but NOT journal articles), videos, sound recordings, or other materials the Princeton University Library owns that are relevant to your topic.
• If the materials you need are checked out to other readers or not available at Princeton, use "Borrow Direct" to get the book quickly from a partner library.
• When researching a topic, use keywords or Library of Congress Subject Headings.

Here are some examples of relevant subject headings. Omit the dashes between subheadings, when you are doing a subject search.

Computing--Study and teaching--Law and legislation
Computer software industry--United States
Computer software industry--United States--History
Computer software industry--History
Computer science--History
Computers--History
Semiconductor industry--History
Semiconductors--History
Science--Social aspects
Science and state
Technology--Social aspects

You can combine terms in keyword searches, for example:

scien? and polic?
comput? and (law? or legal)
"computing design" and science

Note that the ? works like a wild card and finds any word starting with the preceding stem.

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3. Finding secondary analytic articles in magazines, newspapers, and journals

Article Indexes (in print or electronic format) identify articles in popular magazines, scholarly journals, and newspapers by author and by topic. In some cases the full text of an article will be available online.

Wilson OmniFile

Broad subject coverage. Full text beginning with 1982 for major American journals that cover a wide range of disciplines, including applied science, religion, philosophy, and public policy.

EBSCO Academic Search Premier

Another broad database with full text from 3200 magazines and journals in all subject areas.

Proquest Direct - Periodical Research Library

Indexes over 2500 journals and provides full text for a majority of them.

Academic Universe (Lexis-Nexis)

Full text of more than 700 newspapers world wide, as well as hundreds of trade, business, and legal journals. For current news, Lexis-Nexis and Factiva are the most comprehensive and up-to-date resources available. Includes full text of the New York Times.

Philosopher's Index

The major source for finding articles in philosophy journals or collections of essays. Coverage begins in 1940 and continues to the present.

MedLine

Part of PubMed, the National Library of Medicine's comprehensive index of scientific journal literature in medicine and the medical sciences. In aspects of social science and humanities relating to medicine, only items from medical science journals are included, and popular literature on medical topics is not included.

PsycINFO

Comprehensive database of psychology, the behavioral sciences and mental health, providing abstracts and citations to journal articles and books/chapters, dissertations, government documents and technical reports from the 1800's to the present.

Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS)

Policy literature database based on the social science holdings of the New York Public Library that provides citations to articles, books, reports, and select government documents on public and foreign policy issues from 1972 forward. The print version of PAIS goes back to 1915, and is located on the Social Science Reference Center Index Shelves.

Sociological Abstracts

Provides abstracts and indexing for the international literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences: journal articles, book reviews, books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers.

4. How to find journals in Princeton's Libraries, if no full text is available online

1. Follow the PUL or SFX link, if available.
2. If not, search the Main Catalog.
3. Do a journal title search for the title of the journal, not the title of the article.
4. When looking at the catalog record for the journal, check which library owns the journal and whether the library has the year and volume you need. Note that recent issues are shelved separately from older bound volumes.
5. If Firestone or another Princeton Library has the year/volume you need, copy the complete Location and Call Number. The call number for a paper copy of a journal could be a Library of Congress or a Richardson call number, or Princeton could own back years of the journal of microfilm.
6. Use the Call Number Information handout and the Special Locations handout to determine where the journal is in the library.

5. Selected Web Sites of interest