84 CHAPTER^7 Researching Your Speech in the Digital Age
Books
Experts write scholarly books based on research to advance knowledge in a field
aimed at specialized audiences of professionals and researchers. Peer reviewers check
them for accuracy before publication. Reference books and works of literature also
count as scholarly books. Trade books, the kind aimed at a general audience, such as
best-selling novels or cookbooks are more common in public libraries than in academic
libraries.
You can find many free full-text books online through sources such as Project
Gutenberg (45,000 titles), especially classics or books in the public domain. In addition,
campus libraries currently provide access to thousands of digitized e-books through
sources such as Ebrary (85,000 digital titles), EBL (E-Book Library with 16,000+ titles),
EBSCO Academic Books, and PsycBooks (50,000 chapters from academic books, plus
1,600 historic books). It’s convenient to download these books or chapters to your
personal files and then highlight usable materials.Reference Materials
Hundreds of reference works provide specific information, such as definitions, dates,
and statistics. You’re familiar with general encyclopedias that review and summarize
information on thousands of topics, but you may be less familiar with the hundreds
of specialized encyclopedias that provide information about more narrowed subjects.
For example, there’s an encyclopedia of adoption, one for pacifism, another for Title
IX and sports—the variety is great. Many encyclopedias are available online, some for
a fee; however, libraries often pay the fees so that you can freely access the information
through your library’s website.
Dictionaries provide definitions, pronunciations, historical sources, synonyms, and
antonyms for words. Also, specialized dictionaries are devoted to individual subjects
that might surprise you. There’s one for pianists, another for agriculture, even one
for sexist quotations. Search your library holdings for “dictionary of” to see the wide
range of specialized dictionaries; the Internet also provides specialized dictionaries,
some from off-the-wall .com sources but many associated with more reliable .gov or
.edu sources.scholarly book book based
on research that advances
knowledge in an academic
field
trade book book aimed at a
general audience
specialized encyclopedia
text that summarizes infor-
mation in a specific subject
area
Campus learning centers
provide access to millions
of documents in both hard
copy and digital formats.
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