Tutorial for URSP 810: CONTEMPORARY METROPOLITAN ISSUES

The University of Maryland Libraries have many resources that will help with research for your thesis. If you need additional information, please e-mail Patti Cossard

Because of licensing agreements, access to bibliographic databases and electronic journals is restricted to UM faculty, staff, and students. These may be accessed from off campus and a number of resources are mobile accessible; consult Remote access for further information. For a complete list of electronic resources available to University of Maryland faculty, staff, and students, as well as information about the full range of library materials and services, consult the UM Libraries' home page.

The Libraries have many Guides to Resources, e.g. Statistics, Maryland State Publications, etc., that may help you as you get into specific research.

Library Services

• Terrapin Learning Commons (TLC) Visit it on the 2nd floor of McKeldin. It offers in one location what you need to succeed: technology, services, information & a place to meet your group.
• Study Carrels (i.e., private offices)? Study carrels are individual study spaces available to graduate students on a semester basis. These rooms are designed to provide a venue for faculty and graduate students to effectively pursue study and research. These study rooms are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis; however, priority consideration is given to faculty and doctoral students in candidacy. Applications should be submitted to the Public Services Office, Room 4119, McKeldin Library.
• Free Scanning Available! Scanners are now available in the Architecture and McKeldin Library. It’s free and available first-come, first served.
• Email, Word, PowerPoint? Carry a Flash Drive With You! Library computers come installed with MS Office 2003 and 2007 as well as Internet browsers so that you may access your email. Carry a flash drive with you to store your work.

OUTLINE

• Research Skills
  • Getting you started
  • Citation and Bibliography
  • Bibliographies
  • Indexes/Databases
  • Journals
  • Books
  • Dissertations & Theses
  • GIS and Maps

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The University of Maryland offers a number of tools to get you what you need to be successful in your program.

Getting Started

• Research Port: libraries portal to electronic resources
• Refworks: a bibliographic management system. A tutorial is available for your reference.
• Interlibrary Loan: when we don't own a resource you need
• Article Express: a free digital document delivery service available to faculty and graduate students. The Libraries will now deliver articles electronically to you within three business days of your request (provided they are available in print on the UM Libraries'shelves.) In the event that an article you request is not available on campus, Article Express will automatically refer the request to Interlibrary Loan.
• Using the Find It button: when you want to see if the library owns a resource
• Borrowing agreements with other libraries: when you want to visit another research library
• Suggest a Title for Purchase: when you'd like the library to purchase an item for the collection

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Citation and Bibliography: You are honor bound by the University's Code of Academic Integrity to provide related to anything that is not your own work. This includes paraphrasing and quotations of ideas or texts and reduction of images (drawings, photos) produced by others. The Libraries have a number of resources to assist you in Bibliographic Management:

• Preparing and annotated bibliography: a guide to general principles
• Refworks: a bibliographic management system
• Endnote in Web of Science: an alternative bibliographic management system
• Style Manuals: see the Libraries' Reference Shelf for online style manuals
  • The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White.
  • A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Kate L. Turabian
  • Writing for Design Professionals, Stephen A. Kliment

Bibliographies

• Journal of Planning Literature Indexes 400+ journals and provides comprehensive coverare of the city and planning literature
• International Regional Science Review: regularly contains a subject and author index to approximately 66 English-language planning and regional science journals ["subject index" or "author index" in search journal box]. IRSR deliberately helps define regional science by publishing key interdisciplinary survey articles that summarize and evaluate previous research and identify fruitful research directions. Focusing on issues of theory, method, and public policy where the spatial or regional dimension is central.
• Planning practice + research: its annual section "Planning Literature Information Service" provides very broad indexing of approximately 20 major planning journals. Indexed via Academic Search Premier [search JN "Planning practice & research" and "planning literature information service"].

Urban Planning & Studies Indexes and Databases

• Avery Index: contains citations to articles in 1000+ periodicals
• Social Sciences Citation Index: useful for tracking citations
• PAIS International: source for public policy
• PapersFirst: OCLC index of papers presented at conferences worldwide.
• Sage Urban Studies Abstracts: v. 1-20, 1973-1992. selective abstracts of scholarly communication in urban studies and comparative urban analysis
• Index to Current Urban Documents v.1-28, 1972-2000. Indexing to 12 Sage journals
• Urban Studies Abstracts covers urban affairs, community development, urban history, and other areas of relevance to the discipline of urban studies. The index contains 40,000 records from a variety of key sources, with coverage back to 1973.
• Google Scholar: alternate access to resources
• Other important Urban Planning and Studies databases

Journals

• ejournals: links to electronic journals are found in ResearchPort
• print journals: call number and location information for print journals is found in the catalog. **n.b. Search under the journal title.

Books:

• WorldcatUM: bibliography of books worldwide.
• USMAI Catalog: access books held on College Park campus as well as all other campuses in the University System of Maryland
• Electronic Books: increasingly the UMLibraries are purchasing digital books, this guide will help you to find them
• Internet Archive: a digital repository of out of print/out of copyright freely available books
• Library of Congress
• Google Books: alternate access to resources

Dissertations & Theses

• For all University of Maryland dissertations and theses granted before 2004, search the Catalog by keyword, include terms Maryland and Thesis.
• For UMD dissertations and theses granted after 2004 and a selection of theses from other schools of architecture, look in Digital Dissertations.
• Many universities are putting their recent dissertations in their institutional repositories. You may be able to get very recent dissertations free directly from the issuing university's repository. For UMD theses granted after 2004, visit our institutional repository: DRUM.
• For comprehensive access to dissertations & theses from worldwide, access WorldCatUM.
  • You may request dissertations and theses through Interlibrary Loan Often, Interlibrary Loan can borrow a copy for your use. Submit your request by using the using the service and completing a request form.
  • If you would prefer to own a copy of the dissertation, you can request ILL to purchase one for you. You must include a check for $28.00 payable to UMI or attach an IDB form for $28.00 to your request form. Once the order is placed, the 81/2x11 unbound photocopy usually arrives within 5 - 7 working days and can be picked up from ILL or mailed to you.

GIS & Maps

• Map Collection a guide to the print map collection in U.S. Government Information, Maps & GIS Services unit (GovMG), located on McKeldin Library's 4th floor.
• a brief description of GIS Resources available in McKeldin Library.
• GIS Data and Websites A guide to where you can get data to use in a GIS in the UM Libraries who have geospatial data in the collections, many websites have free data, and data can also be purchased.