Sidebar

Main Content

Communication - Research Guide

This guide will help you find materials in the Penn Library concerning communication and related disciplines. Most of the materials listed here are available through the Library's web pages, in Van Pelt Library, or in the Annenberg School for Communication Library.

GETTING STARTED: GUIDES TO THE LITERATURE & BACKGROUND DATA

Use these to filter the diverse literature on travel and culture, and to identify the most reliable books, journals, reference sources.

International encyclopedia of communications New York: Oxford University Press, c1989. 4 v.

[Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks P87.5 .I5 1989]

Findlay, Mark Shaw. Language and communication : a cross-cultural encyclopedia Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, 1998. xx, 229 p.

[Annenberg Library Reference P29 .F47 1998]

Encyclopedia of social and cultural anthropology London ; New York: Routledge, 1996. xxiv, 658 p. map

[Van Pelt and Museum Library Reference GN307 .E648 1996]

Routledge encyclopedia of translation studies London ; New York: Routledge, 1998. xviii, 654 p.,

[Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks P306 .E57 1998]

Encyclopedia of contemporary literary theory : approaches, scholars, terms Toronto ; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, c1993. xiv, 656 p.

[Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks PN81 .E439 1993]

Concise encyclopedia of philosophy of language Kidlington, Oxford ; New York, NY, USA: Pergamon, c1997. xix, 599 p.

[Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks P106 .C5946 1997]

Crystal, David, 1941- The Cambridge encyclopedia of language New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. vii, 480 p.

[Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks P29 .C64 1997]

The Encyclopedia of language and linguistics Oxford ; New York: Pergamon Press, 1994. 10 v.

[Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks P29 .E48 1994]

Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism

URL: http://www.press.jhu.edu/books/hopkins_guide_to_literary_theory/
Like the print version, offers lengthy signed articles on topics and authors, with bibliographies. Indexes of names, topics and ideas/theories locate articles quickly. Powerful full text searching also offered.
Print version in Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks PN81 .J63 1994

Key concepts in communication and cultural studies London ; New York: Routledge, 1994. xiv, 367 p. : ill.

[Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks P90 .K457 1994]

Dictionary of cultural theorists London ; New York: Arnold ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1999. x, 497 p.

[Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks PN74 .D53 1999]

Researching communications : a practical guide to methods in media and cultural analysis London: Arnold ; NY: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Van Pelt Library P90 .R42 1999

FINDING BOOKS: FRANKLIN & OTHER LIBRARY CATALOGS

Use Franklin, Penn's online catalog to identify and locate books, periodicals, magazines, newspapers, maps, and bibliographic and numeric data files in electronic format available in or through the Penn Library. Extensive online help is available.

Remember that organizations, agencies, governments, and other corporate bodies may be authors or subjects.

Remember: if you choose the subject search type, you must use Library of Congress subject headings. Some sample headings are listed here.

        Communication
        Communication in politics
        Communicative competence
        Cultural policy                 
        Cultural property, protection of
        Cultural relations              
        Culture conflict                
        Culture diffusion
        Information society
        Information technology
        Intercultural communication     
        Language and culture
        Mass media

Keyword searching is very useful for combining different concepts into one search, for restricting searches to geographic areas, and for identifying unfamiliar Library of Congress subject headings, especially from known catch-phrases:
```
        community AND internet
        "mass media" AND politic? [?=wild card/gets political, politics,etc.]
```
Key terms and phrases -- Certain phrases are used regularly in Library of Congress Subject Headings to describe aspects of culture and types of publications. Some especially useful ones include:
```
        social aspects
        cultural policy
```

OTHER LIBRARY CATALOGS

RLIN/Eureka Bibliographic File - Research Libraries Group Catalog

A bibliographic catalog of over 30 million books, serials, archives and manuscripts, musical scores, visual materials, maps, and data files held in over 100 large research libraries and current cataloging of the Library of Congress and the British Library.

WorldCat

Another large, 30+ million union catalog that includes the holdings of many university, college, and public libraries. Several Philadelphia-area libraries are included in WorldCat.

BorrowDirect+

Two services that enable searching of combined library catalogs and direct placement of requests for books not available at Penn.

- BorrowDirect: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Princeton, and Yale.

- E-ZBorrow: Over 40 academic and research libraries in Pennsylvania and nearby states, including: Rutgers, Penn State, Temple, and Pittsburgh.

FINDING JOURNAL ARTICLES: INDEXES AND ABSTRACTS

Essential for identifying journal articles. Use Franklin to locate the journal titles you find and what volumes are held by the Penn Library and where they're kept, if full-text is not available online.

MLA International Bibliography of language, literature, folklore.

The major index for literary criticism, film criticism. Cites journal articles, selected books and dissertations.
Coverage begins with 1963, and the file is updated 10 times a year. See also for cultural theory, treatment of culture in literatures, cultural encounters, etc.

Sociological Abstracts 1963 -

The principal abstracting service for sociological journal articles.
Corresponds to print-format Sociological abstracts [Van Pelt Reference], which covers more years, 1952-present.

Anthropological literature. 1984-present.

The principal index for anthropological journal articles and edited works, compiled from materials received at the Tozzer Library, Harvard University.
Subject headings are similar to Franklin's.
Corresponds to print-format Anthropological literature [Museum Library Reference: GN 1 .A573], which covers more years, 1979-present.

EBSCO MegaFILE.

Dissertation Abstracts International

Web-based indexing of doctoral-level dissertations accepted at American institutions, 1861 to present.
Abstracts are included beginning with 1980, and full-text of Penn dissertations is available for the past few years.
Covers all subject areas.

Francis.

Paris: CNRS, 1984-
International social sciences and humanities database produced by the CNRS. Strong in European materials.

ISI Citation Indexes.

The ISI Citation Indexes include the Science, Social Science and Arts & Humanities Citation Indexes. The database covers 1993 to the present and is updated weekly. Both keyword and citation searching are available. The database covers 5,300 science , 1,700 social science, and 1,140 arts & humanities journals.

The year's work in critical and cultural theory. Oxford: Published for the English Association by Blackwell Publishers, 1994- v.

( Van Pelt Library PR1.Y437 Note: Currently received. Latest 5 years in reference. )
v.1 (1991)-v.8 (1998)

E-JOURNALS

Try the new e-journal search interface for quick access to over 3800 electronic journals, most full-text.

DATA SOURCES

Statistical Universe. 1973-present (U.S. gov't sources), 1980-present (other sources). Congressional Information Service, Inc.

Bibliographic indexes, with detailed abstracts, for statistical publications published by the U.S. government [ASI], by U.S. state governments and private organizations [SRI], and by major intergovernmental organizations [IIS]. The Penn Library will own many of the items in these sets: use Franklin to identify these. In addition, the Free Library of Philadelphia's Government Publications Department owns the ASI, SRI, and IIS microfiche collections.

Polling the Nations

Primary data, fulltext for approximately 250,000 individual questions and aggregated responses, often crosstabulated by respondent characteristics, compiled from public opinion surveys. Topics cover social, health, economic, and political issues at local, state, national, and international levels as well as marketing subjects. More than 12,000 public opinion surveys conducted by 700 polling organizations in the United States and 70 other countries.

TableBase

TableBase contains tabular information dealing with companies, products, industries, brands, markets, demographics and countries from around the world. The database includes the TABLE and the originating textual article or material. The file includes data from statistical annuals, trade associations, industry reports prepared by investment banks, government and international agencies, non-profit research groups and more than 900 journals.

Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research

Large repository of computerized social science data. Extensive collection of survey data. The online archive provides abstracts of studies and details of data files. The Library manages Penn's membership in this organization

SSEDL (Social Science Electronic Data Library

A numeric data archive providing microdata for research into AIDS/STD, disability in the U.S., the American family, adolescent pregnancy and pregnancy prevention, aging, and maternal drug abuse, and aggregate population, social, economic data supporting geographic contextual analysis. More than 350 numeric data sets from approximately 200 studies produced by individual researchers as well as government and non-profit organizations. Downloadable study data include original study questionnaires, data dictionaries with variable frequencies, SAS and SPSS data extract program files, and detailed user guides.

Last update: Thursday, 13-Dec-2001 12:48:57 EST
Send mail concerning this page to: ancil@pobox.upenn.edu

Navigation Aids