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Graduate Students in Theatre
This page of the Theatre guide is directed toward
CSUF Theatre graduate students. As you a graduate student you will find
that your research needs will be much greater than that of an undergraduate
student. This library has a wide range of specialized services, research
sources, and assistance available which you will find of interest.
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RefWorks
is a web-based bibliographic management service used for storing and
organizing citations, as well as automatically formatting
bibliographies. It is similar to EndNote and ProCite, but your citations
are stored on the RefWorks server rather than on your local machine and
thus you must be connected to the Internet to use RefWorks. All current
CSUF people may
register for a free account For More Information |
Where to Obtain Research Assistance:
| Reference Desk | The Reference Desk is a good
place to start with your research questions. The librarians working at
this desk have multiple degrees, including a masters in Library Science, and
years of experience working with college students and the research process.
There at least one librarian on duty at the Reference desk almost every hour
the library is open.
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| Research Assistance Appointment | It is possible to make an
appointment with a librarian who is a subject specialist within your field
of study. This is especially useful when you have already talked to a
librarian at the Reference Desk and still need additional in-depth
assistance.
Research
Assistance Appointment forms are available online. After you have
submitted the form, a librarian will contact you within a few days by phone
or e-mail to arrange a meeting.
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| Library Instruction | At the request of the
faculty member a Library Instruction session can to arranged to teach
research techniques, electronic resources in
Theatre and more. These
sessions are for the entire class and take place during class time.
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| Electronic Workshops | Many graduate students
return to the academic setting after years working as a professional.
During those years the research process changed dramatically as it became
entirely computerized. We understand that this can be frustrating at a
time when you have little extra time and need to "get up to speed quickly."
The library offers a variety of free Electronic Workshops each semester to
introduce the techniques of electronic research. These workshops are
available to the entire campus community but we have found that these
workshops are heavily attended by graduate students who are then able to
quickly gain electronic research expertise.
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| EMail Reference | EMail Reference is
a service where you may email any question
that you would ask in person at the Reference Desk. Expect an answer in your
e-mail before 5pm the following workday. This service can be
especially helpful for the graduate student who is on campus only once or
twice a week.
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| 24/7 Chat Reference | 24/7 Chat Reference is an online service which is available at anytime of the day for answering all type of reference and research questions. The service is accomplished through a nationwide cooperative program and is staffed by academic librarian across the United States. |
How to Find Everything on Your Topic:
| Primary Theatre Databases | Theatre students will start
their research looking for articles in the primary databases within their
field. The best example is the Music and performing Arts Online
database which is an extensive and detailed database which leads to articles, books, book
chapters, conference proceedings, performance reviews and more in the field of Theater.
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| Additional Databases | After searching the primary
Theatre databases,
explore further. This library subscribes to over ninety-five indexes in
every subject taught on this campus. These supplementary indexes may
lead to you only a few additional sources each. However, you may find
them very helpful as they often will offer a different perspective. Examples
would be the Historical Abstracts to get a historical perspective or
Psychinfo to get a psychological perspective. To get ideas on additional
places to look for materials on your topic, take a look at the
database
descriptions or ask at the Reference Desk for advice.
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| WorldCat | WHAT IS IT? WorldCat is the OCLC Online Union catalog which contains more than 40 million records describing items owned at libraries around the world. Each record will contain library holdings. It covers the years about 1000AD to present date with new records added daily. It does not contain articles. WHAT YOU WOULD USE IT FOR: The WorldCat does not contain everything ever published but it does contain a significant portion of published materials. Search this database for materials on your subject not owned in the Pollak Library. Once you have found books on your topic, you may request them through Interlibrary Loan. |
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Melvyl Catalog
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WHAT IS IT? This online catalog contains records of the University of California books and other materials such as maps, videos and sounds recordings. WHAT YOU WOULD USE IT FOR: The Melvyl catalog is so large that it is a good place to check on other library holdings in your area of research. Searching Melvyl is one way to locate a library that has a large collection within your subject area. A graduate student might find that a trip to a library with a specialized collection is well worth the time. Materials listed in Melvyl can generally be requested through Interlibrary Loan. |
| Citation Indexes | WHAT IS IT? Citation indexes are specialized research tools designed to tell the researcher whose work is being cited and how often. It other words, a citation database searches the bibliographies of articles. The library has three different citation databases; Arts and Humanities Search, Social SciSearch and SciSearch. Theatre researchers would be most likely to use the Arts and Humanities Search. WHAT YOU WOULD USE IT FOR: A researcher will search a citation database to determine how important an article or researcher is within the field based on how often other researchers cite their work. It is also helpful in finding out who is currently doing research within a narrow field. |
| Dissertation Abstracts Online | WHAT IS IT? This is an online index of dissertations awarded from accredited academic institutions from 1861 through present day. The index selectively covers masters, Canadian dissertations, and European dissertations. New records are added monthly. The library also has the paper version of the set, Dissertation Abstracts International, (5th floor, Library South Z5055 U5) WHAT WOULD YOU USE IT FOR? Dissertation have gone through vigorous quality control and contain very detailed research on their topic. They often represent unique research that is not available elsewhere. Dissertations are also very useful for their extensive bibliographies. How to obtain dissertations: 1. To find out if a dissertation was later published and is easily available, check the OPAC and WorldCat by author. 2. Request the dissertation through Interlibrary Loan. Do be aware that this request my take longer than the average article request. 3. Purchase a paper or microfilm copy of the dissertation through the service UMI http://www.umi.com/hp/Support/DServices/order |
Where to Obtain Materials for Your Research:
| Library Catalog | The Library catalog is an online
listing of everything that this library
owns. It is a good idea to check first to see what this library owns on your
topic before searching other libraries. We own a remarkably large
collection of graduate-level materials.
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| Interlibrary Loan | This is a
service where the library can obtain materials for you from other libraries.
The Interlibrary Loan office is found on the first floor of the south
building. You can also request material online. |
| Link+ | Link+ is a
project to provide a single searchable catalog for books and other materials
for the participating academic libraries. It is possible to
request any material you find within this catalog. This catalog will
not contain information on periodicals. |
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