Resources for the College Undergrad

Are you a word nerd?

Do you enjoy word etymologies? Does the history of the development of the English language catch your interest? Have you ever wondered when and how certain slang expressions developed (including the ones that are not polite)? If you answered yes to any of these questions, or if you want to find exhaustive definitions and historical literary examples of when certain words first appeared in the English language and how they got there, then you should take a look at the Oxford English Dictionary in the library’s reference section. The Oxford English Dictionary (or the “OED” for short) is a multi-volume dictionary that has all of the typical dictionary features such as pronunciations guides and definitions, but it also has much more. The OED has more extensive etymological information than other dictionaries on the history of words and how they entered modern English usage from other languages. Another great feature with the word entries is the inclusion of historical examples from literature documenting the earliest known uses of the words. These features of the OED make it very useful for understanding the shifting meanings of words over time. Students would find the information provided in the OED useful for greater understanding of literature and for deeper understanding of the connection between English and other languages.

Simpson, J. and Weiner, E., eds. (1989). The Oxford English Dictionary (2^nd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Help with your English paper

Don’t let that English research paper assignment get you down! Take a look at the Literature Resource Center available through the library’s E-Resources. Not only does Literature Resource Center give you access to thousands of full-text articles and essays on literary criticism, biography, and all sorts of other materials you can use for your paper, it also provides a helpful Research Guide which can assist you through all the steps of choosing a topic, developing a thesis, selecting appropriate materials, organizing your paper, giving proper citations, and more. You’ll find that you can search for information in several different ways on Literature Resource Center, and the way that search results are categorized will also help you to recognize which sources are most useful to you. You’ll discover that the Historical-Literary Timeline and other features of this database make it useful for history and other subjects as well. Don’t let your research for your paper assignments be harder than it has to be—take advantage of the helpful and convenient features of Literature Resource Center.

Literature Resource Center. (2008). Gale. (Available through E-Resources on the library’s Web site.)

Impress your professors by using the most important books for your research paper

Face it—you don’t know everything (yet), and when you have to write a research paper for a subject you are not already an expert in, it can be hard to figure out which authors and books are most important in that field. It can be a lot easier to do this if you use Books for College Libraries in the reference section. Don’t be misled by the fact that it was mainly written for librarians; it can help you with your research. Books for College Libraries was prepared by a group of expert professors to be a list of the 50,000 most important books in a broad variety of academic fields. This resource will help you figure out which authors and titles are the most important and influential in their subject areas. You can just use the Subject Index to find out which books are considered most important in the subject you are researching. When you write your paper, you can still explore and propose your bold new ideas, but you’ll at least know the background material that has already been recognized as important points of reference in whatever field you are studying.

Clark, V, ed. Books for College Libraries: A Core Collection of 50,000 Titles (3^rd ed.). (1988). Chicago: American Library Association.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

That question was fun when you were a kid, but it’s serious business now that you’re in college. If you are still trying to decide on a major, or you want to know what kind of degree you would need to get a certain kind of job, or you want to think about alternative jobs related to traditional fields, you should take a look at the Occupational Outlook Handbook. It’s a reference resource prepared by the Federal Government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, and you can access it online at www.bls.gov/oco/home.htm. You can use the Occupational Outlook Handbook to look up jobs and careers by keywords. Each entry for a career job title contains information on the training and education needed to enter that job, the earnings, expected job prospects over the next ten years, what workers do on the job, and working conditions. There are also links to related jobs, and sometimes links to non-governmental organizations which are prominent in the specific field of the entry. Whether you need to face hard realities or you want to chase your dream, make your plans with the extensive information provided in the Occupational Outlook Handbook.

U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2008). Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2008-2009 ed.