BHCC Library Capital Punishment Resources

Although the World Wide Web is a powerful tool for connecting students to a wide variety of resources, it is not the only window of information. Take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the BHCC library holdings in place to support your coursework so you can make informed decisions about how you get your information for a range of course activity.

Consider what you need before you begin your search for law related information.

Ask yourself, how you plan to conduct your research, sort through the information you find, select the most appropriate items, and evaluate the credibility of the materials you plan to use in your works cited sheet.

More Questions...

• What keywords will you use to locate the information you need?
• How many sources do you need to identify?
• What types of sources suit your topic best?
• How will you cite what you find?

The BHCC library WWW page: http://www.noblenet.org/bhcc/

To find a book, use the BHCC online catalog. You may search the catalog by SUBJECT or KEYWORD, as well as by AUTHOR or TITLE. The Keyword option allows you to combine your search terms. See what titles are listed when you use the Keyword search option for the terms Death and Penalty and then compare the results with another Keyword search using the terms Capital and Punishment. Here is what the catalog lists when you perform a subject search for the phrase capital punishment.

Newspaper and specialized database: Lexis-Nexis http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe. Click on the News link to search for newspaper articles from major newspapers in the U.S. and around the world. Click on the Legal Research tab to begin to search for cases or other law-related information. From off-campus, click on the access databases link from the library's home page, and then click on the Lexis-Nexis off-campus link. Enter your 14-digit library barcode number and your last name to access the database.

Finding Magazines – Paper indexes, like the Guide to Periodical Literature and the Wilson Social Science Index, are on the Index table near the Reference section of the library.

For an electronic magazine index with fulltext articles, use EBSCO http://search.epnet.com/cpidlogin.asp?custid=noble&ip=yes&profile=web. From off campus, click on the access databases link from the library's home page, and then click on the EBSCO off-campus link.

InfoTrac is another database you could use for more fulltext resources: http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/mlin_b_bunkhcc. From off campus, click on the access databases link from the library's home page, and then click on the InfoTrac off-campus link.

Capital Punishment Links

The Death Penalty Information Center: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/

Michigan State University's Death Penalty Information Web Site includes both pro and con viewpoints on this issue: http://deathpenaltyinfo.msu.edu

Related Sites of Interest

On the web, a good place to start your research is http://www.findlaw.com, the Findlaw website.

Links maintained by our Library consortium: http://www.noblenet.org/lawframe.htm

Tips for legal researching: http://www.virtualchase.com/legalresearcher/intro.html

Legal Research Using the Internet, from the University of Chicago: http://www.libchicago.edu/~llou/mpoctalk.html

Florida State University links to sites useful for Criminal Justice students: http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/cj.html

For information on international law and legal issues in countries other than the U.S., go to Hieros Gamos, The Comprehensive Law and Government Portal: http://www.hg.org

The Lawyers Weekly is at http://www.lawyersweekly.com/

Evaluating what you find…

Remember...too much information can be as problematic as too little information. Computers, paper indexes, the Internet, and the World Wide Web are tools for accessing and managing information. Efficient and effective use of these tools is the responsibility of the user.

Take a few minutes to work your way through a tutorial that will highten your awareness of what to watch out for when using online resources. Go to…

http://www.kovacs.com/eval.html

Citing what you find:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/citation.table.html

If you feel in need of some practice dealing with these citation formats, go to the library's web-based handout entitled How to Read a Legal Citation.

This handout provides tips on avoiding plagiarism and was developed by the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University.

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Last reviewed September 25, 2001Last updated November 4, 2002