Introduction

This section of the CommWiki will help students taking courses in the School of Media Arts and Studies get started with library research. It profiles different kids of useful communication reference tools such as encyclopedias and dictionaries, helps you search for books and journals using ALICE, our online library catalog, and also explains how to use several full-text article databases that give you access to material you can't find online. If you are new to the library and need some general information about it you can Ask a Librarian or you can visit the Library Info section of our website.

Contact Your Librarian

• Jessica Hagman, Reference and Instruction Librarian
• Office: Alden Library 206
• Phone: (740) 593-2697
• E-Mail: hagman@ohio.edu
• AIM/Yahoo: jhagmanohio

Jessica is the subject librarian for the School of Communication Studies and as well as Media Arts and Studies and Information and Telecommunication Systems. Jessica is available for one-on-one research help and purchase suggestions for books and journals. She also teaches library research sessions for both undergraduates and graduates.

Books

• Use ALICE to find books. ALICE also contains information about DVDs, magazines, newspapers, journals and government documents owned by the library. For help using ALICE, see the Comm Wiki page on using the library catalog or the OU Libraries Finding Books pages.
• When searching in ALICE, one way to find information more efficiently is to use subject headings. Subject headings are standardized terms assigned to items in the catalog to indicate what the item is about and link it to other items on the same topic. If you have found an item you like, click on the subject heading in the ALICE record to see more items on the same topic. See the example to the right:
  

  

  ALICE Subject Headings
  . Some useful subject headings might be:
  • Interactive Multimedia
  • Television -- Production and direction
  • Television Cameras
  • Animation (Cinematography)
• If a book is located at the Annex or another campus library click the to request that item be sent to Athens for you to pick-up.
• If a book is not available from the OU Libraries, or is checked out, use the to look for a copy from another Ohio Link library. As long as there is an available copy in Ohio Link, you can place a request for a copy. It will be delivered to Alden in about 3-4 business days for you to pick up at the floor circulation desk.
• If you cannot find an available copy of the item in ALICE or Ohio Link, use the Inter Library Loan service where you can request books.
• If you have any questions about finding books in any of these three categories, feel free to contact Jessica, stop by the Learning Commons Reference Desk, or give us a call at (740) 593-2699.

Call Numbers

Most books dealing with Telecommunications have Library of Congress call numbers that begin with the letter T, followed by another letter. In the Library of Congress classification system, call numbers beginning with the letter T cover aspects of Technology, and includes everything from engineering to home economics. Some of the more frequent call number ranges within the T classification are listed in the top part of the following table.

Additionally, many books of interest to students of Telecommunications can be found in other parts of the Library of Congress classification system. For example, the letter H covers Social Sciences, and many call number ranges in that far-flung field include within them works dealing with aspects of telecommunications. Some representative call number ranges in this category are listed in the bottom half of the following table.

General Telecommunications

Related Subject Areas

Again, remember that books are usually arranged on the shelves next to other books on the same subject, so once you find a particular book, browse through the area you found it in for other useful books.

Guides to Telecommunications Information

• Bennett, James R. Control of the Media in the United States: An Annotated Bibliography.

New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1992. Location: Z5634 U6 B46 1992. Ref. Stacks. Annotations and citiations to nearly 4,500 works dealing with corporate sponsorship and domination, and governmental censorship of, mass media. Covers mainstream media, electronic media, advertising and public relations, art and music, and film and video. Very useful, but does not cover materials from the last ten years, which is unfortunate given the increased pace of media cartelization.

• Block, Eleanor S. and James K. Bracken. Communication and the Mass Media: A Guide to the Reference Literature.

Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, Inc., 1991. Location: Z5630 B54 1991. Ref. Stacks. Annotated guide to basic English-language sources in communication, most pulished since 1970, as well as selected classic earlier works. Emphasis on the United States. Includes core periodicals in the discipline.

• Lent, John A. Women and Mass Communications in the 1990s: An International Annotated Bibliography.

London: Greenwood Press, 1999. Location: Ref Z5633 W65 L45 1999. Ref Stacks. Organized by continents and regions, this work contains some ephemeral items, but also has conference proceedings, journal articles and books on women in mass media. Includes publishing, radio, television, film magazines, newspapers, video and computerized systems. Omitted are speech communciation, language and communication, and interpersonal communication, unless they relate also to mass media.

• Sterling, Christopher H., et al. Mass Communications Research Resources: An Annotated Guide.

Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1998. Location: Ref Z7164 T28 M37 1998. Ref. Stacks. Probably the most comprehensive compliation of resources on most aspects of American mass communications history, technology, economics, content, audience research, policy and regulation. Has the most useful primary and secondary sources on those areas.

General Telecommunications Sources

• Plunkett, Jack W. Plunkett's Telecommunications Industry Almanac.

Houston: Plunkett Research, Ltd., 2000 Location: Ref HE7621 P58. Ref Stacks. Includes overviews on major trends affecting the telecommunications industry, including services and equipment. Also has information on industry contacts and careers in telecommunication. An especially useful section covers the "Telecommunications 400," which is an indepth analysis of the financial performance of top telecommunications corporations.

• Bacon's Media Calendar Directory: Editorial Calendars and Profiles: 2001.

Chicago: Bacon's Information, Inc., 2001 Location: Ref Z 6951 B23. Ref Desk. Lists editorial calendars for nearly 3,800 major business, trade and consumer magazines, as well as upcoming special sections for the top daily newspapers in the United States and Canada. Gives public relations and advertising professionals the information they need to place advertisements in these publications. Infromation is generally divided by subject area, and includes contact information, ad rate, and editorial profiles.

• Bacon's Radio Directory: Radio Networks and Stations with Program Contacts 2002.

Chicago: Bacon's Information, Inc., 2002 Location: Ref HE 8698 B27x 16th 2002. Ref Stacks. Provides comprehensive contact and programming information for more than 13,800 national and regional radio networks, program syndicators and commerical and non-commerical radio stations in the United States and Canada. It includes 5,200 regional and national shows. Within each of these listings are more than 135,000 key management, news and programming contacts. Market area demographic data is also included.

• Bacon's TV/Cable Directory: TV/Cable Networks and Stations with Program Contacts 2002.

Chicago: Bacon's Information, Inc., 2002 Location: Ref HE 8700.8 B33x 16th 2002. Ref Stacks. Provides comprehensive contact and programming information for more than 3,200 Television Networks, Cable Networks, Television Syndicators, Television Stations and Cable Systems in the United States and Canada. It includes more than 70,000 key management, news and programming contacts by name, and contains information on over 6,400 national and regional shows. Entries for Television Stations and Cable Satellite Systems include some market demographic data.

Electronic Reference Tools

Please also review the electronic reference tools. There are some good ones here, and you can use them at home! I am not listing every reference book dealing with telecommunications here, because there are hundreds of them. Rather, these are some basic tools. You can do a keyword search in ALICE and limit the location to "Reference" to find others, or you can stop by the Reference Desk for help.

Broadcasting and Cable Yearbook Reference desk TK 6560 B8 52 A plethera of useful information: laws, regulations, and government agencies related to broadcast media, market statistics, directories of services and suppliers, and more.

• The Cable Networks Handbook Reference HE8700.72.U6 C268

• Communication Yearbook Reserve P87 .C5974 Essay reviews of research in communication.

• The Complete Guide to American Film Schools and Cinema and Television Courses Reference Desk PN1993.8.U5 P56

• Dictionary of Communications Technology: Terms, Definitions, and Abbreviations Alden Reference TK5102 .H453

• Key Concepts in Communication and Cultural Studies Reference P90 .K457 An alphabetically arranged glossary to communication terminology.

• NTC's Mass Media Dictionary Reference P87.5 .E45 Glossary of mass media vocabulary

• Taking Sides. Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Mass Media and Society Reference PN1992.8.D6 E56 This is a good book for graduate students writing assignments or looking for paper topics. Provides essays on each side of several controversial topics in the field of mass media.

• World Press Encyclopedia Reference desk PN 4735 .K87 Good background essays on the press for each country. Information about laws, censorship issues, economics, etc.

• Progress in Communication Sciences General Stacks P87 .P74 A yearly book containing details of research in communication. Focuses on conference papers and recent articles.

Directories

• Gale Directory of Publications and Broadcast Media Reference desk PN Z 6951 .A97 Lists newspapers and broadcast media for each city in the United States.

• Who's Who in Mass Communication Reference P92.5 .A1 W54 Alphabetical listing of personal data on communication researchers.

• Working Press of the Nation Reference PN4875 .W62 Lists and newspapers, feature syndicates, and news and photo services, writers, magazines, photographers and stations.

• World Guide to Television Reference Desk PN 1992.1 .T37 Details about television networks, pay television, trade associations and television-related organizations for each country.

• Yearbook of Experts, Authorities, and Spokespersons Reference desk PN 1991.8 T35 B76 Details and contact information for experts on a variety of topics. There is also a Web version of this book, available at http://www.yearbooknews.com/

Organizations and Associations

Many telecommunications organizations and associations have a Web presence. They are too numerous and dynamic to list here. Please search for them individually or use the gateway sites listed on this guide to find them. Two good places to look up associations and organization in general are Associations Unlimited (also a print publication called The Encyclopedia of Associations) at http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/AU?locID=athe17405, and the Internet Public Libary's Associations on the Net, at http://www.ipl.org/ref/AON/.

Library Collections

Books

Use Alice to locate books on your topic. Do a keyword search using one or more words to search for records containing all of those words. Remember that, for the most part, you will need to think in broad concepts in order to locate books. For instance, if you aren't finding anything doing a keyword search on "women television africa," try "women africa" and "women television" and "television africa" to find books which may contain chapters on your topic or be loosely aplicable.

You can order materials from the Library Annex and from branch campuses. You may also order materials from the OhioLINK Central Catalog if you can't find materials here or a book you need is checked out or missing from Alden Library. Inter-campus and OhioLINK orders take about three working days; materials are delivered from the Alden Library Annex at 10:30 and 2:30 each weekday. For help ordering materials, please stop by the Alden Library Reference desk.

For materials not available from any OhioLINK library, you can use Interlibrary Loan . To locate books in other libraries, use Worldcat (For off-campus access, login through OhioLINK). Electronic Journals Listed below are the telecommunications journals that are received--in part or in full--electronically. The titles are links to ALICE to let you know about the holdings information; that is, which issues/volumes are, indeed, online.

• Adbusters
• AWSM - Association for Women in Sports Media
• BT Technology Journal
• Communication Booknotes Quarterly
• Communication Theory : CT: A Journal of the International Communciation Association
• Continuum
• Daily Business Files
• Daily Digest - Federal Communications Commission
• Digital Signal Processing
• Discourse
• The Electronic Journal of Communication : EJC: La revue electronique de communication : REC
• Electronics and Communications in Japan. Communications
• Electronics and Communications in Japan. Electronics
• European Journal of Communication
• Feminist Media Studies
• Gazette
• Health Communication
• Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
• IEEE Communications Magazine
• IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communication
• IEEE Personal Communications
• IEEE Transcations on Broadcasting
• IEEE Transactions on Communications
• IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatability
• IEEE Transactions on Information Theory
• info : the journal of policy, regulation and strategy for telecommunications, information and media
• Information Economics and Policy
• Information Management Report
• International Journal of Communications Systems
• International Journal of Satellite Communications
• International Journal of Wireless Information Networks
• Journal of Educational Media
• Journal of Network Industries
• Journal of Transport Geography
• Journal of Visual Communication and Image Representation
• Mass Communication and Society
• Media, Culture and Society
• Media History
• Media Literacy Review
• Media Psychology
• New Media and Society
• Optical Networks Magazine
• Public Culture
• Science Communication
• Signal Processing
• Signal Processing/Image Communication
• Telecommunication Systems
• Telecommunications Policy
• Telematics and Informatics
• Wired News
• Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing
• Wireless Personal Communications

Journals

Listed below are the telecommunications journals that we are currently receiving in the library. About half of these also provide online access as well. The titles are links to ALICE to let you know about our holdings information -- what years we own, where they are located, if there are online versions, etc. NOTE that this list does not include journal titles that we no longer collect. We may well have collections remaining of them, we just no longer have active subscriptions. Let me know if you want some information on those.

• Bell Labs Technical Journal
• Communications News
• CommunicationsWeek
• The Electronic Journal of Communication (EJC)
• Electronics + Communications in Japan
• ETRI Journal
• IEEE Communications Magazine
• IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications
• IEEE Transactions on Communications
• IEEE Transactions on Information Theory
• Info: The Journal of Policy, Regulation, and Strategy for Telecommunications, information and Media
• Information Management Report
• ITU News
• Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media
• Journal of Transport Geography
• Mobile Computing and Communications
• Network World
• Proceedings. IEEE Symposium on Computers and Communications
• Technical Progress Report. Institute for Telecommunication Sciences
• Telecommunications Americas
• Telecommunications Policy
• Telematics and Informatics
• Via Satellite
• Wired
• Government Documents

The Government Documents Department contains useful sources of statistical and other information, including telecommunications data, industry data, and data about foreign countries. To find government materials, search the GPO On Silverplatter database. Jot down the Superintendent of Documents nuamber to find the item in Alden Library. You can also talk to a Documents librarian for help in finding more obscure, state and local, or foreign materials.

Microforms

Microform sets often provide historical and primary source materials which are unavailable in any other format, as well as newspaper and magazine collections. Most major microforms sets are listed in ALICE, but the records are not very detailed. If you are looking for this kind of material, please consult the Microforms Department homepage or talk to a librarian in that area. Also, there is a list of microform sets relating to Broadcasting and Journalism here: http://www.library.ohiou.edu/libinfo/depts/microforms/setintr2.htm#bj Archives

Archives and Special Collections houses records materials pertaining to state, local, and University history, as well as some other rare materials and special collections. These materials are often not on ALICE, so check with the librarians in that department.

Internet Tools

Web Gateways

Unlike some fields, telecommunications is an area where there is a great deal of useful information on the Web. The Web is especially useful for primary source materials--e.g. realtime broadcasts. There is too much out there for me to list, so please explore the following gateway sites which will lead you toward the best of the Web. Also try some of the Web sites with reviews we've gathered for you. These smaller Web directories will point you toward the best sites. It's at: http://www.library.ohiou.edu/electres/netref/reviews.htm.

• Argus Clearinghouse: Communication

http://www.clearinghouse.net/cgi-bin/chadmin/viewcat/Communication?kywd++ This collection of web gateways is worth browsing through in order to find a great deal more useful stuff.

• Broadcasters

http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/publishers/broadcast.html Lists of broadcasters by country.

• Ohio State University's Subject Guide for Communications

http://www.lib.ohio-state.edu/gateway/bib/communication.html This is a great beginning guide to research in the area of communication. It covers print sources, databases and Web sites.

• PRAXIS: Resources for Social and Economic Development

http://caster.ssw.upenn.edu/~restes/praxis.html PRAXIS is "the international development homepage of Prof. Richard J. Estes of the University of Pennsylvania." This page is a gateway for resources on social and economic development.

• Telecom Information Resources on the Web

http://china.si.umich.edu/telecom/telecom-info.html A huge list of telecommunications links, including government information, telecom operating companies, network security, current research projects, and more.

• TV Acres

http://www.tvacres.com/homepage_tv_acres.htm "The web's ultimate guide to television program facts." Includes a searchable database so users can search for television shows, place-names, characters and stars. Covers television shows from the 1940s to the present, with an emphasis on prime time and weekend mornings. Includes network abbreviations guides for the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Features include a "TV Character of the Week" and a gateway to various television resources.

• World Wide Web Virtual Library: Communications and Telecommunications

http://www.analysys.com/vlib/ A huge gathering of resources, this site provides links to all sorts of communication resources, including electronic media, multimedia, legal issues, mobile communication, policy information, videoconferencing and more. This is a first place to check for research sources. Discussion Groups

Discussion groups are a great way to keep a finger on the research in a particular sub-discipline, to find experts and scholars around the country and around the world, and to ask questions of your colleagues. Please exercise restraint when posting to such groups, as there are hundreds or thousands of people reading yoru posts. Email lists send message to a distributed group, while newsgroups are like electronic bulletin boards. To find discussion gorups in your field, search in some of the listserv search engines listed here: http://www.library.ohiou.edu/electres/netref/listserv.htm.

Primary Sources (media)

You can find live and recorded broadcasts using the Gateway Web Sites listed on this guide.

Another useful source of televison news is the TV News Index and Abstracts Index room AI 3 T44 or http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/. It covers1980 to present. Indexes the Vanderbilt TV News Archive, which is a videotape collection of U.S. national and local, and some international news programs. This index comes with order forms which you can use to order the materials for a fee.

Secondary Sources (Indexes to Scholarly Journals) Scholarly journals can be located using the print and electronic indexes in our collection. Unfortunately, there is no large, powerful database which indexes telecommunications scholarly literature. Several useful databases are listed here: http://www.library.ohiou.edu/electres/databases/dbcomm.htm. For help choosing or using a database, contact Laura Hudson. The major print indexes are listed below:

• Communication Abstracts

Reference desk (current two years) and Index room P87 .C59733 1978 to present. Indexes and abstracts journals and books on all aspects of communication.

• Index to Journals in Communication Studies through 1990 (Matlon Index)

Reference desk Z5632 .M394 1992x Time coverage varies by journal. A detailed subject index for 15 core journalism and communication journals.

• Journalism Abstracts

Index Room PN4722 .J69 Covers 1963 to 1993. Indexes and abstracts dissertations and theses on the subject of journalism and mass communication from Universities in North America.

• Urban Affairs Abstracts

Index Room HT123 .U7 Indexes and abstracts journal articles and newsletters in the broad area of urban affairs. Includes subject and geographical indexes. Coverage from 1972-1994.