Theft and Mutilation of Library Materials
Indexes, Abstracts, and Electronic Databases Bibliography
Indexes and Abstracts
The best way to find current information on a scholarly topic is to search indexes and electronic databases to locate current journal articles. One of the most important indexes for public justice is Criminal Justice Abstracts, an electronic database that indexes journals, books, and other information on criminal justice. Short one-page guides are located in the notebooks next to the library workstations to help you use CJA and other electronic database on the network.
An index is a systematically arranged list of topics, persons, or places mentioned in a book or serial pointing out their exact positions in the volumes. Sometimes indexing tools also include abstracts, which are short summaries of the materials indexed. Abstracts are written for a number of reasons. First, the original literature may be available in a different language from the user’s own. Abstracts enable the user to select documents for translation. Second, journal literature has grown too large for any one person to scan it all. Abstracts facilitate the selection of papers to be read in full. Third, accuracy of selection of literature to be read is increased by the use of abstracts over the use of only article titles or even article titles and keywords. Abstracts thus save the time of the researcher.
Informative abstracts summarize the principle arguments and data from the original. An informative abstract might have the sentence, "both males and females with a higher frequency of offenses, more serious offenses, and violent rather than non-violent offenses had lower levels of academic performance."
Evaluative abstracts comment on the worth of the original, similar to a movie or book review. An evaluative abstract might have the sentence, "the research is the result of a meta-analysis of quantitative relations between educational success and delinquency and presents an excellent example of mathematical analysis of previously collected data from many sources."
In writing abstracts, it is important to be concise. Redundancy, repetition, and circumlocution should be avoided. Eliminate excess verbiage. Be clear and unambiguous. After reading the abstract, the users should be certain whether they want to consult the original. If there is uncertainty, the abstract has not accomplished its purpose.
There are also abstracts prepared by subject authorities abstractors who donate their time and expertise toward abstracting the literature. They are usually recruited and trained by the organization that publishes the abstracts. These subject-authority abstracts are generally of good quality and inexpensive but timeliness of the abstracted material may suffer since abstracting is done in addition to the regular workload of the abstractor.
There are also professional abstractors who earn their living by abstracting. Since they may lack the subject knowledge of the author or subject authority, their abstracts may be of variable quality and are expensive, though they are usually timely. They are generally used when author and subject-authority abstracts are unavailable.
Large abstracting services tend to use all three kinds of abstractors and you will not be able to tell what kind of abstractor has written the abstract you are reading. Be aware that abstracts can contain errors and be misleading despite the best efforts of the abstractors and editors. Always examine the original source to be sure of its conclusions.
Every database has its own set of descriptors chosen by the indexers or producers of the database. Where one database may use "women" as a descriptor, another may use "adult human female." Most databases have a thesaurus available which lists the descriptors used in that particular database as well as showing the relationship between the descriptors. For instance, a broad term would be "media," while "television" and "newspapers" would be narrower (more specific) descriptors.
Thesauruses for indexes do not normally define terms but do show their relationships to other terms. Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) located on the index table near the reference desk is another such thesaurus. These LCSH "red books" are three volumes of subject headings prepared and used by the Library of Congress to give subject access to books and other items. Subheadings and cross references are included. This is the list used to give subject headings to books at St. Mary's and other academic libraries. Bold-faced headings are those which are used in the online catalog. This is another place to look for keywords to be used in your searching. Though it is keyed to the online catalog, you may find good terms here to be used in your index searching as well.
Thesauruses are usually organized to show relationships between terms. For instance, you will usually find the main terms shown alphabetically in the thesaurus with a list of subheadings under each. These subheadings are usually each keyed with an abbreviation such as UF, BT, NT, or RT. UF stands for "Used For" and this means that the main term is used instead of whatever subheading has the UF beside it. For instance in the NCJRS thesaurus, "Arab terrorist groups" is the main heading with a UF subheading of "Middle Eastern terrorist groups." Look under "Middle Eastern terrorist groups" as a main heading and you find the cross reference USE "Arab terrorist groups."
BT denotes "broader terms," NT denotes "narrower terms," and RT denotes "related terms." These keyword grouping can be very helpful if you are not quite sure what keywords you want to use for your search. There is one more abbreviation commonly used in thesauruses, SN, standing for "scope note." The scope note delimits the specific use of a term in an index, telling exactly what types of materials are covered by the specific term.
Most indexes also allow you to search by keyword. Keywords are simply significant words found in the title, abstract, or some other part of the item. Descriptors are also keywords since they are always important words but keywords are not necessarily always descriptors. Keyword searching can be very useful if standard descriptors do not retrieve the needed information or do not exist for your topic. Searching with keywords can also be called free text searching. Whichever way you choose to do your search, remember that the computer is really looking at the string of letters you have typed in and trying to match it with another string of letters in its database. Misspelled words, synonyms, plurals, variant spellings, and so forth can cause you to miss retrieving important information.
Most online databases have a variety of operators available in addition to "and," "or," and "not."
Some databases allow you to search phrases by simply typing in the words with no operators while others require you to place a phrase in quotation marks. Some databases also allow you to search words in proximity to each other so that you can find occurrences of two words within a paragraph, within a certain number of words of each other, adjacent to each other, and so forth. Again, different databases treat proximity searches differently.
Another common searching technique allowed by most databases is truncation. Truncation allows you to search for a word stem that includes variant forms of the word. For instance, truncating to "alcohol*" allows you to search the database for "alcohol," "alcoholic," "alcoholics," "alcoholism," etc. Many databases use the "*" as a truncation symbol but, again, follow the instructions for the particular database you are searching. Some databases even truncate searches automatically.
Boolean logic allows you to combine terms in various ways to gain greater precision in searching. Often computer databases are more current than their paper counterparts because they are more easily updated. Finally, the end product is normally printed out rather than hand-written which prevents many errors and saves time as well. Sometimes an abstract or even the fulltext of an article is available via the database.
However, computer searching is usually a high-cost item. Whether you bear the cost yourself or it is borne by your library or institution, online searching costs more money than searching paper indexes. A second disadvantage is that not all disciplines are well-covered by online or CD-ROM databases. Thirdly, most databases, when they are available, cover only current information and do not allow for historical searching of more than a few years, though some do. Next, computers are extremely picky about spelling, types of search terms used, and so forth. If your search does not match exactly what is in the database, you won’t get good results. Finally, computer searchers also lose the advantages of browsing and serendipitous discovery, i.e., finding valuable items by accident.
Some of the CD-ROM indexes show St. Mary’s holdings online. If you use indexes which do not show our holdings online, check the blue-covered binders in the index table area for the list of St. Mary's journal holdings. Journal holdings are also listed in the online public catalog. These journals are located on the first floor of the library in alphabetical order by title.
Microfiche and microfilm journals, also organized in alphabetical order by journal title, are located in separate filing cabinet areas running down the center aisle of the first floor.
Microfiche and microfilm photocopiers are located on the first floor near the filing cabinets. Paper photocopiers are located on the first floor near the elevator and on the second (main) floor near the front door.
Anyone damaging or stealing library materials will be punished. Students are subject to disciplinary action including possible expulsion from the University. You will receive a failing grade in this course for mutilation or theft of library property.
Since Public Justice is interdisciplinary in nature, many of its topics are also studied by experts in other fields. If, in your examination of Social Sciences Index, you find that many of the citations come from another field such as psychology, political science, education, etc., it may be to your advantage to go to an index that specializes in that field. A technical topic such as "genetic fingerprinting" may be researched in the Applied Science and Technology Index, "psychological deviance" in PsycLIT, and "public administration of police forces" in PAIS. But in any case, you should always start with the main indexes for public justice which include Criminal Justice Abstracts and the NCJRS database.
Types of Abstracts
Abstracts can be classified in several different ways. Abstracts can be indicative or descriptive, giving little actual information but indicating what information may be found in the original. For instance, an indicative or descriptive abstract might have the sentence, "the relationship between academic performance and delinquency was determined" without telling what the relationship was.
Types of Abstractors
When reading abstracts written by others, you should be aware of some problems that can occur. First of all, abstracts are written by different kinds of abstractors. First is the author-abstractor where the author of the book or paper writes the abstract for it. In this case, the abstract is written by someone who knows the document well so it is unlikely to contain factual errors, however these abstracts often show undesirable variations in quality since many good authors are also poor abstractors.
Searching Online
Searching for information online can be a bit more complex than searching for information in a card catalog or paper index. In paper resources, the indexing is fixed and cannot be changed by the user, i.e., you can only search for terms which have been pre-selected by the indexers. Online indexes usually have an option to search different index terms in different combinations which lends flexibility but also complexity to the searching process. Many indexes and some fulltext resources are now available online and there are many different software interfaces used. A few lessons in general database searching are applicable to nearly all of them, however.
Descriptors and Keywords
Most indexes use descriptors which are subject headings assigned by indexers who actually examine the item and determine what its subject is. Descriptors are taken from a uniform list of terms used by all indexers. Only one keyword or phrase from a list of many synonyms may be used as a descriptor. For instance, synonyms may include such terms as "women," "woman," "girls," "females," and "human females." The descriptor chosen by the indexers will usually be only one of these terms though others may be cross referenced. Choosing the wrong term as a descriptor will give you a poor search result. Searching by descriptors (when you use the correct term) will usually give you a more precise search with fewer false drops or pointers to information you don't really want.
Thesaurus Terms
Using a thesaurus helps target the appropriate descriptor in the database and, by showing related terms, a thesaurus helps the researcher focus the search more closely on the desired output. There is a thesaurus useful for public justice called the National Criminal Justice Thesaurus. It is located in the Academic Library in the Documents section under call number J 28.28:yr. This thesaurus contains the terms used to index the literature in the National Institute of Justice/NCJRS database. If you are having difficulty thinking of possible search terms for your topic, take a look at this thesaurus. Even though it is published specifically for the NCJRS database, it can be used as an aid to finding keywords for use in other indexes.
Boolean Logic
Computer database search software usually can combine subject terms or keywords using a concept called Boolean logic. Suppose you want to write an article comparing and contrasting "boot camps" and "probation". By combining these two terms with the word and, you will retrieve only those materials which discuss both terms. By combining the two terms with the world or you retrieve all materials which discuss either term. The final most common term used in Boolean logic is the concept not. By combining your terms in this manner, "boot camps not probation," you will get only materials which discuss boot camps but no materials which discuss boot camps in relation to probation.
Since this kind of search keeps you from retrieving material with a search term you desire, experiment with other searches before using not to see what types of materials it will exclude from your search. The diagram on the following page shows the results of the various types of searches. Each circle represents the results of a search for a single term, either "boot camps" or "probation." The intersection between the two circles represents materials cover both topics. The shaded areas are the materials that will be retrieved by each type of search. You will notice that using and restricts a search to a smaller number of items while using or broadens the search.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Databases
The most obvious advantage of searching automated databases is the convenience and time savings. A computer search can return hundreds of matching items on a search in a matter of moments that would take hours doing a manual search of a paper index. It is also possible to do free text searching on most systems which is impossible to do in a paper index where only the pre-indexed descriptors can be used.
Holdings and Photocopiers
The bibliography that follows the section of text gives a number of indexes useful in the study of public justice and its associated subjects. Some are on CD-ROM and some are paper indexes. Remember that when you are searching a topic which may intersect with other areas of study as well as public justice, it is a good idea to check other indexes also.
Mutilation and Theft of Materials
Materials in the library are a shared resource for all the students, as well as the faculty and staff of St. Mary’s. The library is a resource for other students in the area as well as for the wider community. In order for the library to remain useful, we must guard against the theft of materials and their mutilation, i.e., tearing or cutting out of pages.
What Indexes to Use?
There are several well-known and respected indexes for criminal justice topics. One is Criminal Justice Abstracts. This index is available on CD-ROM on the Academic Library’s network. Another is the NCJRS index produced by the National Institute of Justice. It is also available on CD-ROM in the library but is not networked. Ask for this CD-ROM at the circulation desk and use it on the standalone PC near the reference desk.
Interdisciplinary Indexes
Another index that you should use for most public justice topics is the Social Sciences Index. This is a paper index located in the reference area of the Academic Library. This is the most comprehensive general index for the social sciences and can be found in nearly every research library. Topics are arranged alphabetically with subtopics underneath each of the main headings. One good reason to use this index is that it will give you a hint as to whether your topic overlaps into other areas of the social sciences.
Indexes, Abstracting Services and Electronic Databases
These items generally index journal articles by subject. Use these to look for articles on your topic. If you don't find your subject, try looking at the thesauruses above for cross references and other related terms or topics to use.
Electronic Databases
Indexes in Paper Format
These are located on the Index Tables in the Reference Area unless otherwise indicated.
Contains a digest (summary and explanation) of each opinion for the current year, along with a cumulative subject index and citation index.
Bibliographies of Serials
These are lists of journals on public justice (and other topics).
Index Tables
Ref/Z/6941/K2/yr.
Ref/HV/85/M46/1992
Back to the Table of Contents for PB1200
This web site was created by Margaret Sylvia (msylvia@stmarytx.edu) to educate Public Justice students at St. Mary's University in the use of information resources.
Created August 1998. Last modified