Library Catalogs

OU Library Catalog--includes bibliographic records for everything the Library owns: books, journals, videos, electronic books and journals, government documents, audio recordings.

World Cat--union catalog of libraries worldwide

MelCat--union catalog of many Michigan libraries; 1st stop to interloan books

Subject headings, a sampling

Sociolinguistics

Americanisms

English language--Dialects

English language--Political aspects

English language--Spoken English

Language policy--United States

Linguistic change

Speech and social status

 

Boolean keyword searching

"And" requires that all terms must be in your search results. It serves to narrow your search. Dogs and Cats--This means each result will be about both dogs and cats.

"Or" gets you MORE. Use it between similar terms. Dogs or Cats--This means each result will be about either dogs or cats (or possibly even about both dogs and cats).

Sample Library Catalog search:

(language or linguistics or sociolinguistics)

and

"united states"

 

For a quick tutorial go to the University of Wakaito library's web site--click on "Search Strategies" and then on "Keyword Search Tools.

Databases & E-Journal Collections

Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts--It's here! Great advantage over MLA is the presence of abstracts. It also indexes many more journals.

MLA Bibliography--the standard index for literature and the best index we have for linguistics (until we get LLBA). Coverage begins in 1926. Includes citations to journal articles, books, chapters, and dissertations. There are no abstracts, but there are "enhanced" subject headings. Has an online thesaurus.

Sociological Abstracts--While SA principally indexes materials in sociology, it does have a surprising number of items related to sociolinguistics and ethnolinguistics. Other terms that might be helpful are "central cities," "Black community," "language maintenance," etc.

ERIC--the standard index for Education (very broadly defined). Coverage begins in 1966. It is a great source for linguistics. Indexes primarily journal articles and unpublished reports and presentations [ERIC Documents]. Has online thesaurus (get to from "Search Tools" tab). [Search "age groups" in thesaurus to find formal subject headings/descriptors for age groups.] Online links to many documents (ED) from 1992 on, before on microfiche. Use links for journals.

PsycInfo-goes back to 1887. Another good source with many references to "sociolinguistis" and to other linguistics topics. Useful to limit searches to "English language" and to "articles." Note that you can also limit to a particular age group from the search page. From the "Search Tools" tab you can get to the thesaurus (listing of subject terms/descriptors). Indexes articles, books, chapters in books, and dissertations.

JSTOR--Online collection of many scholarly journals from volume 1 until 2 to 5 years ago. Full text of articles is searchable! Problem: JSTOR does not use subject headings. If you get too many results searching your terms in "full-text" try restricting them to "article title."

Contact Information

Library Instructor: Millie Merz, 241 KL, 248-370-2457, merz@oakland.edu

Course Instructor: Alice Horning, 330 WH, 248-370-4134, horning@oakland.edu

Reference Titles

Oxford English Dictionary--Now available online. The OED is a historical dictionary of English, covering the language from the earliest times to the present day and showing the development of meanings through time.

 

International Encyclopedia of Linguistics

Ref. P 29 I58 2003

Interesting entries on : Sociolinguistics, Social Variation, Register and Style, African American Vernacular English

 

A Dictionary of Sociolinguistics

Ref. P 40 .D477 2004

 

A Glossary of Sociolinguistics

Ref. P 40 .T747 2003

 

International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences--Available both online and print (Ref. H 40 .A2 I5 2008). Includes an interesting article on "anthropology, linguistic."

 

Credo Reference--a collection of online reference works. Try doing a search on "sociolinguistics."

Here are some direct links to potentially useful Credo Reference titles:

Concise Encyclopedia of Sociolinguistics

Dictionary of Contemporary Slang

Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics

How We Talk: American Regional English Today

 

A Sampling of Web Sites

Human Language: Resources from Linguistics and Beyond--from the American Library Association, this is an annotated list of web sites related to linguistics.

 

Do You Speak American? --Web site for the PBS series

 

OU Library Course Page: Psycholinguistics--direct links to many OU accessible online journals in the field of linguistics.

 

OU Library's Research Guide for Linguistics

 

Other Info

Does the library have access to a journal online? Easiest way to find out is to check the "Alphabetical List of Online Journals" from the library's "Find Articles" page.

 

Where do you find lists of databases and other online resources available at OU? The easiest way to find these is to check "Databases by Subject" or "Databases A to Z" from the "Find Articles" page.

 

When you are using the library's databases, be sure to click on the blue link when the article you want does not have a full text link in the database. will then take you to the article from another source OR take you to the library catalog record for print holdings OR take you to a form to request a copy of the article via interlibrary loan.

 

• RefWorks - a reference management tool that allows you to create a personal database of references and automatically generate formatted bibliographies for your projects.

MM's RefWorks Literacy folder