Looking for journals in all the right places.

You might hear people in the academic world talk about a crisis in scholarly communication.  What they are usually referring to is the proliferation of academic journals and their cost.  One answer has been a movement toward open access journals.  Open access usually means free, online access, and whatever its merits or pitfalls, it is a growing phenomenon.  Want to be a part of this exciting, cutting edge process?  Next time you need a journal article go to www.doaj.org  The Directory of Open Access Journals.

Although it probably won't be of much use at Rosedale Bible College, if you are scientifically or medically inclined you might try BioMed http://www.biomedcentral.com/home/ or the Public Library of Science  http://www.plos.org/  Many government grants now require recipients to publish in open-access sites like these.

Most research universities (big schools with lots of money and professors who might not have to teach) are creating their own open-access repositories.  For example, Ohio State way over in Columbus, Ohio, has Knowledge Bank https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/index.jsp where you might find some fascinating digital sources for your research, including theses and dissertations.

How about  "Contemporary American Protestant Attitudes toward the War on Terror: Authority, Theology and Political Beliefs"  by Rosemary Blackburn-Smith, with the following abstract taken from the site.

Issue Date:	Jun-2007
Abstract:	This thesis examines the breadth of opinions toward the current war in Afghanistan among American Protestants. The thesis presents data gathered from fieldwork in several Central Ohio Protestant churches as well as books and articles published post-9/11. As my data demonstrate, Protestant attitudes toward this war are strongly related to specific theological attitudes, such as how a Christian perceives the figure of Jesus Christ, how one interprets the religious authority (the Bible), and how one defines evil. The cyclical relationship between theological beliefs and attitudes toward war is mediated by the level of political authority a particular Christian or group of Christians has.

Break the chains of braindead online research.

The Library of Congress Web site has some very interesting online exhibits. 

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/

Some of these would be very good for a research paper.  Let me call your attention to Religion and the Founding of the American Republic where you can see this picture:

.

Execution of Mennonites
This engraving depicts the execution of David van der Leyen and Levina Ghyselins, described variously as Dutch Anabaptists or Mennonites, by Catholic authorities in Ghent in 1554. Strangled and burned, van der Leyen was finally dispatched with an iron fork. Bracht’s Martyr’s Mirror is considered by modern Mennonites as second only in importance to the Bible in perpetuating their faith. (from the LOC Web site) 

AND MUCH MORE!!!

Need to get out of the cornfield?

Wal-Mart won't do it?  Columbus Metropolitan Library, especially the main library, might be the cure. RBC has a corporate card, which you are welcome to pick up in my office.  CML has been known to grant our students cards.  While you're there--do some research! 

"CML is ranked #1 in the country by Hennen's American Public Library Rating Index. " (CML Web site)

"Consequently, our library is one of the most-used library systems in the country. It consistently ranks at the top of its class. The ranking is based on such categories as circulation of materials, customer visits per hour and number of volumes owned per capita. Last year, customers borrowed more than 16 million items, made 8.2 million visits to the library and asked 1.2 million reference questions." (CML Web site)

All you need to know, including local branch information, can be found at their Web site.

http://www.columbuslibrary.org

Great New Research Tool

OCLC, in very close to us Dublin, Ohio, has gone public with worldcat.  Http://www.worldcat.org.  With this tool you can find what cataloged items exist, and then by entering your zip code see if there is a copy near the greater Rosedale Metropolitan area.

From the Worldcat site:

Messing around with Xanga when you should be working on that paper?

Bibliophobic?

The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.  Maybe your problem is a paper due at the end of the week (or sooner)

Thinking you'll do a little research while you're online?

Consider a couple of distressing facts.

• A high percentage of  online information is not indexed by any of the search engines, for purposes of argument let's take a wild guess and say 80 percent  .
• An even higher percentage of quality information that would be adequate for your rbc research is not available for free online, for purpose of an even bigger argument, Let's say 90 percent .

This means:

Writing a good college-level paper will require more than reading a few paragraphs from the first 10 cheesy websites that Google displays.

Let me recommend:

Using your ohio library card or RBC's Corporate account to access some SERious information through OPLIn.org.  to help you do that, There are two handouts for RBC students that you can access online right now!  You can access good full-text research with just a few clicks right now.

The Research Advice handout gives you some advice about how to approach your online research.

http://www.rosedale.edu/library/ResearchAdvice_Online.pdf

The magazine & Journal Research handout talks about conventional magazine/journal research at RBC, but includesdirections for using Oplin.  The oplin directions are the ones you probably want right now.

http://www.rosedale.edu/library/MagJournalResearch.pdf

There are some other things you can do at the library section of the Rosedale Website:

Anabaptist documents in PDF form (be careful, Menno is huge)

http://www.rosedale.edu/library/olcollections.html

An invitation from the librarian to send reference questions by email.

http://www.rosedale.edu/library/emaillib.html

Our catalog online.

http://216.141.143.221/InfoCentre/Library.do

and finally

A couple of Inspirational Quotes to send you on your way:

"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday."

                                                           Donald Robert Perry Marquis

"If once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination."

                                                          Thomas De Quincey