ENG 444 - Professor Huff

Librarians are available to help with your research! 

If you would like to get in touch with Joseph Roberts, the librarian who created this research guide, he is usually available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can contact him at jmroberts@bsu.edu. 

Help is also available through University Libraries' Ask a Librarian page. 

Depending on your topic and which project type you've chosen, you might find these guides helpful. 

When searching for articles you will sometimes encounter the Find It @ BALL STATE button in lieu of a link to full text. It looks like this: 

The Find It @ BALL STATE button signifies that the full text of an article is not available in the database you're searching. There are three possibilities for obtaining the full text: 

• It is possible that the full text is available in a different database, and you can quickly link to it. 
• It is possible that the full text is not in any of University Libraries' databases but it is available in print and a PDF can be made for you.
• It is possible that the full text is not available in any format at University Libraries, but you could request and receive it as a PDF, though it might take a few days. 

The first step is always clicking the Find It @ BALL STATE button. A new page will open in your browser. 

If the full text is available in a different database, that database's name will appear near the middle of the page under a "View Online" heading, like this: 

Click the name of the database. In most cases you will be taken to the article's abstract, which will be accompanied by a link to the full text. 

If the articles is not available electronically at University Libraries you will see a link that says, "Request the item with Interlibrary Loan / ILLiad." The link looks like this:

In either case you can click the link to request an electronic copy of the article. 

ILLiad is University Libraries' online interface for interlibrary loan and document delivery. Interlibrary loan is a free service that allows you to obtain items from other libraries. Document delivery is a free service that allows you to obtain electronic reproductions of articles and book chapters available in print at Ball State. 

When you click the link you will be prompted to sign in with your Ball State username and password. If you've used ILLiad before, you will be prompted to complete a request for the article. If you have not used ILLiad before, you will be prompted to complete a one-time registration form; complete the registration, sign out of ILLiad, then click the "Request the item" link again. The request form will then appear. 

When the article has been delivered you will receive and email alert and instructions for accessing the PDF. 

In practice it might take only a few business days to obtain an article through ILLiad, but to be safe it is better to place your requests a week before you need them. 

For more information about interlibrary loan and document delivery, see the Interlibrary Loan FAQ. 

The University Libraries' article databases contain more than scholarly articles. Literature Criticism Online, for example, includes some encyclopedia-like content, and America: History & Life and Academic Search Premier contain newspaper and magazine content. 

Databases do have source or content type filters that will let you narrow your searches to sources that appeared in scholarly/academic journals. If you need to cite scholarly sources, the best way to be sure is to examine the source itself and look for indicators that it is scholarly. The document below will give you tips about what to look for when you are making this determination.