Library Catalog:
Searched term: censorship
Citation: Hull, Mary. Censorship in America. Santa Barbra, California: ABC-CLIO, 2001. Print.
Subject: censorship (United States)
Format, location and call number: Circulating book, Cannell second floor, call no. Z658.U5 H84 1999
Clues: Publisher seems reputable: http://www.abc-clio.com/, 2001 is a relatively recent book
Summit:
Searched terms: censorship, America
Citation: Paxton, Mark. Censorship. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2008. Print.
Subject: Censorship -- United States -- History
Location and call number: University of Portland, call no. Z658.U5 P39 2008
Clues: Reputable author, publisher and recent pub. date
Differences: Summit gives you the book contents and related books.
Books 24x7:
To narrow searches, on Books 24x7 you can selected where you want to search (by title, author, ISBN, or general content) and what words you want to search. You can also search for to proximity of the words, any words, all words or an exact phrase. When you add words, your searches will narrow. But if your search is too narrow, you won't get a return.
Google Books:
Searched terms: Censorship in America
Citation: Nye, Valerie; Barko, Kathy, ed. True Stories of Censorship Battles in America's Libraries. United States: American Library Association, 2012. Google Book Search. Web. 13 May 2012
Clues: Published this year, editors seem experienced in the topic.
Summary:
All the tools I used are very similar. All give you the basics of the book (author, title, ISBN, subject etc.) Google Books allows you to see clips of of some books, which proves useful. The benifit of the Cannell catalog is that those books are available for quick reference. Summit offers a useful similar book tool where you can view books that consist of the same subjects. The advanced search on Books 24x7 was a bit confusing, but was otherwise useful. I would say the best tool was Summit and the library catalog. Google Books is also a good to since it picks obscure and specific books on your topic.
--Brian
Hi, Brian:
ReplyDeleteThank you for your report. I agree that all the resources are valuable depending on what you are searching for. Some folks find one interface/search options more appealing then others. I like the Cannell catalog, you can see what is here, cross reference by author, subject heading and browse the area of the collection for similar books.
Cheers,
Andrea