Researching Student Organizations
For linked resources about IC student organizations, their governance, and funding, use the Student Organizations page from the Office of Student Engagement and Multicultural Affairs. For a full list of current IC student organizations, use the Organizations Directory.
Apart from what records individual organizations keep, the best source of information about their public activities may be The Ithacan. The Ithacan Web site currently provides access to pdf archives from 2010 to the present, while the Keyword search will retrieve articles back to 2007. For deeper access, use The Ithacan: Historical Issues in a Digital Version from the IC Archives. Here you can search the complete archive back to 1926. Click on "Advanced Search" at the left . Enter a Keyword search for the name of the organization--and remember to enclose names of more than one word in quotation marks. For "Search in" choose "Articles" and for "Sort by" I would recommend either "Date Descending" or "Date Ascending" to give you a quick sense of the chronological scope of the articles. Note: for any long-established organization you might first check with it to see if there have been name changes over time. Especially note: The digital archive of The Ithacan at the Archives site stops in 2002 and the Keyword search at The Ithacan site can only go back to 2007, so there's a 4-5 year gap in online access.
For complete paper copies of The Ithacan or any special materials or memorabilia, check with the Ithaca College Archives.
Other local news sources in which IC student organizations may have featured:
Apart from what records individual organizations keep, the best source of information about their public activities may be The Ithacan. The Ithacan Web site currently provides access to pdf archives from 2010 to the present, while the Keyword search will retrieve articles back to 2007. For deeper access, use The Ithacan: Historical Issues in a Digital Version from the IC Archives. Here you can search the complete archive back to 1926. Click on "Advanced Search" at the left . Enter a Keyword search for the name of the organization--and remember to enclose names of more than one word in quotation marks. For "Search in" choose "Articles" and for "Sort by" I would recommend either "Date Descending" or "Date Ascending" to give you a quick sense of the chronological scope of the articles. Note: for any long-established organization you might first check with it to see if there have been name changes over time. Especially note: The digital archive of The Ithacan at the Archives site stops in 2002 and the Keyword search at The Ithacan site can only go back to 2007, so there's a 4-5 year gap in online access.
For complete paper copies of The Ithacan or any special materials or memorabilia, check with the Ithaca College Archives.
Other local news sources in which IC student organizations may have featured:
- The Ithaca Journal
Although particular student organizations--Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) or Skull and Bones--sometimes attract sustained outside interest, there are relatively few books on student organizations in general. For this reason you may want to look beyond the IC Library collection and also try these headings as Subject searches in WorldCat via FirstSearch --a union catalog that searches the collections of almost all the academic libraries in the US, as well as some international. If you open the record for any item you find in WorldCat there will be an ILL link at the top which will populate IC's online Interlibrary Loan form.
The single best Subject heading for this topic will only prove useful in WorldCat: Students--United States--Societies, etc.
In the IC catalog these are your best bets:
College students--United States--Attitudes
College students--Attitudes
College students--United States--Conduct of life
College students--Conduct of life
College students--United States--Political activity
College students--Political activity
College students--Religious life
College students--United States--Social life and customs
Student activities
United States. Army. Reserve Officers' Training Corps
Greek letter societies
Gay College students
Ithaca College--Students--Societies and clubs
Ithaca College Student Government Association
Ithaca College--Students--Yearbooks [Archives has the Cayugan back to 1926]
The single best Subject heading for this topic will only prove useful in WorldCat: Students--United States--Societies, etc.
In the IC catalog these are your best bets:
College students--United States--Attitudes
College students--Attitudes
College students--United States--Conduct of life
College students--Conduct of life
College students--United States--Political activity
College students--Political activity
College students--Religious life
College students--United States--Social life and customs
Student activities
United States. Army. Reserve Officers' Training Corps
Greek letter societies
Gay College students
Ithaca College--Students--Societies and clubs
Ithaca College Student Government Association
Ithaca College--Students--Yearbooks [Archives has the Cayugan back to 1926]
ERIC (Ebsco interface) :
A disciplinary database in Education—at all levels. The field of Education has its own set of Subject Headings so be sure to browse the “Thesaurus” (above the search slots) for the best "Descriptors." ERIC provides access not only to relevant journal literature (citations for these end in a number preceded by EJ—ERIC Journal), but also to research published directly to ERIC (citations for these end in a number preceded by ED—ERIC Document.
Education uses its own Subject Headings, so a useful first stop is the ERIC "Thesaurus" (above the search slots) to see what Subject searches will work here. This is also a helpful exercise in that once you have found the appropriate Subject Heading you can "explode" it (double click) and generate a list of related Subject Headings. "Student organizations" (which you can focus by adding topic Keywords)," "Student Government," "Student Volunteers," and "Student Subcultures" are all available here.
Finally, note that ERIC also allows you to set the "education level" at which your topic is addressed without entering a Subject Heading like "Secondary Education" or "Colleges." Just open the "Educational Level" menu (below the search slots) and pick "Higher Education."
ProQuest Research Library :
A comprehensive database with substantial full text. At the home page click on the "More Search Options" tab at the bottom to see all available search fields.
Note that you can preview what Subject Headings will work here by clicking on "Look up Subjects" to the right of the "Subject" search slot. The available Headings are much less elaborated here than in ERIC or General OneFile, so you will probably need to add Keywords for focus. Among the broad Headings ProQuest uses are "College Students," "Student Organizations," "Colleges & universities," and "Higher education."
User Advisory: ProQuest is fussy about entering Subject searches in the designated search slot. If your subject is a person, enter the name--last name first--in the "Person" slot; if a named group of any kind--Microsoft, the Catholic Church, Radiohead, the New York Mets--enter it in "Co/Org"; if a place enter it in "Location." Note: Enter the names of student organizations--especially organizations with national profiles and campus chapters--in the "Co/Org" slot; if that doesn't work try searching the name as a Keyword phrase in the "Citation and Abstract" field, and if that doesn't work try searching it in "Document Text."
General OneFile :
The most user-friendly of our comprehensive databases, covering almost any topic from a wide range of disciplinary angles and offering lots of full text. Use the default Subject search to find the best subject heading for your topic (and when you find a good one be sure to look at the "Related Subjects" to see if there's something even better). Note: Try running a first search on "Student Associations" and then look at the "Related Subjects."
When you settle on a subject heading, open the "Subdivisions" link below it. Most General OneFile subject searches produce very large retrievals and the "subdivisions" help you narrow your search to a particular aspect. For "Student Associations" especially note "Laws, Regulations and Rules," "Political activity," "Religious aspects," or "Social aspects."
If the best available subdivision is still too broad, open it and add your own Keywords in the "Search within these results" slot at the upper left.
LexisNexis Academic News:
Our best national, international, and local newspaper coverage--100% full text. Don't settle for the default "Easy Search"--choose "News" at the lower left and then "College & University." Then change the default "Everywhere" search to "Headline & Lead" (otherwise a keyword search of full text will retrieve too many irrelevant hits). Also effective at targeting articles where your topic is discussed, not simply mentioned, is to use the "At Least 5 Occurrences" option.
LexisNexis Academic Law Reviews:
A few types of student organizations are regularly embroiled in court cases having to do with free speech and association or use of student activity fees. In reviewing these cases, legal scholars provide analysis and discussion of a wide range of topics. Click on the "US Legal" button at the lower left and then choose "Law Reviews."
Begin by setting "specify date" to "2 years." As in the "News" section, this is a Keyword search of full text, so use the "At least 5 Occurrences" option to focus on sustained discussion. For example, at least 5 occurrences of "student group!" and "first amendment" will return only articles in which these words and phrases are used at least 5 times--an indication they are a central concern. (The exclamation mark is the truncation symbol in LexisNexis--"student group!" will retrieve both "group" and "groups.")
Our best national, international, and local newspaper coverage--100% full text. Don't settle for the default "Easy Search"--choose "News" at the lower left and then "College & University." Then change the default "Everywhere" search to "Headline & Lead" (otherwise a keyword search of full text will retrieve too many irrelevant hits). Also effective at targeting articles where your topic is discussed, not simply mentioned, is to use the "At Least 5 Occurrences" option.
LexisNexis Academic Law Reviews:
A few types of student organizations are regularly embroiled in court cases having to do with free speech and association or use of student activity fees. In reviewing these cases, legal scholars provide analysis and discussion of a wide range of topics. Click on the "US Legal" button at the lower left and then choose "Law Reviews."
Begin by setting "specify date" to "2 years." As in the "News" section, this is a Keyword search of full text, so use the "At least 5 Occurrences" option to focus on sustained discussion. For example, at least 5 occurrences of "student group!" and "first amendment" will return only articles in which these words and phrases are used at least 5 times--an indication they are a central concern. (The exclamation mark is the truncation symbol in LexisNexis--"student group!" will retrieve both "group" and "groups.")
JSTOR :
JSTOR covers a wide range of scholarly journals in most disciplines, always beginning with the first issue of each one. This provides 100% full text access to articles from not only the first half of the 20th century but even the 19th--and occasionally the 18th. Be aware, however, that at the other end of the date range articles don't appear in JSTOR until at least 2-3 years after publication.
JSTOR offers only a Keyword search of its complete full text, so retrievals are large, but the relevancy ranking does a good job of putting the strongest matches on the first few pages. This relevancy ranking does not weigh date, however, and will display a mix of articles written decades apart. So if your topic is time sensitive, be alert to publication dates.
JSTOR is excellent in the field of education and what could prove uniquely valuable is its historical depth: you can retrieve articles from the first half of the 20th century or even the second half of the 19th. This allows you to access articles about Students for a Democratic Society written in the 60s and early 70s or retrieve mentions of some longstanding student societies from the early 20th century.
User Advisory: The academic journals covered here feature numerous book reviews, so it's a good idea to tick the "Article" limit box below the search slots so you won't be overwhelmed by book reviews on your topic.
ATLA religion database with ATLASerials :
Our religion and theology database. To browse the Subject Headings available here, click on "Indexes" above the search slots and select "Subjects ALL" from the drop-down menu. Among the Subjects here are "Student Societies," "Campus Ministry," "Students--Religious Life," and "Universities and Colleges--Religion."
PsycINFO :
ATLA religion database with ATLASerials :
Our religion and theology database. To browse the Subject Headings available here, click on "Indexes" above the search slots and select "Subjects ALL" from the drop-down menu. Among the Subjects here are "Student Societies," "Campus Ministry," "Students--Religious Life," and "Universities and Colleges--Religion."
PsycINFO :
The American Psychological Association use their own Subject vocabulary (called "Descriptors"), so a visit to the "Thesaurus" below the search slots is a good idea. If you find an article on exactly what you want, be sure to check the assigned "Descriptors" on the right of the citation for more ideas about useful search terms.
Among the Descriptors available here are "Higher Education," "College Environment," and "College Students," "Clubs," and "School Club Membership."
User Advisory: If what you're searching for are "journal articles only" in "English," it's a good idea to check those boxes (below the search slots).
Academic Search Premier & SocINDEX with Full Text :
Both these Ebsco databases are excellent resources for issues in education and youth culture. In searching both take advantage of the "Subject Terms" index above the search slots where you can browse the available Subject Headings. When you have found one, double click it for a list of related Headings that might also prove useful. And note that you can check the boxes to select as many Headings as you like and then "add to search using or" and run the search--all without even retyping the terms back on the home page. Among the Headings available here are "Universities & Colleges," "Student Organizations," and "Student Clubs," any of which can be further focused by adding Keywords or the name of a specific organization.
Web Directories differ from search engines like Google in that all the online resources have been selected and annotated by editors, thereby promising a much higher degree of quality control.
- Open Directory Project: Student Organizations
Google Advanced Search: When doing research on the Web, always use the Adanced Search version of Google. This not only provides more flexibility in entering search terms, but more importantly it allows you to target the Web domains that are likely to provide the most authoritative information.
Under "Need More Tools?" you will find the "Search within a site or domain" slot. You may enter only one domain at a time, but it's worth targeting each of the three domains likely to supply the best information: colleges and universities (enter the "edu" tag), nonprofit organizations (enter the "org" tag), and the United States government (enter the "gov" tag).
For this topic, the .edu tag will be particularly useful in targeting campus organizations.
Under "Need More Tools?" you will find the "Search within a site or domain" slot. You may enter only one domain at a time, but it's worth targeting each of the three domains likely to supply the best information: colleges and universities (enter the "edu" tag), nonprofit organizations (enter the "org" tag), and the United States government (enter the "gov" tag).
For this topic, the .edu tag will be particularly useful in targeting campus organizations.
MLA is the citation style used by most disciplines in the Humanities. The guides below use the latest 2008/9 standards.
