Resources by Subject

Subject Guides | Evaluating Resources | Scholarly vs. Non-scholarly

When doing library research, it's a good idea to keep a few general guidelines in mind, especially because information is available in so many different formats.

Subject Guides : The staff at the CNM Libraries have created these guides to aid students in researching specific subjects; each suggestion provides call number ranges to browse, magazine and journal titles to look at in the libraries, likely databases to search, and websites that we've evaluated.

Evaluating Resources : We've compiled a list of questions you should ask yourself when doing research to evaluate the source of your resources.

Evaluating Scholarly Sources : In an attempt at clarifying the subtle differences between various types of scholarly sources, we've made a table that compares and contrasts scholarly and non-scholarly resources.

For a basic introduction to the physical and electronic materials we offer at the CNM Libraries, read our basic guide to finding materials and resources below.

Materials in the library The libraries have many books, videos, DVDs, magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals. Some of these materials you can check out and take home; others must be used in the library. (To see what exactly circulates outside the library, see our circulation policy.) Books are grouped by subject and given a Library of Congress Call Number that looks like this: PS3537.T3234 G8 1939 (The grapes of wrath, by John Steinbeck) Arranging books by subject like this makes browsing simple and productive. Using the above example, the PS part of the call number means this book will be shelved with all the other books written by American authors. The 3537 part puts it with the books by American authors that were written between 1900 and 1960. Everything written by John Steinbeck (an American writing between 1900 and 1960) will have the .T3234 part, but books written by Gertrude Stein (another American writing between 1900 and 1960) would have .T323 instead. This places authors from the same country who wrote during the same period near each other on the shelf. To differentiate between Steinbeck's different novels, we use the G8 part, which comes from the title of the book, and 1939, the year it was published. Call numbers themselves change from section to section, but the general idea remains the same. Similar books will be found on the shelves near each other, so if you find one book in the catalog, it will often lead to other helpful materials. Some books circulate, which means they can leave the library, while others are marked Reference or Reserve, and must be used inside the libraries. Magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals are organized differently -- we shelve them alphabetically by title. The CNM Libraries keep a year of issues at a time, so if you're looking for something older, or that we don't subscribe to in paper, try our databases. Librarians often call magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals "serials". This just means that, unlike books, they aren't published as one single thing. Instead, they are published on a regular (or semi-regular) basis. Because of this, none of the magazines, newspapers, and scholarly journals that the libraries own can be checked out. There are copiers inside the libraries if you need to take articles home with you for your coursework. Videos and DVDs are kept in a staff-only area and only leave the library with faculty or staff, but you can find them in the catalog, ask for them at the circulation desk, and watch them in the library. They are organized like the books, with Library of Congress Call Numbers. Online information It can be helpful to think of the internet as being divided into two parts, one of which is more reliable than the other. The free internet, which is what you're using when you use Google or other search engines, contains information of all types and qualities. While some sites offer good, valid, high-quality information, some sites offer biased, invalid, or misleading information. Either way, you as the researcher have to make the decision whether or not to trust what each page says. For advice on how to do this, try our guide to evaluating resources. Since the internet does have lots of good information, the CNM Libraries include recommended websites in each subject guide, in addition to telling you which databases are the best places to start for each individual area. Databases, which are online collections of articles, are paid for by the CNM Libraries, just like we also purchase books to keep on the shelves. This means that you can trust that the information is probably reliable, because the articles and information found in our databases have already been evaluated by editors and publishers. This makes your research go faster, and helps you end up with a better results.