CRM 402: Criminology Capstone: Home

This guide serves as an introduction to comparative criminology research in Glickman Library. It is selective, rather than comprehensive; its aim is to introduce you to categories of information as well as to specific sources.

Some suggestions on approaching your research:

Test the waters early on - if you can't find several resources on your topic, you may need to adjust it.

Check the references in the articles, books, and reports you use - they may lead you to other useful resources. 

If you find a citation to a source that seems to be a recent report from a government, NGO, etc., try searching for the title (in quotation marks) using Google or your favorite search engine; a lot of these are freely available on the Web now.

Keep a careful record of where and how you have searched (ie., database or website name and search terms used) - it will save you time in the long run!  One tool for doing this is the Library Research Log linked below.

You can also record your research with Zotero: https://libguides.usm.maine.edu/zotero

In order to find books, journals, videos, government documents and other materials held in the University of Maine System you will need to consult URSUS, the online catalog. Because journal article citations are not individually included in URSUS, you will need to use an index to find this information (see the Indexes and Databases tab above).

If you do not know the exact subject heading describing the topic you need, try doing a keyword search using other word/s related to that topic and then click on the subject heading links found within the relevant records to find additional, useful resources.

If the material you need is not available at the USM Libraries or online, the Libraries can usually obtain it for you. Books should be ordered through URSUS or MaineCat if possible; for journal articles and for books unavailable through URSUS or MaineCat, use Interlibrary Loan.

In addition, other library catalogs are available to help you identify "what's out there":

WorldCat
A national and international catalog of books, Internet sites, audio-visual sources, government documents, CD-ROMs and more. Search by keyword to find relevant essays or articles in edited books. Limit your search to English, if applicable, to eliminate materials that will not be useful to you.