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RELG 401: Capstone Research Methods

Where to Find Primary or Exhibit Sources

The databases below provide access to deep and wide-ranging collections of primary source materials.

For a complete list of databases at Oberlin, including many other primary source collections, check out the Databases A-Z. Try filtering by Types for Primary Sources.

The databases below provide access to historical newspapers, and may be of particular use in your research.

For a complete list of databases at Oberlin, including many other historical newspapers collections, check out the Databases A-Z. Try filtering by Types for Newspapers and/or for Primary Sources.

Federal Depository Library Program

Oberlin College Libraries participates in the United States Government Publication Office (GPO) Federal Depository Library Program. Per GPO, "Federal depository libraries collaborate with one another to provide a vast array of unique historical and current Federal documents and they carry a collection of basic titles available for immediate use."

Government documents are classified using Superintendent of Documents Classification numbers. To learn about this classification scheme, refer to the Superintendent of Documents Classification Guidelines.

Physical Formats in Seach.Libraries

To discover government documents in physical formats:

  • Filter your search results by Location > Science Library US Gov Docs, Location > Main Library Government Documents Census, and/or Location > Main Library Government Documents
  • In Browse Search, browse by Call Number (SUDOC)

Note: At this time, the Search.Libraries Resource Type filter for Government Documents excludes physical formats available at Oberlin; government documents in physical formats often have the resource type of book or journal.

Electronic Formats in Search.Libraries

To discover government documents in electronic formats and available online:

  • Apply the Government documents pre-filter before you search
  • Filter your search results by Resource Type > Government Documents

Databases

The databases below provide access to United States government documents and statistics.

For a complete list of databases at Oberlin, check out the Databases A-Z. Try filtering by Types for Government publications.

The E in BEAM: What is an Exhibit Source?

In his paper introducing the BEAM model of source description, Jospeh Bizup explains:

I use the terms exhibit and exhibit source to refer to materials a writer offers for explication, analysis, or interpretation. Materials used as background, argument, or method sources tend to be prose texts, but anything that can be represented in discourse can potentially serve as an exhibit. The simplest sort of exhibit is the example, a concrete instance offered to illustrate some more general claim or assertion. Examples often require little additional explication, but complex exhibits can demand extensive framing and interpretation. My term exhibit, I wish to emphasize, is not synonymous with the conventional term evidence, which designates data offered in support of a claim. Exhibits can lend support to claims, but they can also provide occasions for claims. Rich exhibits, however exhaustively they are examined and analyzed, will retain their "mystery" in Davis and Shadle's sense of the word. Understood in this way, the exhibits in a piece of writing work much like the exhibits in a museum or a trial. Good writers, like good curators and lawyers, know that rich exhibits may be subjected to multiple and perhaps even conflicting "readings." They know they must do rhetorical work to establish their exhibits' meanings and significance. (Bizup 2008, 75)

Bizup, Joseph. “BEAM: A Rhetorical Vocabulary for Teaching Research-Based Writing.” Rhetoric Review 27, no. 1 (2008): 72–86. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20176824.

To learn more about BEAM and other source evaluation models and techniques, refer to the following research guide: