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Criminal Justice: Reference Resources

Find Books @ Boyd

Click here to search the Boyd Library online catalog.

 

Know What to Look For!

Look for one of these icons in the article record: 
pdf icon
html icon
If you don't see one of those, click this:
 article linker

to find links to the article in another database or to see if the library has the article in print.

If the library does not have a copy, you can order it for free through our Interlibrary Loan service. (Just ask a librarian!) 

If you have a citation that did not come from a library database, try using Google Scholar, which may provide you with a link to a library subscription offering.

Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University

The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects. Teachers and trainers may use this material for in-class and out-of-class instruction.

For more information about services for the Purdue University community, including one-to-one consultations, ESL conversation groups and workshops, please visit the Writing Lab site.

 

Websites: Use Good Ones, Not Bad Ones!

You may find that you have a lot of freedom in finding resources for your papers. That is a good thing!

We know that the first place you'll go is online -- probably to Google, Yahoo, or Bing. That's fine. That's not a bad thing.

What IS a bad thing is if you use any old website without checking to make sure that it is a good one. Use the following as guidelines in determining whether to use a website for your paper.

  • Who made it: a business, a branch of government, a non-profit organization, the military, a professional association....?
  • Are they credible and reliable?
  • When was it last updated?
  • What is the purpose of the website? Is it trying to sell you something?
  • Are there a lot of ads?

A word about Wikipedia: librarians love Wikipedia. Professors love Wikipedia. Everyone loves it. It is a great starting point. BUT, it is generally NOT acceptable to cite Wikipedia in a college-level paper unless your professor has said that it is OK.