Look in card catalog on the right. Books are listed by authors (up to 3), titles and subjects and filed by Dewey call number on the shelves. Anything that says "Reference" cannot be checked out.
Arranged alphabetically by title in the journal section. Our holdings with DIRECT web-links are given on the journal list. Many journals are now available in full-text, either through the JSTOR project (for older issues) or else on publishers' websites. If you cannot find the journal you are looking for in full-text on our journal list above, you may need to do several searches:
We do not keep a collection of disserations. University of Minnesota theses can be found in Wilson Library (2nd floor) by the date and an assigned number (check MNCAT under the student's name.) Theses from other schools can be found by using the index "Dissertation Abstracts" (online, "Digital Dissertations") at http://www.lib.umn.edu/articles/proquest.phtml, and can usually be obtained through Interlibrary loan if they cannot be e-mailed to you.
Newer papers (since 1987) are listed in the left card catalog under the first author ONLY. If you are looking for a paper by two authors, be sure to check both authors. The notation on the left side of the card tells you the university/institution that issued the paper as well as the paper number. All papers listed in this card catalog are found on the shelves in the Working Paper Section alphabetically by school, then chronologically by number. When we moved in May of 2008, we downsized the working paper collection -- most titles found on the internet were tossed, and many of the foreign ones were put in storage. Please ask for assistance if you cannot find a paper you are looking for.
Papers up through 1986 are listed in a catalog in the storeroom. Please let me know if the paper you are looking for is older. Also in this older catalog are listed a number of UNNUMBERED papers and reprints that we have collected over the years that are filed in the tan file cabinet. A current list (which will be updated soon) can be found here.
Many older papers have been published. But when you do a search in EconLit, you may only find the paper version listed if you have just searched by a keyword that is found in the abstract. Earlier journal entries did not have abstracts, and so the published version was not found in your initial search. To make sure that a paper was not published, you should do a search in EconLit by the authors and words from the title (keeping in mind that sometimes titles can slightly change). This will usually find the published version unless it was published in an as yet un-indexed book, or an obscure journal.
Something to know about EconLit: Only about 5-10% of working papers ever make it into that index, and many of them are VERY LATE (2 years old). EconLit is NOT a good index to use to find working papers. The best things to look in are the internet sites RePEC and WoPEC, our card catalog, and specific internet sites of economics departments around the world. On the Econ Research Library webpage I have links to a number of working paper sites in the U.S. and other countries (Wendy's Working Paper Website). Also,many faculty post papers on their websites or can be e-mailed for copies of papers. Please ask for help -- I know lots of tips to make searching easier.
Wendy Williamson
Economics Research Library
13-145 Herbert Hanson Hall
University of Minnesota
1925 Fourth Street, South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
USA
Phone: 612-625-2516
Email:
wendy@umn.edu
Economics
Research Library
