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Finding Materials at the Economics Research Library

BOOKS

Look in card catalog against window 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.

JOURNALS

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:

• check the University of Minnesota libraries catalog -- type in journal name by title. If it is available full text they SHOULD have a hot link to it. This is not always the case, however.
• check the journal publisher's homepage. You may need to consult "Ulrich's Periodical Guide" to find the publisher; otherwise it should be given in the U of M Library catalog. Large scientific publishers such as Elsevier/North Holland (Science Direct), Springer-Verlag (Link), and Blackwell (all of whom publish a number of economics journals) provide full-text copies from their web site of SOME of their journal issues IF the University Libraries subscribes to the PAPER version; and the more current the journal, the likelier it is that you will find it available in full-text format.
• check EconLit for the article. Some citations in there have links full-text articles Also, SOME economics journals are also indexed in Business Source Premier and have full-text articles as well. Both of these indexes can be accessed from your desktop by getting into the U library catalog and selecting "Indexes" instead of "MNCAT" (which is only the library catalog). In order to get into EconLit or BSP from home (using the internet tool-kit) you need to type in your ASSIGNED university username (not your econ or atlas account) and password.
• check our working papers -- at least you may be able to find the journal article in pre-published form. Alternatively, we also have a lot of older article reprints that were issued by institutions. Check both working paper catalogs by author for your article.
• check U Library catalog or our card catalog for collected works by author, especially if the author was fairly notable. From 1984 on, collections have been indexed in EconLit. Prior to this time they were not. Many older notable articles have been reprinted a number of times in collections by topic as well. A search in JSTOR would also be advisable because the contents are searchable from the beginning date of the journal (before the 1969 start date of Econlit).

DISSERTATIONS

We do not keep a collection of disserations. They can be found in Wilson Library (2nd floor) by the date and an assigned number (check LUMINA 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.

WORKING PAPERS

Newer papers (since 1987) are listed in the card catalog to the left under 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. If the card says "reprint" instead of "paper" then you need to check the 2 shelves of reprints in the storeroom (other side of library office).

Papers up through 1986 are listed in the far right card catalog by authors (up to 3) and title. Again, the notation on the card will tell you the issuing school and paper number. ALSO in this catalog are a number of UNNUMBERED papers and reprints that we have collected over the years that are filed in the tan file cabinet. This collection DOES include papers newer than 1986. So to be thorough, you should check BOTH catalogs in your search to find a paper.

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 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
1235 Walter W. Heller Hall
University of Minnesota
271 19th Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55455
USA

Phone: 612-625-2516
Email: wendy@umn.edu

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Comments to: Economics Research Library
Copyright: 2000-2007 University of Minnesota
Last Modified: March 26, 2007
Home Page URL: http://www.econ.umn.edu/~econlib/
Office: Economics Research Library, Department of Economics
Page Coordinator: Wendy Williamson, email