This research guide relays some basic information on library and information resources pertaining to the concerns of this department, as provided by University Libraries and/or sites on the World Wide Web.

1. To Shelf-Browse for Books (using main Library of Congress Subject Divisions)

Books on subjects associated with this field are shelved under the call number ranges listed below. Use TOPCAT to search for specific items in the collection, or more narrowly-defined subjects.

• Academic Search Premier, MasterFILE, MAS FullTEXT Ultra: these all-subject services, a part of the EBSCOhost system (which is a powerful online reference system accessible via the Libraries, or through direct connection) feature indexing and abstracting of many journals and magazines WKU Libraries receives in hardcopy, plus a large selection of articles in full text.
• Google Scholar: A free Web-based Google service that restricts searches to the scholarly literature. Now features linking to full-text of articles held by WKU.
• Reader's Guide to Periodicals Literature (Per. Ind. A13 .R48): Paper index covering articles on all subjects in magazines since 1904.

The following services are recommended for use by advanced students and researchers:

• Project Muse: Provides online, worldwide, institutional subscription access to the full text of over 100 scholarly journals in the arts and humanities, social sciences and mathematics.
• ComAbstracts: Contains abstracts of articles published in the primary professional literature of the communication field.
• Communication & Mass Media Complete: This EBSCOhost database includes abstracts and some full-text of articles in the communication field.
• Alt-Press Watch has full text of over 170 alternative and independent newspapers, magazines and journals.
• JSTOR: Provides the full text/full image web access of the complete archival collections of several communication related journals up to the most recent three to five years.

These full-text FirstSearch-based databases are available to graduate students and faculty, and to undergraduates by special permission.

• ArticleFirst: FirstSearch database available to faculty and graduate students (and to undergraduate students by special permission). Indexes almost 13,000 journals and magazines from 1990 onward, including some ninety percent of the ones University Libraries carries in hardcopy.
  Alt-Press Index: FirstSearch database available to faculty and graduate students (and to undergraduate students by special permission). Indexes journals covering cultural, economic, political & social change.
• WilsonSelectPlus: Full-text articles in science, humanities, education and business.
• PerAbs: Periodical abstracts from general and academic journals.

Special resource:  TDNet Electronic Journal Finder [use to access Libraries' electronic journals, magazines, and newspapers, as well as some indexes and databases containing full-text articles; includes a comprehensive A-Z listing of titles]

3. Monographic Reference Works in Helm Library

The following are recommended for use:

• A dictionary of communication and media studies: P87.5. W38 1997
• Communication serials: an international guide to periodicals in communication, popular culture, and the performing arts: P88.8 .C6x
• Communications and society: a bibliography on communications technologies and their social impact / compiled by Benjamin F. Shearer and Marilyn Huxford: Z5630 .S43 1983
• Communication research measures: a sourcebook / editors, Rebecca B. Rubin, Philip Palmgreen, Howard E. Sypher; associate editors, Michael J. Beatty: P91.3 .C62 1994
• Merriam-Webster's guide to international business communications: HF54.5 .A86 1994
• Better said and clearly written: an annotated guide to business communication sources, skills, and samples / compiled by Sandra E. Belanger: Z7164 .C81 B428 1989
• The economics of communication: a selected bibliography with abstracts / Karen P. Middleton, Meheroo Jussawalla: Z5630 .M5 1981

4. Department of Communication

WKU Communication Department homepage http://www.wku.edu/Dept/Academic/AHSS/Communication/

5. Related Professional Societies (for professional news, careers/jobs, memberships, etc.)

• American Communication Association http://www.uark.edu/~aca/
• American Forensic Association http://www.americanforensics.org/
• American Society for the History of Rhetoric http://www.ashr.org/
• Association for Business Communication http://www.businesscommunication.org/
• Association for Educational Communications and Technology http://www.aect.org/
• Central States Communication Association http://www.csca-net.org/
• Eastern Communication Association http://www.ecasite.org/
• IEEE Professional Communication Society http://www.ieeepcs.org
• International Association of Business Communicators http://www.iabc.com/
• International Communication Association http://www.icahdq.org/
• International Listening Association http://www.listen.org/
• International Speech Communication Association http://www.isca-speech.org/
• National Communication Association http://www.natcom.org/
• Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research (SIETAR) http://www.sietar.org/
• Society for Technical Communication http://www.stc.org/
• Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~sssi/
• Southern States Communication Association http://www.ssca.net/
• Western States Communication Association http://www.westcomm.org/
• World Communication Association http://facstaff.uww.edu/wca/Home.htm