LibGuides: UNV 100: So You Want 2 Change the World: Overview

Welcome

Welcome to the library's course guide for UNV 100: So You Want to Change the World.

The resources on this page will help you with your projects and assignments. Please reach out to Liz if you have questions about using a resource or are having difficulty finding what you need.

Current Issues Databases

Use these databases to find sources (both academic and non-academic) on your social issue. Some will have sections to major social issues like the opioid crisis, food insecurity, immigration, and much more.

Opposing Viewpoints This link opens in a new window
This database organizes sources around current and controversial issues like the opioid crisis. You will find articles from academic journals, news outlets, and magazines, along with audio and video sources. The other type of source to pay attention to are the "Viewpoints;" these essays are typically opinion articles and write from one side of an argument or the other. See our YouTube tutorial for help searching.
Covers contemporary social issues, from Offshore Drilling to Climate Change, Health Care to Immigration. Helps students research, analyze and organize a broad variety of data for conducting research, completing writing assignments, preparing for debates, creating presentations, and more. This resource helps students explore issues from all perspectives, and includes: pro/con viewpoint essays, topic overviews, primary source documents, biographies of social activists and reformers, court-case overviews, periodical articles, statistical tables, charts and graphs, images and a link to Google Image Search, podcasts (including weekly presidential addresses and premier NPR programs), and a national and state curriculum standards search correlated to the content that allows educators to quickly identify material by grade and discipline.

Keyword(s): United States
Issues & Controversies This link opens in a new window
Balanced, accurate discussions of over 250 controversial topics in the news along with chronologies, illustrations, maps, tables, sidebars, contact info, and bibliographies, including primary source documents and news editorials.
Covers 1995-present. A Read Aloud button is available for text-to-speech for much of the content.
CQ Researcher Plus Archive This link opens in a new window
This database is a collection of full and short reports on current and controversial issues, including the opioid crisis. The full reports contain several sections including, overview, background, outlook, chronology, and pro/con, to give you a more complete understanding of the issue. Short reports are brief updates on a topic. The footnotes are a great place to find related articles and read more in depth coverage.
1923-present. Each single-themed, 12,000-word report is researched and written by a seasoned journalist, and contains an introductory overview; background and chronology on the topic; an assessment of the current situation; tables and maps; pro & con statements from representatives of opposing positions; and bibliographies of key sources.
Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports This link opens in a new window
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports are particularly useful because they are the reports many federal legislators use to learn about topics on which they are voting.
Policy Commons This link opens in a new window
Reports, articles, books & book chapters, administrative documents, and other materials from think tanks, nongovernmental & intergovernmental organizations, foundations, and government bodies on numerous policy areas, in the United States and globally.
Policy Commons links to more than 2.8 million+ policy reports, briefs, analyses, and datasets from 21,000 IGOs, NGOs, think tanks, and global research organizations. Content is harvested and indexed comprehensively on trending research topics across various disciplines—public policy, urban affairs, agricultural & environmental sciences, economics, social justice, gender equality, international development, sustainability, public health, law policy, and more.

As a preservation project, Policy Commons serves as a growing repository that includes member-contributed items, hard-to-find local and regional collections, at-risk content, and the document histories of 450 organizations that have closed their doors. Much of Policy Commons is open access. The Thompson Library has rights to the rescued collection, harvested content, and premium content including documents of the Council of Europe, African Books Collective, and books of the Environmental Law Institute.

News Databases

Good academic research takes time, but news sources are often reporting daily if not up to the minute records on some social issues. If you need the most up to date information on what the discussion is on a social issue, try searching in some of these major news sources.

As always, ask Liz for help if you need it!

US Newsstream This link opens in a new window
Full text of hundreds of contemporary newspapers from across the U.S. including most of the individual newspapers listed below.
This resource is included in Global Newsstream.
New York Times, 1851 - three months ago This link opens in a new window
Searchable access to the backfile of the New York Times (Late Eastern Edition), in full digitized page images.
Searchable access to the New York Times (Late Eastern Edition), from the first issue on September 18, 1851 to three months ago. Reproduces the complete full text of every issue in its original printed form, in full page images digitized from microfilm. Also incorporates indexing and subject headings from the New York Times Index, 1851-1993.
Wall Street Journal Online This link opens in a new window
Current content of the Wall Street Journal. No guest access.
A free personal account is available for all U-M Flint affiliates. You must create a personal account the first time you log in, using your UMICH credentials, which you can then use for login via desktop or on mobile apps. This subscription is provided to the entire U-M Flint campus courtesy of the School of Management.

More info

Chicago Tribune
Covers 1985 - current year, via Proquest
The Economist
Full text access from 1988 - present, via Gale OneFile. Use the "Search within Publication" box (upper right corner) to find articles.
Washington Post
Access from 2003 - current year, via EBSCOhost. Use the "Search within this publication" link to find articles.

Academic Journal Databases

These search tools and databases are useful if the Current Issues databases aren't giving you the best results from academic sources. The search strategies and tips covered in the video tutorials will help searching them.

QuickSearch This link opens in a new window
The discovery tool that lets you search the Thompson Library's books, journals, articles, course reserves, streaming media, and more.
Formerly Search All or Primo VE.
EBSCO Discovery Service This link opens in a new window
Search all subscribed EBSCOhost databases simultaneously.
Searches the EBSCOhost databases to which UM-Flint subscribes, including:
- CINAHL
- Criminal Justice Abstracts
- America: History and Life
- Historical Abstracts
- Political Science Complete
- Business Source Complete
- PsycInfo & PsycArticles
- Dozens of other resources
ProQuest Research This link opens in a new window
This wide-ranging resource, with scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, and newspapers, is designed to cover the top academic subject areas extensively. Suitable for all levels, from beginning scholars to advanced researchers.
Over 5,000 magazines and journals, 1971 to present (indexing); 1987 to present (full text); coverage varies by title. All subjects.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Full-text access to the archives of core scholarly journals in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and science, plus full text ebooks and open access content.
Mostly 3-5 years & older full text. African American studies, anthropology, botany, business, ecology, economics, education, general science, geography, history, language & literature, mathematics, philosophy, political science, sociology, statistics.

Dates of coverage vary by journal title. All go back to the very first issue published, but most have a "moving wall" embargo that excludes issues from the most recent X years (where X can be anywhere from 0 up to 10 years, depending on the particular journal; most are in the 3 to 5 year embargo range).

Hint: Use documents to find useful keywords and concepts, and retrieve matching JSTOR content, via JSTOR Text Analyzer.

UNV 100: So You Want 2 Change the World

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Related Guides

Welcome

Current Issues Databases

News Databases

Academic Journal Databases

Video Tutorials