ENGL 120 - Library Instruction Session III

Paper 4 Contemporary Issues (What is wrong and how can it be fixed?)

1. Find an issue of importance to you. (Ex. Capital Punishment, Death Penalty)
2. Before doing anything, think:  What do I need for this paper?
3. Look in AubieCat (What can be found in AubieCat?)
4. Look in periodicals (Time, Newsweek) and newspapers. (Where can these articles be identified?  Where can they be located?)

Answers

1. Pick up this week's Sunday Newspaper or Time or Newsweek.
2. Materials that will inform your own opinion as to the facts concerning your topic.
3. Books at Auburn and the Location of Periodicals.
4. Indexes and Databases. AubieCat.

What am I interested in?

1. I am interested in the Death Penalty in the United States.  Why?
2. Because I saw an article in the New York Times Online about the U.S. Supreme Court and its interest in the way that the state of Florida executes prisoners by means of the "electric chair."
3. Where should I begin?  See above AubieCat.
4. What should I look for in AubieCat?  Basic Keyword "Death Penalty"
5. What now?  Look for the appropriate Subject Heading "Capital Punishment--United States"
6. I now have around 150 books.  (That means possibly 15,000 citations to materials that will inform my opinion) How long did this take?  Less than a minute?
7. What next?  Review what you have?  Do your books and your article in the  
   New York Times Online cite enough material to accomplish this paper? Probably...
8. But you will want to have an unbiased look at other materials representing the opposing side to your argument.
9. Where to go?  Indexes and Databases by Subject, Web Search Engines - Google or Profusion, or the other sources that we have discussed in Library Instuction Session I and Library Instruction Session II.

What did I do?

1. From the New York Times Online article I identified the current Florida case that the U.S. Supreme Court has granted certiorari (Bryan v. Moore USSUPCT DN 99-6723).   This case is interesting in that it was like several other cases not granted certiorari; however, they all lacked vivid images of a botched "electric chair" execution.
2. By asking my friendly librarian, I found out that these photos were taken by the Florida Department of Corrections and were posted to the web by Florida Supreme Court Justice Leander Shaw.  I also discovered that Shaw dissented in a recent Florida case concerning the use of the "electric chair" as means of capital punishment and that this dissent is available online for free (Provenzano v. Moore FLSUPCT DN 95,973).
3. So now I have my original New York Times Online article and at least 2 other related New York Times Online articles as well as a Florida Supreme Court dissent and concurring opinion regarding the use of the "electric chair" in capital punishment.
4. From AubieCat I got the following:
   

Bedau, Hugo Adam, ed.  The death penalty in America; an anthology.  KF9227.C2 B4 1968

Bigel, Alan I. Justices William J. Brennan, Jr. and Thurgood Marshall on capital punishment : its constitutionality, morality, deterrent effect, and interpretation by the Court.  KF 9227 .C2 B54 1997

Hook, Donald D.  Death in the balance : the debate over capital punishment.   HV 8694 .H66 1989

Mello, Michael.  Against the death penalty : the relentless dissents of Justices Brennan and Marshall.  KF 9227 .C2 M38 1996

5. Then I looked in Newsbank AND Newspaper Abstracts: See Indexes and Databases
6. Titles from the Florida Times-Union and St. Petersburg Times "Capital Punsihment"

   "The Story of Old Sparky"
   "Florida Faces Legal Crisis over the Chair"
   "(Florida) High Court Puts Death Cases Back into Play"

   Titles from the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times "Florida Execution"

   "Bloody Florida Execution Spurs Questions"
   "High Court Hears 4 Capital Punishment Cases"

7. Sources that I got from the Internet and Westlaw.  See Research by Subject.

   ACLU: Death Penalty http://www.aclu.org/issues/death/hmdp.html

   Allmand, Warren, et. al. " Human Rights and Human Wrongs: is the United States Death Penalty System Inconsistent with International Human Rights Law?" 67 (May, 1999): 2793. Westlaw Abbreviation
   (67 FDMLR 2793)

   Angel on Death Row http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/angel/

   Bienen, Leigh B. " What We Write About When We Write About The Death Penalty--A Review of Recent Books and Literature on Capital Punishment." Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 89 (Winter 1999): 751. Westlaw Abbreviation (89 JCRLC 751)

   Callins v. Collins 114 S.Ct. 1127, 510 U.S. 1141. (Contains Dissenting opinion of Blackmun and concurring opinion of Scalia)

   DeathPenalty.Net -- Bibliography
   http://www.deathpenalty.net/bibliography.html

   Lee, Tena Jamison. "Anatomy of a Death Penalty Case: Did Florida Almost Execute an Innocent." Human Rights 23 (Summer, 1996): 18.

   Westlaw Abbreviation (23-SUM HUMRT 18)

   National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty http://www.ncadp.org/

   Other Sourcesof Information About the Death Penalty (Cornell University)
   http://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/library/death/dpinfo.html#IA

   Zeisel, Hans. "Race Bias in the Administration of the Death Penalty." Harvard Law Review 95 (December, 1981): 456. Westlaw Abbreviation
   (95 HVLR 456)

8. What sources have I not checked yet?

Academic Search FULLTEXT Elite
Congressional Universe
Current Issues Sourcefile
InfoTrac's Expanded Academic ASAP
Newspaper Source
PAIS International
Statistical Universe

CQ Researcher 3rd Floor REF H 35 .E35 (1991 - 1999)
Editorials on File 3rd Floor REF D 410. E 3(1970 - 1999)
Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century 3rd Floor REF E 740.7 .E53 1996
The Social Science Encyclopedia 3rd Floor REF H 41 .S63 1996

And last but not least the text of the U.S. Constitution