Library Resources for Money and Banking
(ECON 220) Report
You must start this project by thinking critically about your topic. Different topics will require different
strategies. For example, if your topic has to do with history, books will be particularly useful. If your
topic is a current event, you will rely heavily on newspapers and magazines.
Reference Books (getting started):






Dictionary of Finance and Banking
New Palgrave: Dictionary of Money & Finance
New Palgrave: Dictionary of Economics
St. James Encyclopedia of Banking & Finance
Federal Reserve System: An Encyclopedia
Encyclopedia of the Global Economy
Ref. HG151 .D54 2005
Ref. HG151 .N48 1992
Ref. HB61 .N49 2008
Ref. HG151 .M8 1991
Ref. HG2563 .H235 2005
Ref. HF1359 .O28 2006
Tips: Reference Universe can help you find reference articles on a particular topic. Find it on the
databases page or the Reference Portal page on the library’s Web site.
Books:


Online catalog- books in our library
WorldCat- books at other libraries
Tips: Use “Subjects” links to find more books on your topic. Search for broad topics, then retrieve the
book and use the table of contents and index to find more specific information.
Articles:




LexisNexis: Newspapers, business, and legal information
Business source premier: scholarly articles, trade journals, and popular publications relating to
business, also company and industry profiles.
New York Times (for historical information back to 1851)
JSTOR also good for historical topics
Government Information:
Government sources can be enormously useful for statistics, legislation, and reports. You can search for
relevant federal documents at the Government Printing Office’s FDSys Web site
(http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/ ) or Google Advanced Search (limit domain to .gov, see screen shot below).
Potentially useful individual sites:





Federal Reserve: http://www.federalreserve.gov/
EconDISC Data and Information Service Center of the St. Louis Fed
http://econdisc.stlouisfed.org/
National Bureau of Economic Research: http://www.nber.org/
Bureau of Economic Analysis: http://www.bea.gov/
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation: http://www.fdic.gov/
Will limit to only Web sites ending in .gov domains. This will be at all levels of government, not just
federal.
Questions?
Contact: Mary Broussard at 321-4068 or broussm@lycoming.edu
Activity
1. Put the following four types of sources into order with the most up-to-date
at the top, to the type of resource that takes the longest to publish.
a. Trade publications
_____________________ (most current)
b. Scholarly articles
______________________
c. Books
______________________
d. Newspapers
______________________ (least current)
2. Why is it important to think about currency of sources?
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
3. Use the St. James Encyclopedia of Banking & Finance to look up Credit
Scoring System. What may NOT be used in determining a person’s
creditworthiness? ______________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
4. Find one relevant book on the national debt in the Snowden Library online
catalog.
a. What is the title?
________________________________________________________
b. What floor of the library is it on? (circle one)
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
c. What is the most relevant subject term associated with this book?
________________________________________________________
d. Click on the that subject term (it’s a link), how many books in our
library have that subject? ___________________________________
5. Copy that subject term into WorldCat and search for it as a subject. How
many books do you get? _________________________________________
6. Use LexisNexis to find an article about the AIG bailout.
a. When did the bailout happen? _______________________________
b. What is the title of the newspaper your article appeared in?
________________________________________________________
c. What is the date of your article? _____________________________
7. Using Google Advanced Search or FDSys, find at least one document on
money laundering.
a. Do you know what kind of document it is? _____________________
________________________________________________________
b. Read a little of it. Name one thing you learned about money
laundering _______________________________________________
8. Start to think about your chosen topic. Find one reference article on your
topic using the suggested resources or Reference Universe.
a. What is the name of the reference book? ______________________
________________________________________________________
b. What is the page number(s) of your article? ____________________
c. Name one useful fact you learned about your topic that you didn’t
already know: ____________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
9. Beyond reference books, what type of resource is going to be the best
place to start for your topic? ______________________________________
10. What finding tool (catalog, specific database name, etc.) will help you find
this kind of resource? ___________________________________________
11. Use that tool to find one relevant resource on your topic.
a. What is the title? _________________________________________
b. What is the date? _________________________________________
c. Do we have the full text at Snowden, or do you have to order it?
________________________________________________________
d. What are some good keywords or subject terms that will help you
find additional materials on your topic? _______________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________