Locating Presidential Speeches Using Academic Universe

President Bush's decision to partially fund  stem cell research is currently a hot topic, one that your comp/rhet students may wish to address. It would be useful, then, to have a copy of his speech.  No problem. Academic Universe make it a simple matter to get transcripts, and get them quickly,  of presidential speeches or news conferences via its News database.

Accessing Academic Universe

• Go the WIU Libraries home page
• Click on the Online Databases link. This will take you to a menu offering various ways to access the databases.
• Click on the Alphabetical Listing link.
• Scroll to, and select, Academic Universe--which is only available on campus.  You will be taken to the Academic Universe home page.
• Click on News.

1) You will be taken to a menu. Click on Transcripts	2)  You will be taken to a Basic Menu. Click on the "More Options" tab. This will take you to, yup, the "More Options" menu
3) Construct the Search as Below. You should receive two transcripts from different sources of the speech. The transcripts can be e-mailed.

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Explanation of Search

• Search for: area  The database will distinguish between presidential "Remarks," which are usually press conferences or short speeches to the nation or a presidential  "Address," as in the weekly radio address or the annual address to Congress. If you're not certain you can always use both terms connected by "or." They will always be found in the headline.
• Additional Terms areas  I used Bush because the president's name is always in the headline. "Stem-cell" I figured would be either in the headline or in of the lead paragraphs.
• Date: I used the date the speech was delivered and the next day to limit responses.
• Source: Political Transcripts is a sub-sub database of the News Database that contains official press releases from the national government as well as transcripts of television appearances by officials, as, for example, on Meet The Press.