FYS 101-21: Constructing Our Histories: The Politics of Memory and Commemoration

Fall 2009

Anna Nekola

Humanities Liaison Librarian - Joshua Finnell

Reference

Use Reference Universe to locate reference materials on your topic.

Searching CONSORT and OhioLINK and WorldCat

CONSORT: Searches Denison, Kenyon, OWU, and Wooster
OhioLINK: Searches over 80 Academic libraries in Ohio, including all CONSORT libraries.

WorldCat: lets you search the collections of libraries in your community and thousands more around the world

• AUTHOR Search
  Inputting the name of an author or director in a lastname, firstname format (Ex. Wang, Wayne) will bring up a list of that author or director's work.

• KEYWORD Search
  The keyword search looks at everything in the catalog record. Use this type of search to combine multiple terms into one search.
  Note: Instead of using NOT to limit results, use AND NOT. Ex. (Vietnam AND NOT protest*)

• SUBJECT Search
  Searches subject headings.  Use this type of search to look for:
  A Person's Name (Ex. Anzaldua, Gloria)
  A Concept or Term (Ex. Comic Book*)

Searching Databases

• The library has databases that specialize in many different disciplines.You can find which databases go with which disciplines by looking at the library subject guides.

• If you don't have full-text access, and the library doesn't have the article you are looking for, try Interlibrary loan.
  

To start with, try the following databases:

• Academic Search Complete
  Designed specifically for academic institutions, Academic search complete, is the world's most comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals.
• Newspaper Source
Newspaper Source contains selected full text for 375 regional U.S. newspapers, eighteen international newspapers, six news-wires, nine newspaper columns, and cover-to-cover full text for The Christian Science Monitor and The Los Angeles Times. This database also contains indexing and abstracts for four national newspapers.
• America: History and Life
A comprehensive bibliography of articles on the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. AHL offers abstracts and citations for articles appearing in over 2,000 journals published worldwide in history, related humanities, and the social sciences. Coverage also includes citations to book reviews from approximately 100 major journals of American history and culture and relevant dissertations from Dissertation Abstracts International.
• LexisNexis
  
LexisNexis Academic provides access to a wide range of news, business, legal, medical, and reference information from nearly 5,000 sources, most of them available in full text. The service covers newspapers, magazines, wire services, federal and state court opinions, federal and state statutes, federal regulations, and SEC filings. News information is updated daily and wire services several times daily.
• ProQuest
A full-text collection of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press
• JSTOR
Contains full-text journal back issues from subject areas such as Music, Mathematics & Statistics, Language & Literature, Business, Ecology & Botany and General Science as well as Archaeology, Classics, and African, Latin American, Middle Eastern, and Slavic Studies. New titles are being added regularly. Three to five year moving walls characterize the coverage of these journals.

Creating a search

Once you have decided on your database, use the following terms to create a search:

AND (fewer results)
ex.  ethincity AND feminis*

OR(expanded results)
ex. (latino or "mexican american*")

NOT (eliminates words)
ex. Vietnam NOT protest*

* truncation symbol to find results that include keyword variants
ex. Americ* will retrieve America, American, and Americans

"quotation marks" to search a phrase
ex. "asian american"

(parentheses) to make one portion of search string operate together
ex. ("motion picture" or cinema or film* or movie*) AND "Native America*"

Scholarly vs. Popular Sources

Popular (Magazines, Editorials)

• Are often written by journalists or professional writers for a general audience
• Use language easily understood by general readers
• Rarely give full citations for sources
• Written for the general public
• Tend to be shorter than journal articles

Scholarly (Professional Journals)

• Are written by and for faculty, researchers or scholars (chemists, historians, doctors, artists)
• Uses scholarly or technical language
• Tend to be longer articles about research
• Include full citations for sources 
• Are often refereed or peer reviewed (articles are reviewed by an editor and other specialists before being accepted for publication)
• Book reviews and editorials are not considered scholarly articles, even when found in scholarly journals