WOM STD 186 / History M187A

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Library Resources for Women's Studies M186A / History M187A: Global Feminism, 1850-Present (Spring 2009)

Contents

Basics

  • You can edit this wiki page.
  • Off-Campus Access Do you like to work from home? Then make sure you have set up the BOL Proxy or VPN so that you can access the resources noted as (Licensed Resource). All the information you need is on the BOL Website.
  • Click on the Image:Uc-elinks_mini1.gif button within the UCLA Library catalog, Next-Generation Melvyl, or article databases to locate full-text articles or request interlibrary loans. (Look at this guide for more information about using UC e-links.) You may also use Citation Linker.

Research Strategies and Tips

  • Successful research is often a combination of systematic approaches and, when appropriate, serendipity.
  • Topic Identification and Description: Identify a topic of interest and describe it as narrowly/focused as possible. Consider subtopics, perspective you wish to take, geographical and/or chronological focus. Ask: What? Who? When? Where? Also consider what type of organization or disciplinary approach would be most likely to collect the information you are seeking. You may need to find resources in several different places.
  • Search Vocabulary: Make a list of search terms (keywords) that describe your topic. Include synonyms, relevant proper names, etc. Avoid very common words if possible, but also include some general (e.g., feminism) as well as precise (e.g., Stanton, Elizabeth Cady) descriptors.
  • Truncation: Use truncation symbols (?, *, or #) building on the root of a word or within a term to expand your retrieval. Specific symbol depends on the system you're using (UCLA Library Catalog, MELVYL, article database).
Examples:
wom?n = woman or women
sex? = sex, sexual, sexuality, sexualized, etc.
  • Search Documentation: Keep careful track of your research process: sources consulted, date ranges covered, search terms used, as well as promising citations. Use a notebook, citation management system like EndNote, and/or email messages to yourself, etc. to document your research process.
  • Some things to consider when assessing the quality and usefulness of an item (for print and electronic resources):
Author: Credentials? Scholar? Academic field? Other publications? First-hand participant?
Publisher: University press? Other scholarly publisher? Trade? Other?
Notes, etc.: Bibliography? Footnotes? Use to refine and/or expand research, and to identify potential primary source materials
Periodical: Scholarly journal? Popular magazine?
Date: Original publication date?
Reviews: If a book, can you locate book reviews?
Language: If you are working on an international topic, some relevant materials may not be written in English or available in translation. With primary sources, you may need to rely more heavily on English-language coverage of the period if you can't read the original language.

Reference Sources

The following are selected print and electronic reference sources that will help you get started on researching course-related topics. There are many other reference materials available.

Reference Sources on Prostitution and Sex Work

Finding Books

Identifying and locating books on your topic is most conveniently done through a keyword or subject (heading) search using the UCLA Library Catalog or the UC systemwide MELVYL Catalog. Keyword searching (when available) is the most flexible, usually producing the largest retrieval, while subject searching can often be more precise since it relies on authorized Library of Congress Subject Headings.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Although the advent of online catalogs with keyword search capabilities has sounded the death knell for rigidly structured subject heading/classification schemes, it is still worth considering how language is used to organize materials in a research library. For example, it is possible (and frequently extremely beneficial) to do a subject search in the UCLA Library Catalog or MELVYL using Library of Congress subject headings.

A subject heading is a word or term that describes, often quite broadly, the contents of a book, journal article, videotape, dataset, etc. All nonfiction books and media are assigned one or more subject headings, allowing for multiple points of access to the same item.

  • Some examples of subject headings relevant to this course:
Feminism--History
Feminism--History--19th century
Women in politics--India (try any country or geographic region)
Women's rights--China (try any country or geographic region)
Women--China--History (try any country or geographic region)
Feminism --Cross-cultural studies
Feminism--History--20th century
Women --Germany --History --20th century
Prostitution--History
Prostitutes
Prostitutes --West (U.S.)
United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--Women
Spain--History--Civil War, 1936-1939--Women
World War, 1939-1945--Women--Germany
African American women--History--19th century--Sources
Caricature--History
Women in mass media
Women in motion pictures
Women in art
Women in music
Orientalism
Orientalism in art
Contraception--United States
Birth control--History
Domestic violence
Civil rights--History
Civil rights movements--United States
Women--Language

UCLA Library Catalog

http://catalog.library.ucla.edu The UCLA Library Catalog provides quick and efficient access to the holdings of the UCLA Library. The catalog should be your first stop for books and other monographic materials, periodicals, and media. The UCLA Library Catalog is directly accessible from the UCLA Library homepage; Click on the "search and find" tab. The catalog is the first item on the drop-down menu.

The UCLA Library Catalog offers the following unique features:

  • Circulation status of material -- the catalog tells you whether a book is available (on the shelf), checked out (and date it's due back), or missing;
  • Serials information -- catalog lists both print and electronic journals and magazines with UCLA holdings. However, the catalog does NOT search the titles or contents of articles.
  • Personal circulation data -- the catalog allows you to keep track online of materials you have checked out of the Library. Click on My Account and key in your UCLA Bruin Card number.
  • Electronic reserves -- from the Services button at the top of the page you can go to course reserves and from there link to a specific course and check to see what, if anything, is "on-reserve" for the class in electronic format.

UC MELVYL Catalog

http://melvyl.cdlib.org/ If you want to search the holdings of other libraries in the UC system, the Melvyl Catalog is the best resource. UCLA users can request many of the materials listed in Melvyl via interlibrary loan, including journal articles and books.

Next Generation Melvyl

http://ucla.worldcat.org/ A beta project that cross-searches the UCLA Catalog, Melvyl, and WorldCat from a single user interface, including very selective article indexing.


Finding Secondary Criticism in Library Databases

  • Women's Studies International An interdisciplinary indexing database covering topics related to women and gender. (Licensed Resource)
  • Academic Search Complete A general multidisciplinary database that indexes journals across many different fields, with selected full text. Cross-searchable with Women's Studies International. (Licensed Resource)
  • America: History and Life Index and abstracts for articles on the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present, published since 1964.(Licensed Resource)
  • Historical Abstracts Index and abstracts for articles on the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada, which are covered in America: History and Life) published since 1967.
  • JSTOR Online access to full back-runs of academic journals across disciplines, primarily in the social sciences and humanities. (Licensed Resource)
  • Project MUSE Full text of current issues (from about 1990) of scholarly journals published by university presses, chiefly in the arts, humanities and social sciences. (Licensed Resource)
  • Contemporary Women's Issues The Contemporary Women's Issues database provides full-text access to global information on women. Includes journals, newsletters, and research reports from non-profit groups, government and international agencies. Information on women in over 190 countries is compiled in a single collection bringing together such disciplines as sociology, psychology, health, education, business administration and political science. Coverage: 1992-present. (Licensed Resource)
  • GenderWatch Contains the full text of publications that focus on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas from the 1970's to the present. Provides in-depth coverage of subjects that are uniquely central to women's lives. (Licensed Resource)
  • Ethnic NewsWatch Full text articles from the ethnic, minority, and native press in the United States. (Licensed Resource)
  • Bibliography of Asian Studies Index of western-language monographs, articles, and book chapters on all parts of Asia published since 1971.
  • Art Full Text Includes indexing for articles written 1984-present on art, animation, design, and more.
  • Music & Performing Arts Online Portal that allows combined searching of International Index to Music Periodicals (IIMP) and International Index to the Performing Arts (IIPA). The simultaneous search combines coverage of music, theater, dance, television, film, and other performing arts.

Finding Primary Sources in Library Databases

Links for primary source materials such as diaries, letters, newspapers, images, and more.

Women's Studies Historical Primary Sources

History Primary Sources

Other Useful Websites

  • Women's Studies / Women's Issues Resource Sites Women's Studies / Women's Issues Resource Sites is a selective, annotated, highly acclaimed listing of web sites containing resources and information about women's studies / women's issues, with an emphasis on sites of particular use to an academic women's studies program.

Further Assistance


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