hist 300: search strategy april duncan, reference librarian langsdale library aduncan@ubalt.edu...

HIST 300: Search Strategy

April Duncan, Reference LibrarianLangsdale Library

aduncan@ubalt.edu410-837-4269

Originally presented by Tamara Smith, on 9/11/08

Plan for Today• Search Strategy• Historical Research• Getting Articles• Activity: Learn a Database• Wrap-up• 5-minute Evaluation (for library)

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Traditional Search Strategy

Research Question:

How has women’s suffrage changed politics in 20th century America?

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Traditional Search StrategyWomen’s suffrage

politics 20th Century

America

voting elections 1900’s U.S.

Women’s rights

legislation modern United States

19th Amendment

politicians Americans

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Search Statement

“Women’s suffrage” AND politic*

suffrage AND politic* AND twentieth century

“Women’s rights” AND legislat* AND america

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Boolean Operators

• AND: joins concepts/ideas together (both/all)

• OR: combines synonyms or related terms (either/any)

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Combining Keywords

•Nesting: combine like terms in parentheses; used to combine synonyms

•Truncation (*): special symbol used to represent missing letters; used in place of retyping an entire word

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Combining Keywords

(“women’s suffrage” OR “women’s rights”) AND (politic* OR legislat*) AND “twentieth century” AND (“United States” or America*)

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Historical Research

Research Topic:

Write a biographical essay about Lucy Stone and her place in American History.

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Historical Research

What we know:• AmericanWhat we need to know:• Where in America?• Known for what?• When in history?

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Historical Research

Where to start?• Textbook• Encyclopedia• Wikipedia• Search engine• Database

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Historical ResearchLucy Stone• Born 1818• Grew up in Massachusetts

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Historical Research

Not finding what you want?

Get creative!

+

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Historical ResearchKeywords• Names

– Lucy Stone– Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B.

Anthony– Alice Stone Blackwell

• Places– Massachusetts; New Jersey– United States

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Historical ResearchKeywords• Events

– 1869: Schism between feminist parties

• Topics– Suffrage– National American Woman Suffrage

Association– Women’s rights movement

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Finding Journal Articles

Subject-Specific Databases:• America: History and Life• Humanities International Complete• JSTOR (full text access for part of

the database)

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Finding Journal Articles

General Databases:• Academic Search Premier• Historical Newspapers• Lexis-Nexis Academic

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Getting to the Full Text

Do we own it?

• Find It button• Journal Finder

If we don’t own it, use ILL

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Questions?

In-Class Exercise: Learning a Database

Wrap-Up• If your topic is too broad, add

another concept (AND)• If your topic is too narrow, add

synonyms and related terms (OR)• When doing historical research, be

creative (related people, topics, places, etc.)

• Different databases = different results (try more than one)

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Thank You!

Reference Help:

Phone: 410-837-4274E-mail: langref@ubalt.eduIM: ublangsdale

HIST 300 Course Page:

http://langsdale.ubalt.edu/howto/course_websites/fa08/hist300_nix.htm

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Photo CreditsLucy Stone: Encyclopædia Britannica. 2008.

Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 15 Sept. 2008  <http://www.search.eb.com/eb/article-9069801>.

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