hist 300: search strategy april duncan, reference librarian langsdale library [email protected]...
TRANSCRIPT
HIST 300: Search Strategy
April Duncan, Reference LibrarianLangsdale Library
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: [email protected]: 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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