bibliographic research

research
guidelines

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NOTE: These were prepared for my students at Sarah Lawrence and have not yet been updated with University of Minnesota resources. Many of these links are, however, still useful and valid.

There are many resources available to you for doing bibliographic research on the web and in libraries. This document outlines some of the most useful for the purposes of a class you take with me. It also provides some general information about my expectations for your research and a time line for the completion of particular tasks.

Searching for Sources

1. Annual Review of Anthropology:

One of the most valuable starting points for research in any field in anthropology is the Annual Review of Anthropology. The Annual Review of Anthropology is a journal which solicits �state of the art� reviews of particular fields of interest to anthropology. They have the virtue both of laying out major themes/problems/concerns in the field, as well as providing exhaustive bibliographies of important works in the field. I suggest that to start your project, you review the last 20 years or so of table of contents of Annual Review of Anthropology. You can do this both by going to the library (the SLC library owns editions from 1972 onwards) or logging on to http://anthro.AnnualReviews.org/.

If you search on line:

* make sure you select "Annual Review of Anthropology" from the list below the search box or it will search all disciplines!

* Watch where you are searching � you can search in the full text of the article, the abstracts (for articles from 1989), and keywords (for articles from 1994).

Once you have found the reviews which seem most useful to you, you can get the full text from the library or download it from on line. Be broad in your consideration: you may not find a review which is exactly on your topic, but some may still contain information of use to you. For example, if you are interested in Haitian immigration to New York, a review on the anthropology of the Caribbean may contain important information and sources for you. Moreover, online you can search the reviews for particular terms, but be sure to be thorough.

2. Anthropological literature database:

SLC has many databases on line, but the one most useful for this class is the anthropological database. To locate this database, go to the SLC library webpage (http://www.SLC.edu/library/). Click on �databases a-z� and then on �anthropological literature.� Clicking on �anthropological literature� will take you to a Eureka search engine. Here, click on �advanced search� which allows you to search on two search terms simultaneously.

As with any on line research, it is best to vary your search criteria to get the best results. For example, if you are interested in language socialization in bilingual contexts, you should search on both �language� and �socialization;� on �bilingual� and �socialization;� �education� and �bilingual� etc. The database also gives you the opportunity to search by �key words� and �title words.� Do your searches with both options to maximize your results. You can also search for journals (if you know of a particular journal that is of interest to you) or author name. Select those pieces that look like they have the most relevance to your topic, but do not limit yourself.

3. www.ingenta.com

Ingenta (http://www.ingenta.com) is a commercial service that searches over 28,000 journals from 1988 onwards � everything from Business Week to the Journal of Gerontological Social Work You can search Ingenta for free, and once you have found sources, you can get them from the library or via inter-library loan (see below).

Important: When you enter the Ingenta site, click the button for �advanced search� (�quick search� will limit your search). In the search options screen:

* You can enter your search terms, or, if you know them, author name, journal name etc. in the required fields.

* Select the earliest start date (1988) to provide the widest possible number of hits (otherwise it will only search from 1997 onwards).

* you can select either�fax/ariel articles� or "online articles" at the top of the search screen (the default is "online articles"). These different options search different databases. When you get your search results, you can click on the "fax/ariel" or "online articles" tabs to see the different results you have gotten for your search in both databases. Be sure to check both, as they will contain different sources.

4. Library of Congress

In looking for books in your research area, the Library of Congress is an invaluable research tool. You can reach the LOC at http://catalog.loc.gov/. You can search by subject, author, title, call number etc. As with Ingenta, if you find texts in LOC that aren�t available from SLC�s library, request them from the inter-library loan service (see below).

5. New York Public Library

To access the fine � and geographically accessible � NYPL, log on to http://catnyp.nypl.org/. Again, items found here can also be ordered from inter-library loans (see below).

6. Sarah Lawrence College Library

Don�t forget to search SLC�s own library at http://www.slc.edu/library and explore the material and on line resources available to you as an SLC student. In addition to its paper holdings, the library has access to many journals on line (see below) as well as many other useful (if more specific) databases including JSTOR, Lexis-Nexis, ProQuest etc.

7. Specific Journals of use for Linguistic Anthropology

Anthropological Linguistics
Journal of Linguistic Anthropology
Language and Communication
Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics
Language Variation and Change
Language in Society
Language
Pragmatics

General Notes on Searching for and Accessing Materials

1. Vary your search terms: As with all web searches, varying search terms is essential. If you have too few or too many returns, varying your terms � being more specific or less so � should contribute to a more effective search. See my suggestions above.

2. Start big: your searches will, no doubt, result in a large number of returns. In your initial search, take the broad view and collect as many sources as you can that appear to have some bearing on your topic, even if they are studies of a geographical area outside the area you are interested in, from another discipline, or a non-text medium. I will work with you to cut your bibliography down to a manageable size for the purposes of your project � but we want to start with the largest possible universe so that we can see what the scope of literature in your field includes.

3. Evaluate your findings: concomitantly, for the purposes of this class, you are more interested in journals and books which are more specifically from a social scientific and anthropological perspective. One way of working up a comprehensive, but manageable bibliography is to focus the discipline within which the author is writing (which is not to say you should not read outside anthropology or the social sciences, but focus on these in particular).

4. Access your sources: Once we have established a bibliography, you need to get hold of the materials. There are several steps to go through. First, you should check and see if SLC has the books or journals in its possession. If so, you can get them at the library. If another user has a book out, you can recall the item (which you should do immediately). If the library doesn't own a particular journal, make sure that you check the "online journals" at http://www.slc.edu/library/research_tools/onlinejour.htm. The journals are listed alphabetically. In most cases, if the journal you are interested in is in this list, you can access it electronically from an SLC computer. Some access services are better than others (Lexis Nexis, for example, is notoriously hard to navigate). If you have any difficulty, consult a librarian.

If a book or journal is not available to you either in the library or online, you should order them at once from the inter-library loan service at the library (see below).

4. Inter-library loan: SLC�s library, like most university libraries, offers an inter-library loan service. That is, if SLC does not own the book or journal you need (or if the journal is not available on line), you can order a copy through the ILL service. You may do this in person at the library, or, more conveniently, on line from the SLC library website
http://slc.edu/library/library_services/ill.htm

Ordering ILL items on line is even more convenient because you can simply copy and paste the information from your bibliography into the required fields in the ILL page. Generally, you are given a two week loan for a book, but if you request an article from a journal, you will simply receive a xerox (for free!)    If you order a text via the on-line service, check in with ILL to ensure that they have your request.

Be aware that inter-library loan requests take some time to process. As such, you should do as much bibliographic research as possible as early in the semester as you can to ensure you receive your items in a timely manner. Also, you are only permitted four inter-library loans in a week, so if you have a lot of requests, you must get them in as quickly as possible. Moreover, the service closes over the winter break, and for the summer on May 1.

General Points for Conferences and Research

1. Notes: Ideally, you should take notes on everything you read. While this can be time consuming, taking notes (a) makes your reading a more concrete experience and (b) makes the process of writing much easier as you have already distilled the important points from your readings. In particular, ensure you make notes on books received from inter-library loans as you will only have them for a short period of time.

2. Preparedness: Do not leave your conference preparation to the night before. You will not be able to complete all the work in one evening. Please do not come to conference unprepared.

3. Concreteness: Always bring hard copy of your work to conference, even if you�ve emailed me your material ahead of time.

Time Line

In general, it is best to get started with conference work immediately. While a semester seems to stretch out before us at the beginning of term, time runs away rapidly. As such, I request that you focus particularly intently on your conference work � defining your research area, doing your bibliographic research etc. � in the early weeks of the semester. By conference 2, I expect that you will have done your initial research into the above resources and have developed an extensive bibliography from which we can begin to work. By conference 3, you should have a bibliography that is very close to your final version, have all your inter-library loans in, and be well underway with your reading.

Last update: 9/17/03