ASRC 100.4 Black Is and Black Ain't:
The Psychology of Identity In African-American Literature
(http://www.library.cornell.edu/africana/faculty/asrc1004.html)
Compiled by Eric Kofi Acree, Librarian
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Developing a Search Strategy:
Search strategy is a library term for the process of finding information
in a logical, step-by-step manner. Using a search strategy insures that
you will find the information and materials you need as quickly and
efficiently as possible.
Research Steps:
- Choose your topic
- Find background information
- Find books on your topic
- Find periodical articles
- Evaluate your sources
- Cite your sources
How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography (Cornell University)
This guide created to help students write an annotated bibliography.
Annotated
Bibliographies (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
This guides provides important details on how to write an annotated
Bibliography.
Finding Background Information (Reference Books):
African American Encyclopedia,
Africana Library Reference E 185 .A255
This six volume set features entries on people, organizations, landmarks,
professions, entertainment, military activity, religion, family life,
politics, court cases, cultural movements, and other facets of life
that have unique expression among African Americans.
Contemporary Black Biography,
Africana Library Reference DT 18 .C76
This reference series provides biographical profiles of important persons
of African heritage. Whether they are personalities from the news, selected
20th-century notables, or individuals who are not yet household names,
these are the men and women who are changing today's world and shaping
the world of tomorrow.
CQ
Researcher or Congressional Quarterly, 1991- . Uris Library
Referebce H35 .E23
CQ Researcher provides articles on current and controversial world issues.
Editorials on File. New York:
Facts on File, 1970- . Uris Library Reference D 410 E23
A semi-monthly publication, Editorials on File provides easy access
to the full text of unsigned editorials gleaned from American newspapers.
Although major newspapers are well represented, there appears to be
a serious effort to present all points of view from all regions of the
United States. Subject indexes are published quarterly and cumulated
annually.
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture
& History Africana Library Reference E 185 E54 1996 (Also on
CD-ROM)
This multi-volume set presents the lives and significance of African
Americans in the broadest way possible. This encyclopedia has biographical
entries, as well as entries dealing with events, historical eras, legal
cases, areas of cultural achievement (music, architecture, the visual
arts), professions, sports, and places.
Information Plus Reference Series,
Uris Library Reference (Current Awareness Reference Sources)
The Information Plus Reference Series
compiles all the pertinent data, both current and historical, on a wide
variety of contemporary social issues. Designed as ready-reference tools
providing key data on social concerns, these books save researchers
and students from the cumbersome task of locating the various data in
pamphlets, legal journals, congressional reports, newspapers and other
sources.
Issues and Controversies on File. Uris Library Reference JK
1 .I86
A loose-leaf digest of news analysis and background information on contemporary
social, political and economic issues. A cumulative index provides access
to topics in the twice-monthly issues.
Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial
Issues. Uris Library Reference: various subjects with individual
call numbers
Taking Sides is published in a series of volumes concerned
with different issues. Uris Library subscribes to those volumes in the
series that cover educational, political, social, psychological, bio-ethical
and economic issues. Each volume is divided into sections of pros and
cons on a specific sub-topic. For example, in the latest edition of
the Political Issues volume, sub-topics include such things as "Is
America's Military Strength Sufficient?", "Should Obscenity
be Protected as Free Speech?", "Do We Need a Draft?"
and "Can Lobbying Endanger Democracy?" to name only a few.
Each of these sub-topics is then divided into three parts: a summary
of the issue, a pro argument and a con argument. Arguments are written
by people who are considered authorities on the issue. Finally, a fourth
section follows these three as the arguments are summed up and analyzed
briefly in a postscript at the end of each chapter. There is a subject,
name and title index, but there are no bibliographies.
Whether you are clicking your way across the Web, searching for resources in the Cornell Library Catalog, or looking for scholarly articles in specialized subject databases, being aware of a few simple techniques can improve the effectiveness of your searches.
Do you know how to use the following search techniques?
- keywords vs. phrase searching
- boolean operators: AND, OR, NOT (for combining search terms)
- truncation and wildcard symbols (for finding singular, plural, and other keyword variations)
- field searching (for narrowing a search to specific parts of a record)
- controlled vocabulary (subject headings)
See the following sites for details on how to refine
and perfect your search results:
Introduction
to Database Searching Skills
Search
Strategies
Finding Books:
Cornell Library Online Catalog
About the CU Library Catalog:
The Cornell University Library Catalog includes the holdings of 19 Cornell
University libraries. (The Weill Cornell Medical Library, located in
New York City, has a separate catalog.) The catalog contains records
for books, computer files, government documents, manuscripts and archives,
maps, musical scores, periodicals, serials, sound recordings, and visual
materials received and cataloged since 1973. There are also records
for most pre-1973 items, and for items that are on order or in process.
Finding Book
Reviews:
Book reviews can help you better understand a book. In a college or
university setting, it is often wise to read book reviews on an assigned
book before reading the book.
For tips locating book reviews visit; http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/bookreviews.html
Distinguishing Scholarly From Non-Scholarly Periodicals: A Checklist of Criteria
America's
Newspapers
Contains complete full-text content of local and regional news, including
community events, schools, politics, government policies, cultural activities,
local companies, state industries, and people in the community. Paid
advertisements are excluded. Date coverage varies with individual newspaper.
ArticleFirst
Indexes over 10,000 periodicals in science, technology, medicine, social
sciences, business, the humanities, and popular culture.
Black Studies
Database or The Kaiser Index to Black Resources: 1948-1986,
Africana Library Reference Z 1361 N39 K34X1992
This database covers events critical to the study of Black life and
culture outside of Africa including notable figures in Black history,
culture, and sports; the Civil Rights Movement; the growth of the NAACP
and the National Urban League; the Southern Christian Leadership Conference;
jazz and soul music; Taken from more than 150 publications relevant
to the Black experience and African Diaspora.
Ethnic
Newswatch
Ethnic NewsWatch is a full-text collection of the newspapers, magazines
and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press.
Factiva
Factiva provides access to global news and business information, including
local newspapers, same-day newswires, company reports, and media programs.
Find
Articles (Open Access)
FindArticles is a content-distribution partnership between LookSmart,
which provides the search infrastructure, and the Gale Group, which
provices the published editorial content.
Index to Black Periodicals, Africana Library Reference Z 1361 .N39 I38
A yearly author and subject index to about 25 Afro-American periodicals of general and scholarly interest. The journals which are included cut across such disciplines as psychology, sociology, education, history and popular culture, etc. It was formerly called the Index to Periodicals By and About Blacks, and is the best source available for articles from black journals. Black Studies on disc is available at Africana. It contains entries from the Index to Black Periodicals from 1989.
LexisNexis
Academic
Provides access to full text resources on topics including current and
general news; business and financial information; newspapers; company
directories; government and politics; medical and health topics; accounting,
auditing, and tax; federal and state laws; legal cases; and regulations.
Resources include TV and radio news transcripts.
MLA
Bibliography
MLA Bibliography is the largest and most comprehensive
database covering scholarship in the modern languages, linguistics,
literature, folklore, and drama, including film, opera, radio, television
and theater. Literary criticism and literary theory are covered extensively.
Approximately 4,000 journals and series are screened, and entries for
books are included. Entries appear both for collections of essays and
for their contents.
Music Index
Online
The editor-librarians at Harmonie Park Press survey data from more than
640 international music periodicals and review new journals for possible
inclusion. Topics concerned with every aspect of the classical and popular
world of music are carefully categorized and organized according to
the framework of an internal Subject Heading List. A broad range of
subjects are indexed, covering musicological or organological topics,
plus book reviews, record reviews, first performances, and obituaries.
Periodical
Abstracts
Available as part of the ProQuest Direct system, Periodical Abstracts
indexes and abstracts an extensive number of periodicals, covering general
interest magazines and scholarly journals in the social sciences, humanities
and sciences. Also included are citations and abstracts to selected
television and radio programs. Full text of many articles is provided.
PsycINFO
Contains summaries and citations of the international
literature in psychology and related behavioral and social sciences,
including psychiatry, sociology, anthropology, education, pharmacology,
and linguistics. Includes applied psychology, communication systems,
developmental psychology, educational psychology, experimental human
and animal psychology, personality, physical and psychological disorders,
physiological psychology and intervention, professional personnel and
issues, psychometrics, social processes and issues, sports psychology
and leisure, and treatment and prevention.
RILM
Abstracts of Music Literature
Thousands of citations on international music corresponding to the printed
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature. Includes all data from the RILM
printed year 1969 to the present.
Give credit where credit is due.
By properly citing the sources you use in your research projects you are both identifying the resources that you used to complete your work and you are formally acknowledging the authors or creators of those resources. This allows others to find what you have found and to verify your research.
Cornell University Code of Academic Integrity
Here is information about the MLA citation style:
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
(6th ed.)
CU Library Reference locations include Olin and Uris Libraries at call
number: Z253 .M68 2003 .
MLA Citation Style (Gateway Help)
MLA Style (MLA's web site)
Library
Research Guide For: "Researching Hip Hop History, Culture, and
Politics"
This guide was delvoped to directed
towards students in taking part in a series of Hip Hop workshops. Included
on this site is a detail list of print and Web resources.
Hip
Hop Bibliography
This guide is a listing of book, journal articles and
theses/dissertations on Hip Hop culture.
