Engl 131: Reading & Writing About
"Pan-African Freedom Fighters in Their Own Words"
(http://www.library.cornell.edu/africana/faculty/engl131.html)
Compiled by Eric Kofi Acree,
Librarian
ea18@cornell.edu/255-5229/Africana
Library
- Developing a Search Strategy
- Finding Background Information
- Searching Techniques
- Finding Books
- Finding Articles
- Citing Sources
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
- Using WWW to Find Internet Resources
- Evaluate your sources
- Cite your sources
Tips to consider when doing research:
- Have a clear understanding of the assignment. What is the length of the paper? What are you suppose to report?
- Check the bibliography and indexes of books related to your topic.
- Use more than one source.
- When searching databases be flexible with the use of search terms.
- To learn the best way to use a particular database check out that database help page. There is usually some type of variation for each database.
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.
Black Literature Criticism. James
P. Draper, ed. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992.
Africana Library Reference PS 153 .N5 B617
Covers 125 writers representing the United States, Africa, and Jamaica.
Each entry presents a historical survey of critical response to the
author's works.
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.
Contemporary
Authors Online
Provides an extensive collection of critical essays on contemporary
writers. Each entry also contains a biographical/critical introduction
including pseudonyms and nationality, a listing of principal works,
and sources for further study.
Contemporary Literary Criticism
Provides an extensive collection of critical essays on contemporary writers. Each entry also contains a biographical/critical introduction including pseudonyms and nationality, a listing of principal works, and sources for further study.
CQ
Researcher or Congressional Quarterly, 1991- . Uris Library
Referebce H35 .E23
CQ Researcher provides articles on current and controversial world issues.
Dictionary
of Literary Biography
Essays outlining the lives and careers of authors from all eras and
genres, and summarizes the critical response to their work.
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.
A complete literature database combining biographical, bibliographical, and contextual information on authors and their works (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, history, and journalism). Draws from Gale Group's core literary databases, including Contemporary authors, Dictionary of literary biography, and Contemporary literary criticism.
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.
CU Library Gateway: Find Articles | Find Databases
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.
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.
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
Chicago Manual of Style
CU Reference locations include Olin, Uris, ILR, and Fine Arts Libraries
at call number: Z253 .U69 2003
Chicago Manual of Style Form Guide (Ohio State University)
The Chicago Manual of Style FAQ
Publication Manual of the American Psychological
Association (5th ed.)
CU Library Reference locations include Africana, Hotel, Management,
Olin, and Uris Libraries at call number:
BF 76.7 .P83x 2001x. Also in ILR and Mann Reference at BF 76.7 .A51
2001.
APA citation style (Gateway Help)
APA Reference Examples for Electronic Source Materials Excerpted from the new 5th edition of the Publication Manual.
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 Instruction Evaluation Form
