Research Guide for Anthopology 149: Women, Islam and the State
http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/anthro149.html


Iranian women celebrate winner of nobel peace prize Shirin Ebadi (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian)

 Library Gateway Overview
Finding Background Material
Finding Books
Finding Periodical Articles
Finding Internet Resources
Evaluating Sources
Citing Sources
 Reference Help

Question? Ask a Librarian

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 or material you need as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Research Steps:

  1. Choose your topic
  2. Find background information
  3. Find books on your topic
  4. Find periodical articles
  5. Find relevant Web sites
  6. Evaluate your sources
  7. Cite your sources

For additional help with the research process, see the online research tutorial, Library Research, a Hypertext Guide.

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Cornell University Library Gateway

The Cornell University Library Gateway is the Cornell University Library's homepage on the World Wide Web. The Gateway lists information about the CU Library and provides access to library resources and services.

Research Strategy and Process - An online tutorial offering instructions and suggestions on how to make your research skills and use of the Library more efficient and effective.

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FINDING BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, Guides and Handbooks

Countries and Their Cultures. Ember, Melvin and Carol R. eds.New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2001. [Uris Ref GN 307. C68x 2001]

A 4 vol. set containing descriptive summaries of 225 countries and thier cultures. Provides a mix of demographic, historic, social, economic, political and religious information. Brief entries are arranged in a standard format under headings such as kinship, ritual, womens' status. Broader in scope than the Encyclopedia of World Cultures, this set can only be used to gain a general understanding of a country and its cultures. The authors were asked to describe what is culturally "universal" within the country and what varies by ethnic group, region and class. A unique feature is inclusion of "do's" and "don'ts" for culture, such as appropriate topics for "small talk". Brief discussion of ethinc relations is also included. A valuable bibliography of additional sources to consult is provided at the end of each country's entry.

The Encyclopedia of Religion. 16 vols. New York: MacMillan, 1987. Eliade, Mircea, ed.
(Uris Ref BL 31 E55+; also Olin Ref)

The first truly comprehensive encyclopedia for religious topics since the work of Hastings in 1908. Entries are alphabetically arranged. Essays are scholarly and accompanied by a selective annotated bibliography. Excellent coverage of both Western and Eastern religions.

Encyclopedia of Islam. ( new edition) eds. C. E. Bosworth, et al., Leiden: Brill, 1954- . (on CD-Rom in Olin's Electronic Text Center; in print at Olin Reference DS 37 E56+ 1954)

Contains signed articles by scholars in the field, with bibliographies, on subjects in biography, history, geography, and the sciences. Includes entries on foreign countries in which Islam is important. This edition, begun in 1954, is still in progress. (10 vols to date; up to the letter U). The print version can be challenging to use; the CD-Rom version allows full text searching.

See also: Islamic desk reference [electronic resource] / compiled from The encyclopedia of Islam by E. van Donzel. Available through Catalog and Find Databases.

 

General Interest and Reference

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FINDING BOOKS

Cornell University Library Catalog and the Olin Library Card Catalog

The Cornell University Library Catalog includes the holdings of all 17 libraries on the Ithaca campus, in addition to those of the Geneva Experiment Station. 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.

Connect to the Cornell University Library Catalog

When to Check the Card Catalog

Some materials in the humanities and social sciences acquired prior to 1973 have records that have not yet been converted to digital form. Access to these records is through the card catalog located in Olin Library. The card catalog contains cards for authors, titles, and subjects filed in an alphabetical, word-by-word arrangement.

The Cornell University Library uses Library of Congress subject headings as the standard for subject searching. Unlike searching by keyword, where any term or wording of a topic can be entered into the computer, subject searching requires you to use the exact wording of an official Library of Congress subject heading in order to retrieve search results.

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FINDING PERIODICAL ARTICLES

Periodical Indexes and Abstracts

Periodical indexes and abstracts identify and locate articles in magazines, journals and newspapers. Periodical indexes provide the authors, titles, and sometimes abstracts, of relevant articles, along with the name of the periodical, volume, pages and date. Some online periodical indexes also provide the full-text of the article. When full-text articles are not provided, use the Cornell Library Catalog to determine which library owns the periodicals you need.

Find Databases provides access to over 1000 online indexes and abstracts, almanacs, catalogs, dictionaries, directories, and encyclopedias. You can find databases in your areas of interest by either searching by title or keyword or browsing through the subject menus.

Find Articles allows you to search for journal article citations in more than one database simultaneously. In many cases, these citations will provide links directly to online full text of the articles themselves.Note: The number of databases available for simultaneous searching is a selective subset of the number of resources available in Find Databases.

Selected Periodical Indexes and Abstracts

Multidisciplinary Indexes

  • Periodical Abstracts. Find Databases or Library Catalog
    (ProQuest)    . Ann Arbor: Bell & Howell.

    Indexes and abstracts approximately 2000 general interest magazines and scholarly journals. It also includes citations and abstracts to selected television and radio programs. Many of the articles found by searching in this database are available in full text electronic formats. Pull down menus allow you to customize your searches. Also included is a limit for peer-reviewed articles (scholarly articles).

  • LexisNexis Academic. Find Databases or Library Catalog
    Dayton, Ohio: Lexis-Nexis.

    LexisNexis Academic provides access to full-text documents from over 5,900 news, business, legal, medical, and reference publications, including national and regional newspapers, wire services, broadcast transcripts, international news, and non-English language sources; U.S. federal and state case law, codes, regulations, legal news, law reviews, and international legal information; Shepard's® Citations for all U.S. Supreme Court cases back to 1789; and business news journals, company financial information, SEC filings and reports, and industry and market news.

Specialized Subject Indexes

  • Anthropology Plus. Find Databases or Library Catalog
    Tozzer Library, Harvard University; and the Library of the British Museum Department of Ethnography

    • Anthropology Plus combines Anthropological Literature from Harvard University and the Anthropological Index, Royal Anthropological Institute from the UK. Anthropology Plus provides worldwide indexing of journal articles, reports, commentaries, edited works, and obituaries in the fields of social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic anthropology, ethnology, archaeology, folklore, material culture, and interdisciplinary studies.

  • ATLA. Find Databases or Library Catalog

    Comprehensive database designed to support religious and theological scholarship in graduate education and faculty research.

  • Ethnic NewsWatch. Find Databases or Library Catalog
    Stamford, CT : Softline Information, Inc. Monthly. 1992 - .

    This is a multi-cultural database containing the full-text of articles, columns, and editorials from 125 ethnic and minority American newspapers and news magazines. It includes African-American, Arab-American, Asian-American, Eastern European, European, Hispanic/Chicano/Latino, Jewish, and Native American publications. Spanish-language newspapers are in Spanish; the database is searchable in English and Spanish. Local, national, and international business, economic, political, and social issues are covered in addition to entertainment, fashion and music topics.

  • GenderWatch
    GenderWatch is a full text database of publications that focus on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas.

Indexes and abstracts over 1,600 journals in sociology and related disciplines of anthropology, economics, education, medicine, community development, demography, political science and social psychology. It includes conference papers, dissertations, book reviews, and abstracts of books.

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Internet Resources

Portals, Search Engines, and Subject Guides

Use web portals, search engines, or Internet subject guides to find resources or sites on the World Wide Web on your topic. Search Engines are software programs that allow you to search the contents of web pages and Subject Guides are web pages that use menus and lists to sort and classify web sites.

Question and evaluate the information that you find on web pages. As you would do with books and journal articles, look to see who is responsible for producing the web page or site that you are accessing. How objective is the information? How accurate or truthful? How authoritative? Go to the Evaluating Sources section of this page for more information on how to assess the web sites you have accessed.

Recommended Internet Sites:

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Evaluating Sources

Evaluating the sources you find is a crucial step in the process of library research. The questions you ask about books, periodical articles, or multimedia sources are similar whether you're looking at a citation to the item or have the item in hand.

How to Critically Analyze Information Sources lists some of the critical questions you should ask when you consider the appropriateness of a particular book, article, media resource, or Web site for your research.

Distinguishing Scholarly from Non-Scholarly Periodicals: A Checklist of Criteria shows how to evaluate periodicals by looking at their format, intended audience, and appearance.

Evaluating Web Resources lists ways to analyze the Web sites you find.

Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Sites offers a table of suggestions.

For additional suggestions specific to Web sites, see Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools.

How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography

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Citing Sources

Cornell University Code of Academic Integrity

 

APA citation style

MLA citation style

  • MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (5th ed.)

    CU Library Reference locations include Olin and Uris Libraries at call number: LB 2369 .G53x 1999.

  • MLA citation style (Gateway Help)

  • MLA Style (MLA's web site)

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Research and Reference Help

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September, 2003
Maureen Morris - mm342@cornell.edu
Reference Librarian
Olin Library
Instruction, Research and Information Services
Cornell University Library
URL: http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/asrc100.html


Olin and Uris Libraries, Cornell University, Ithaca NY 14853
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