Asian 102.1: Stories of Deception
Lies, Cons, Hoaxes, & Fakes
The Steering Balloon Victoria that Monck Mason supposedly used to cross the Atlantic. This illustration accompanied Poe's article in The Sun. Poe obtained this picture by redrawing it frorm the frontsipiece of an anonymous 1843 flyer. |
Class Overview What do you know about the library? The Seven Step Research Process |
How many Libraries are at Cornell University? a. 18 |
True or False? Before today, I have stepped inside one of the Cornell Libraries. a. true |
How many books does the Cornell Library currently own? a. nearly 8 million |
What is the Library Gateway? a. the security gates at the front of the library that zap you if you try to snatch a book |
True or False? I have accessed the CUL website before. a. true |
The Seven Step Research Process
A search strategy is the process of finding information in a logical, step-by-step manner. Using a search strategy ensures that you will find the information and materials you need as quickly and efficiently as possible. The seven step process is:
1. Choose your topic
2. Find background information
3. Find books on your topic
4. Find periodical articles
5. Find networked resources or relevant Web sites
6. Evaluate your sources
7. Cite your sources
Read Guide to Library Research at Cornell and Research Strategy: The Seven Steps of the Research Process for more information on beginning you research.
Finding Background Information: Subject Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, and Guides
Background resources like encyclopedias and dictionaries will help you understand the broader context of your research and tell you in general terms what is known about your topic.
If you don't know a specific encyclopedia to start with, try Reference Universe: a searchable database of back-of-the-book indexes to subject encyclopedias.
Dictionary of Literary Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1978-. (Uris Ref PS 129 D5)
An on-going set of volumes, published by Gale Research Company and dsigned to provide biographic, bibliographic, and critical material on major writers of America and Great Britain as well as some writers of Canada, France, and Germany.
A Glossary of Literary Terms. Abrams, M.H. 8th ed. Boston: Wadsworth, Rinehart, and Winston, 1993. (Olin & Uris REf PN 41 A184 2005)
Contains essays on critical methods.
A Handbook to Literature. Holman, Hugh C. and William Harmon. 6th ed. New York: Macmillan, 1992. (Olin Ref PN 41 T524 1992)
A dictionary of literary terms and concepts. Many entries provide references for further reading.
Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism
Presents a comprehensive historical survey of the field’s most important figures, schools, and movements. It includes alphabetically arranged entries on critics and theorists, critical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods.
Oxford Reference Online
Searchable database of 100 language and subject dictionaries and reference works of Oxford University Press. Use this database to access The Oxford Companion to American Literature.
Oxford English Dictionary
The OED presents in alphabetical series the words that have formed the English vocabulary from the time of the earliest records down to the present day, with all the relevant facts concerning their form, sense-history, pronunciation, and etymology.
Finding Books
I can use the Library Catalogue to find: a. full-text articles |
Click on the image to connect to the Cornell Library online catalog:
Tips that everyone should know about the catalogue:
- Your first search should be a very general keyword search
- Never use a, an or the when searching for a title
- ALWAYS use the long view in the catalogue to review the subject headings
- If a record says "networked resource", it is available online
- Always pay attention to the call numbers and note whether the material is shelved in regular, oversize, or double oversize
- If a book is checked out OR the library doesn't own a book you need, use Borrow Direct or ILL -- they are free and fast!
About
the CU Library Catalog
The Cornell University Library Catalog includes the holdings of 19
Cornell University libraries. The catalog contains records for books, computer
files, government documents, manuscripts and archives, maps, musical scores,
periodicals, serials, sound recordings, and visual materials.
Quiz: Find that Citation Your professor emails you and asks you to deliver the following article to her. Scudder, Harold H. "Poe's 'Balloon Haox'." American Literature: A Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and Bibliography 21.2 (1949): 179-190. Where do you start? a. Search for the author of the article in the Library Catalogue
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Articles
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Search a Specific Database
Multi-disciplinary Databases:
ProQuest Research library
Indexes and abstracts general interest magazines and scholarly journals in the social sciences, humanities and sciences.
Academic Search Premier
Provides full text for nearly 4,650 academic multi-disciplinary serials, including full text for more than 3,600 peer-reviewed titles.
What is the difference between a scholarly and non-scholarly periodical? a. scholarly journals are only published quarterly |
Literature Specific Databases:
Bibliography of Asian Studies
Contains more than 640,000 records on all subjects pertaining to East, Southeast and South Asia published worldwide from 1971 to the present.
JSTOR
JSTOR is a fully-searchable database containing the back issues of several hundred scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, mathematics, music, ecology and botany, business, and other fields.
LION (Literature Online)
Full-text articles from literary journals; and biographical information on widely studied authors.
LRC (Literature Resource Center)
A complete literature database combining biographical, bibliographical, and contextual information on authors and their works
MLA Bibliography
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.
Search a number of databases at the same time using Find it!
The Find it! feature on the Library Gateway allows you to perform a simple search across multiple databases. Using Find it!, you can do a simple search in 4 general resources or you can select a list of subject-specific databases to search.
For more precise searching, it is best to search the databases individually. See the Recommended Databases above.
Read Distinguishing Scholarly from Non-Scholarly Periodicals: A Checklist of Criteria for help on evaluating periodicals by looking at their format, intended audience, and appearance.
Internet Resources
Read Evaluating Web Resources and Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools to learn ways to analyze the Web sites you find. Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Sites offers a table of suggestions.
Evaluating the sources you find is a crucial step in the process of scholarly 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.
Read How to Critically Analyze Information Sources to determine the critical questions you should ask when you consider the appropriateness of a particular book, article, media resource, or Web site for your research
Documentation styles offer standard and prescribed methods for citing references. Different academic disciplines use different documentation styles. Two of the most popular and widely used documentation styles are produced by the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Modern Language Association (MLA). APA is most often used in the behavioral and social sciences and MLA is widely used in the humanities. You should always ask your course instructor whether or not a particular documentation style is required for your research papers.
Read Citation Tools at Cornell for more information on different citation styles and methods. For help with citing references, email CiteManage-L@cornell.edu.
True or False? This is the BEST Library session I have ever attended! a. true |
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Wendy Wilcox
ww83@cornell.edu
Reference Librarian
September 6, 2007
Olin and Uris Libraries, Cornell University, Ithaca NY 14853
PSA: Public Services and Assessment
Information and reference: 607-255-4144, okuref@cornell.edu
Circulation: (Olin) 607-255-4245, (Uris) 607-255-3537, olincirc@cornell.edu