Course Research Guide for HIST 100-01: Discovering Problems in Pre-Modern World History

• Research & Computing Help
  
  
• Reference Resources
  
  
• Finding Books: Catalogs
  
  
• Finding Articles & More : Indexes

• Web Research
  
  
• Evaluating Research Materials
  
  
• Borrowing Materials & Interlibrary Loan
  
  
• Citing Your Resources

Research Help

• What? Librarians will help with research questions related to choosing a research topic or question, finding background information, choosing and searching within Library catalogs and subscription resources, finding books and articles at Macalester, requesting materials from other libraries, finding statistics, evaluating research resources, etc.
  
  
• When? Monday-Thursday 8am-9pm, Friday 8am-4:30pm, Saturday 1pm-5pm, Sunday 1pm-9pm. Librarians can also help through email, consultation sessions, and chat. See More Help in this section for additional information about these types of help.
  
  
• Where? The Reference Desk is located just inside the main doors of the Library and to your right.
  
  
• More Help
  
  
  • Sign Up for a Reference Consultation Session with a Librarian using the Library's Ask Us service (Limited Hours).
    
    
  • Call the Reference Desk at x6618 [Off Campus (651) 696-6618].
    
    
  • Send an Email Reference Question using the Library's Ask Us service.
    
    
  • Chat with a Librarian using the Library's Ask Us service (Limited Hours).
    
    
  • Contact your Instruction Session Librarian.

Jean Beccone
Reference & Instruction Library beccone@macalester.edu
(651) 696-6398

Computing Help

• What? CIT (Computing and Information Technology) staff members and student employees will help you with questions related to computer hardware and software, the network, email, printing, passwords and online accounts, etc.
  
  
• When? Monday-Thursday 8am-10pm, Friday 8am-4pm, Sunday 4pm-10pm.
  
  
• Where? The Computing Help Desk office is located in the Humanities Building, Room 310.
  
  
• More Help
  
  
  • Find more information and help on the Computing Help Desk Web page.
    
    
  • Call the CIT (Computing & Information Technology) Computing Help Desk at x6525 [Off Campus (651) 696-6525] to speak directly to a consultant or leave a message.
    
    
  • Email the Computing Help Desk to report a problem or ask a question.
    
    
  • Use CIT Documentation, instructional handouts explaining systems and software, for help with computer, application, program, and network questions.

• What? Reference materials include resources like dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, almanacs, handbooks, statistical materials, etc.
  
  
• When? Use resources in the Reference Collection to find background information on your topic area when you start your research projects.
  
  
• Where? Reference Collection Library Map. Use the CLICnet Catalog to search for resources in the Reference Collection. Print books are shelved under Library of Congress Call Numbers, including both letters and numbers, based on their subject matter.
  
  
  
  • Electronic Reference Resources - Collection of subscription reference packages

Selected Reference Resources for this Course

• What? A catalog is a record of items and materials owned, or subscribed to, by a particular library or group of libraries. Here at Macalester our online catalog is called CLICnet.
  
  
• When? Catalogs are the primary research tool to use when you need to find books. A catalog will allow you to search by the title or author of an item and also provide you with different ways to find research materials by topic.
  
  
• Where? Print books are shelved under Library of Congress Call Numbers, including both letters and numbers, based on their subject matter. See the Library's Locating Books at Macalester Web page for more information.
  
  
  
  • CLICnet - Books and other materials owned by Macalester's Library
    
    
  • MNCAT - Books and other materials owned by the University of Minnesota
    
    
  • WorldCat- Books and other materials owned by libraries worldwide
    

    
    
    What if I want a book that is not available at Macalester?

    If the book is available at another school in the CLICnet Catalog: Use the red "Request" button that appears in the catalog near the top of the page in the record for the item.

    If the book is NOT available in the CLICnet Catalog: Submit an Interlibrary Loan request. Please see the Library's Interlibrary Loan - Borrowing Policy Web page for more information.

• What? Indexes are subscription databases, or a set of print volumes, that provide information about research materials by subject. Many indexes are multidisciplinary in nature, containing research information covering a variety of disciplines. The Library pays for Macalester community members to have access to these packages.
  
  
• When? Use indexes when you need to find information about articles in journals, magazines, newspapers, and reference sources for you research projects. Many of these resources also include information about other research materials such as books, book chapters, government publications, working papers, conference proceedings, Web sites, statistical resources, etc.
  
  
• Where? The fulltext of an article is sometimes available in a particular online index or we may subscribe to the print version of a journal you need. Use the Journal Finder Catalog to determine if the Library subscribes to a particular journal or other periodical either online or in print in the Library.
  
  
  
  • Indexes & Electronic Collections by Title - Subscription databases and other electronic collections available at Macalester.

  
  
  What if I want an article that is not available in an online or print journal at Macalester?

  If the article is not available in print or online journal at Macalester: Submit an Interlibrary Loan request. Please see the Library's Interlibrary Loan - Borrowing Policy Web page for more information.

Selected Indexes & Electronic Collections for this Course

Academic Search Premier

Coverage: 1975 - | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: Multidisciplinary (Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences)
Resource Type: Electronic Index (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor Information: EBSCOhost, EBSCO Publishing
Description: Provides full text for nearly 4,600 scholarly publications, including full text for more than 3,500 peer-reviewed journals. Coverage spans virtually every area of academic study and offers information dating as far back as 1975.

ACLS History E-Book Project

Coverage: Date Varies | Search Help | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: History
Resource Type: Ebook Collection (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor: American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)
Description: Large collection of Ebooks that relate to the field of history. Browsing, by book title or author, is available as well as searching by subject.

America: History & Life

Coverage: 1964 -

Discipline/Topic Areas: African American Studies, American Studies, History
Resource Type: Electronic Index (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor Information: ABC-CLIO
Description: Indexes articles from journals, books, and dissertations in the area of American and Canadian history from prehistory to the present. Covers over 2,000 journals published worldwide.

Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS)

Coverage: 1971 - | Search Help | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: Asian Studies, History, International Studies, Humanities & Cultural Studies
Resource Type: Electronic Index (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor Information: Association for Asian Studies
Description: Indexes Western language literature including books, chapters from books, periodical articles and pamphlets on Asian studies.

Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA)

Coverage: 1973 - | Search Help | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: Art
Resource Type: Electronic Index (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor Information: RLG, Eureka
Description: Covering European and American art from late antiquity to the present, the Bibliography of the History of Art indexes and abstracts art-related books, conference proceedings and dissertations, exhibition and dealer's catalogs, and articles from more than 2,500 periodicals. The Bibliography of the History of Art is updated quarterly and covers 1973 to the present.

Database of Classical Bibliography (DCB) CD-ROM Reserve Desk PA1 .C5 (In Library Use Only)

Coverage: 1957 - 1996

Discipline/Topic Areas: Philosophy
Resource Type: CDROM Index (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor: Scholars Press
Description: Electronic version of L'Annee Philologique. Contains citations of all known scholarly work published in any language anywhere in the world concerning the areas of ancient Greek and Latin language and linguistics, Greek and Roman history, literature, philosophy, numismatics, papyrology and epigraphy, and concerning the time period from the second millennium B.C. to roughly 500-800 A.D.

Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS)

Coverage: 1936 - | Search Help | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: Latin American Studies, Spanish
Resource Type: Electronic Index (Free Web)
Publisher/Vendor: Library of Congress
Description: Index to scholarly journals in the social sciences and humanities, books, conference papers that cover the field of Latin American studies.

Historical Abstracts

Coverage: 1954 -

Discipline/Topic Areas: History, International Studies, Humanities & Cultural Studies
Resource Type: Electronic Index (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor: ABC-CLIO
Description: Index to journal articles in the area of world history. Covers topics from 1450-present and currently includes over 2,000 journals published throughout the world. The U.S. and Canada are excluded from coverage, but are included in the America History and Life database.

History Cooperative

Coverage: Date Varies | Search Help | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: History
Resource Type: Ejournal Collection (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor: American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, University of Illinois Press, and the National Academy Press
Description: Collection of the current issues of 9 history journals including the Journal of American History and the American Historical Review. Browsing individual journal titles and searching the entire History Cooperative collection are options within this resource.

JSTOR

Coverage: Date Varies | Search Help | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: Multidisciplinary (Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences)
Resource Type: Ejournal Collection (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor: JSTOR
Description: Large collection of core scholarly journals in the arts and humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Fulltext back to their date of first publication to within the current 2-5 years.

Periodicals Contents Index (PCI)

Coverage: 1770 - 1995 | Search Help | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: Multidisciplinary (Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences)
Resource Type: Electronic Index (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor: Chadwyck-Healey, ProQuest Information and Learning
Description: Index to over 4,300 international journals in the fields of humantities and the social sciences from the first date of the journal's publication through about 1991.

Project MUSE

Coverage: Date Varies | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: Multidisciplinary (Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences)
Resource Type: Ejournal Collection (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor: Johns Hopkins University Press, Project MUSE
Description: Searchable collection of fulltext journals in the humanities, social sciences and sciences.

Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI)

Coverage: 1985 - | Search Help | Title List

Discipline/Topic Areas: Multidisciplinary (Social Sciences)
Resource Type: Electronic Index (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor: Thomson ISI, Web of Knowledge
Description: Multidisciplinary database with searchable author abstracts, covering the journal literature of the social sciences. It indexes more than 1,725 journals spanning 50 disciplines, as well as covering individually selected, relevant items from over 3,300 of the world's leading scientific and technical journals. A feature of this index is the inclusion of all cited references.

Women's Studies International

Coverage: 1972 -

Discipline/Topic Areas: Women's & Gender Studies
Resource Type: Electronic Index (Subscription)
Publisher/Vendor: NISC BiblioLine
Description: Covers the core disciplines in Women’s Studies to the latest scholarship in feminist research including the areas of sociology, history, political science & economy, public policy, international relations, arts & humanities, business and education. Includes journals, newspapers, newsletters, bulletins, books, book chapters, proceedings, reports, theses, dissertations, NGO studies, important websites & web documents, and grey literature.

• What? The Internet is used to access information stored in files or documents on another computer. When you use the Internet, you retrieve documents, view images, programs, animation, and video, listen to sound files, speak and hear voice, via the World Wide Web. (From the UC Berkeley Library Web site)
  
  
• When? Use the Web to start your research. Like Reference Collection resources, Websites can help with finding background information for your research project.
  
  
• Where? Use a Web browser like Mozilla, Internet Explorer, Safari, Netscape, Avant, or Opera to access information via the Internet. No single search engine can claim to even come close to searching the entire Web. For best results, use multiple search engines.
  
  
  
  • Google - A great search engine to start with when surfing and searching on the Web.
    
    
  • Search Engine Watch - Access additional search engines. Also find information and reviews about these search engines.

Selected Web Resources for this Course

Evaluating research materials involves analyzing a resource to determine its usefulness and appropriateness with respect to your research project. Evaluation is important during all phases of a research project. You must select the best and most appropriate resources for your research.

Criteria to Consider When Evaluating Research Materials:

• What? Interlibary Loan, or ILL, is a DeWitt Wallace Library service that allows current Macalester students, staff, and faculty to request materials not available at Macalester.
  
  
• When? If Macalester does not own, or subscribe to, the research material you need, you can ask the Library to try and borrow the item from another Library in the area.
  
  
• Where? The Library uses a system called ILLiad that allows you to place requests for materials and track the status of these requested materials.
  
  
  
  • ILLiad Login - Use to access an existing account in the ILLiad system.
    
    
  • Interlibrary Loan - Borrowing Policy - For more information about Interlibrary Loan and ILLiad.

• What? Giving credit to the ideas of other scholars when you use their work or research in developing your own project.
  
  
• When? You must cite a resource whenever you quote, paraphrase, summarize, or otherwise refer to the work of another.
  
  
• Where? Citing a source usually includes parenthetical documentation or use of a footnote within the text of your project as well as creating a works cited reference list at the end of your project using a specific citation style. See the Library's Citing Resources Guide Web page for more information.
  
  
  
  • RefWorks - Service that allows you to download, organize, annotate, and search citations you find during your research as well as create in-text citations and works cited bibliographies for your papers.
    
    

Common Citation Style Manuals

Chicago Manual of Style
Chicago : The Press, 1982-
MAC Ref Z253 .U69 2003

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
Joseph Gibaldi. New York : Modern Language Association of America, 2003.
MAC Ref LB2369 .G53 2003

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
Washington, DC : American Psychological Association, c2001.
MAC Ref BF76.7 .P83 2001