Antigone from 'Antigone' by Sophocles (oil on canvas), by Marie Spartali Stillman (1844-1927), Simon Carter Gallery, Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK

ENGLISH 120: Ideas and Arguments on Stage

Spring 2004 /Prof. Peter Greenfield

• Liaison Librarian: Peggy Burge
• pburge@ups.edu
• Collins Library, room 131
• Telephone: x3512

[Students with questions about the research process are encouraged to contact the liaison librarian for assistance. Ask quick questions by e-mail or call or drop by. In-depth research consultations are also available by appointment.]

Research Basics

• Research is a complex process. It does not proceed in a linear fashion, but rather is a cumulative endeavor. Give yourself plenty of time for your project and be willing to adjust your thesis as you learn more about the topic.

• Keep careful records of your research journey: write down complete bibliographic information for the sources you find; note what keywords and subject headings you have used in your searches and which databases you have utilized.

• Cast a wide net initially, and only then begin to winnow out treasures.  By developing a context for your research you will be able to create a richer interpretation.

• Develop a habit of reflection. Don't just read and repeat the work of others; think about and evaluate what has been written and strive to develop your own voice.

• Develop the cognitive flexibility to appreciate nuances and handle ambiguities. The end product of research--the written paper--is your chance to contribute to the world of ideas and knowledge!

• Don't know where to start? Go to the Research Gateway and then select a subject (or subjects).

As you begin the research process, it is always a good idea to become familiar with the wide range of materials available in the reference section of the library. Browse through entries on your topic in more than one source. Compare entries among various sources. Are there differences in perspective? Are the same facts emphasized? Do the entries provide cross references to other terms, events, or people? Pay close attention to the bibliographies found at the end of most entries; these will usually point you toward the fundamental scholarship on the topic.

Literary Context -- Who is the author? What else has he or she written? What kinds of literature/art were others creating at the same time? What are the major themes of her or his work? How does this particular work fit in with the rest of the author's work? What has been the critical response to the work, and have these responses changed over time?

Anwers to questions about the literary context of the works you are studying in English 120 can be found in the following resources:

• Ancient Writers (2 v.) / PA 3002 A5 Ref (Use for information on Sophocles.)
• Gale Literary Criticism Series - Each volume in this series is devoted to a just a few authors, works, or themes, and includes excerpts of selected criticism from the time the work first appeared to the modern day. Our library subscribes to the following Gale series:
  • Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism (Covers authors who died before 1400)
    PN 610 C53 Ref
  • Contemporary Literary Criticism (Covers authors now living or who died after 1999)
    PN 771 C59 Ref
  • Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800 (Covers authors who died between 1400 and 1799) PN 86 L56 Ref
  • 19th-century Literary Criticism (Covers authors who died between 1800 and 1899)
    PN 761 N5 Ref
  • 20th-century Literary Criticism (Covers authors who died between 1900 and 1999)
    PN 771 C5 Ref
  • Shakespearean Criticism (Covers mostly Shakespeare, of course, but also other Elizabethan authors who died between 1400 and 1799) PR 2965 S43 Ref
    
• Guide to French Literature / PQ 226 L48 1992 Ref (if you are researching Anouilh)
• International Dictionary of Theatre / PN 2035 149 1992 Ref (Vol. 1: Plays; Vol. 2: Playwrights; Vol. 3: Actors, Directors and Designers)
• Literature Resource Center (online) This is an excellent first stop on your research journey. Explore the literary-historical timeline as well as extensive fulltext biographies of authors and selected criticism.
• Oxford Companion to American Literature, 6th ed. / PS 21 H3 1995 Ref
• World Literature and Its Times (5 v.) / PN50 M625 1999 Ref

Historical Context -- Historical context can refer to both the time of writing and the time period being portrayed in the work. For example, in studying Anouilh's Antigone, you could explore Vichy France (the time of writing) and how this context may have influenced Anouilh. Or, in studying Levitt's Andersonville Trial, you could explore the U.S. Civil War (time period being portrayed in the work), and perhaps compare contemporary accounts of the prison with Levitt's artistic portrayal.

The following resources should give you an idea of the range of materials available in the reference section of the library:

• American Civil War Reference Library (4 vols.) / E 468 H65 2000 Ref
• American Decades / E 169.12 A419 Ref -- Several volumes give detailed information about each of several 20th-century decades.
• Companion Encyclopedia of Psychology / BF 31 C66 1994 Ref -- Includes overview of the Stanley Milgram controversy, as well as other entries on obedience and authority.
• Encyclopedia of American History / E 174 E53 2003 Ref -- Volumes are ordered chronologically; primary source documents are included at the end of each volume.
• Encyclopedia of Psychology / BF 31 E529 2000 Ref -- Detailed entries on history, concepts, people, controversies, etc.
• Encyclopedia of the Holocaust / D 804.3 E53 1990 Ref -- Includes many entries on war crimes, war crime trials, etc.
• Histoire de France / DC 38 H57 2002 Ref -- Yes, it's in French, but even if you don't know the language you might want to take a look at the illustrations (for example, Vichy France posters extolling motherhood).
• The Sixties in America (3 vols.) / E841 S55 1999 Ref
• Viet Nam War Reference Library (4 vols.) / DS 557.7 H556 2001 Ref
• World Eras / D 20 W67 2001 Ref -- Thus far, six volumes have appeared. Each volume is devoted to a specific era, such as Classical Greek Civilization, and covers history, arts, daily life, religion and philosophy, social class system, politics, etc.

If you are looking for a specific book:

Begin by searching SIMON, which is a catalog of all items Collins Library owns, subscribes to, or provides access to.

Should SIMON not have the book you are looking for, search SUMMIT, which is a catalog of items owned by several regional partner academic libraries. Most books requested from another SUMMIT library will arrive in just a few days.

If neither SIMON nor SUMMIT lists the item you are seeking, consult WorldCat, which most likely will find a library (or libraries) which hold the book you want. Simply click on the "ILL" button at the top of the item record page to place a request for an Interlibrary Loan. You may also fill out this form to request a book via Interlibrary Loan. Books requested through ILL can take anywhere between a week to several weeks, depending on the availability of the item and the location of the library sending the materials.

If you are looking for books on a particular topic:

Keyword Searches: Enter a variety of terms in SIMON that you think describe your topic. When you call up a record that seems promising, mine its subject terms to find similar items. To do this, simply click on one of the subject headings listed in the record for the book; the next screen will list all the books in Collins Library that share this subject term. You may also mine subject headings in SUMMIT and WorldCat.

Subject Searches: Familiarize yourself with the Library of Congress Subject Headings and the call numbers associated with them. Library of Congress Subject Headings are not always predictable for the novice scholar. Here is a list of actual subject headings on the general topic of the Andersonville Prison to give you an idea of LCSH structure and wording:

• Andersonville Prison
• Prisoners of war -- Confederate States of America
• Prisoners of war -- United States -- History -- 19th century
• United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Prisoners and prisons
• War Crime Trials -- moral and ethical aspects
• War Crime Trials -- United States
• Wirz, Henry, 1823?-1865 -- Trials, litigation, etc.

When you find a subject heading that describes what you are looking for, you can run searches on SIMON or SUMMIT and/or go up to the stacks and browse the shelves within that call number range. Never underestimate the effectiveness of browsing!

Your research process MUST include a search of the relevant periodical literature. Books, valuable as they are, cannot contain all of the information and scholarly study and interpretation out there. The library subscribes to hundreds of journals, whether in print or electronic versions (or sometimes both). Through Interlibrary Loan, you also have access to thousands more journal titles.

Database Searching:

Always search more than one database!

How to select a database: A to Z list, by subject, general and reference, full text. If you have no idea where to start, go to the Research Gateway, select the appropriate subject, and see what databases are listed there. If you are doing interdisciplinary research, you should consult more than one subject on the research gateway.

 

Some relevant databases for ENGLISH 120:

America: History and Life. Indexes journal articles, book reviews and dissertations in the subject areas of American, Canadian, and Native American history from prehistoric times to the present.

Arts & Humanities Search. Indexes journal articles in many areas of the humanities, including interdisciplinary fields where the humanities intersect with the social sciences or sciences.

Historical Abstracts - World history, excluding the United States and Canada. Scope of historical coverage is 1450 to the present;article citations date from 1955. In order to connect Historical Abstracts with full text in Project Muse, insert the phrase "Project Muse" (without the quotation marks) with your search word. You will see the list of abstracts with a link at the bottom that denotes full text coverage.

Humanities Index. Indexes scholarly articles in all areas of the humanities; picks up articles in interdisciplinary journals not indexed elsewhere.

JSTOR. A full text database covering scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. It contains the backfiles of over 100 core scholarly journals which have been digitized, starting with the very first issues, many dating from the 1800s. Coverage dates are a "moving wall" of two to seven years prior to the current year.

MLA Bibliography (Linked with the Literature Resource Center) Indexes books, journal articles, essays in books, working papers, conference proceedings, and dissertations in the subject areas of language, literature, linguistics and folklore. This is the preeminent database for literary studies.

Project Muse. A full text database of scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Unlike JSTOR, Project Muse does not have early volumes of the journals, but provides current volumes of over 40 journals in the humanities, social sciences and mathematics starting from the mid-1990s until the most recent.

Social Sciences Index - Citations and abstracts pertaining to the social sciences, including anthropology, economics, geography, law, political science, psychology, social history, and sociology

Search Methods:

Almost all databases can be searched by keywords. Try as many keywords as you can think of to describe your topic. Once you have located an article that fits what you are looking for, look at its subject headings (called "descriptors" in some databases). Conduct a new search using these subject headings and you will get much more focused results.

Obtaining Articles:

There are three methods for obtaining the actual articles you wish to read.

Method 1: In some databases, you will be able to link directly to the full-text article. If given the choice between a PDF or HTML version of the article, always choose the PDF format. This will give you an exact image, including page numbers, of the article as it appears in the paper journal.

Method 2: If a direct link to full text is not available, then check SIMON to see if the library subscribes to the journal. (If you do not want to lose your database results page, open a new window by going to File, then clicking New, then selecting Window. In the URL line, enter <http://simon.ups.edu> to connect to SIMON.)

When you pull up the record for the periodical, note carefully the "Holdings" section, which can be reached by scrolling down. Periodical issues can be in paper, microform, microfiche, or electronic full-text formats, depending on the date of publication! If the periodical is available only in paper or microfilm, you will need to check either the current periodicals area on the first floor, or go downstairs to the basement to find the bound volumes of periodicals or the microfiche/microform. If the periodical record indicates that full text is available, note which databases are named, and then follow these instructions:

1. At the top of the periodical record, click on SIMON.
2. Click "Databases A-Z" (on left).
3. Click on first letter of the database name. For example, click on "R" if you want to access Research Library Complete.
4. Once in the database, select the option to search for a particular publication (varies depending on the database interface).
5. Enter publication title (for example, Journal of Modern Literature).
6. You will now be able to browse through tables of contents in each issue and then select articles you'd like to read.

Method 3: If the article you want is not available full text through the database nor is available in paper format in the library, then request the article through Interlibrary Loan by filling out this form, or, if available, clicking on the "ILL" button in the database. Often you will receive an electronic version of the article in just a few days.

Primary sources are documents, novels, paintings, music, etc., that were originally created during the time span under consideration in your research. Primary sources can come in many formats -- archives, old yellow newspapers, edited anthologies of letters published decades later, microform or microfiche, digitized images on the Internet and so forth. It is the original time period of creation that determines if a resource is a primary source, not the resource's current format.

Scholarly editions

Often you will be fortunate enough to find a scholarly edition of the documents or literature that you are seeking. A scholar or group of scholars may have spent years collecting and faithfully transcribing primary sources, and then preparing careful annotations and writing introductory essays to the anthology. If you can find scholarly editions, use them! The best way to find out if scholarly editions exist is to search SIMON, Summit, and WorldCat with the name of the original author(s) and/or title.

Nineteenth-century newspapers and journals The contents of many such newspapers and journals have been either photographed for microform or microfiche or have been digitized and are available online. Here are several such resources:

The Making of America. Cornell University Library has digitized the contents of 22 nineteenth-century journals, including The United States Democratic Review, Harper's, The Atlantic Monthly, The American Whig Review, Putnam's.

New York Times Historical File, 1851-1999. (Click on link, then select "PQ Hist.News.NYTimes.") Full text and full image.

Nineteenth Century Masterfile. Includes indexes of many nineteenth-century newspapers and other periodicals. Some articles are available full text.

Other primary source resources:

The American Memory Project (Library of Congress) -- Includes diaries, letters, manuscripts, photographs, sound clips, etc. You can search by keyword or by collection.

My Lai Court Martials -- Historical background, trial transcripts.

Nuremberg Trials -- Includes photographs and excerpts from trial transcripts.

You can supplement your research with web sources, but remember that not all websites are created equal. Use this checklist of criteria to evaluate the information you find on the web.