ENGLISH 126B: "Writing, Reading, Life, and Meaning"

Fall 2008 / Prof. Hans Ostrom

  • Liaison Librarian: Peggy Burge
  • Collins Library, room 117
  • Telephone: x3512
This webpage is intended to provide students enrolled in Prof. Ostrom's English 126B course with some basic library research starting points. It does not provide a comprehensive listing of all resources that might be useful.
Getting help in the library
Overviews and Background Information
Statistics & Other Types of Data
The Press
Special Interest & Advocacy Groups
Further research steps
 
Resources on Octavia Butler and Fledgling
  

NEED HELP?

Librarians are professionals with expertise in the organization and dissemination of knowledge. There are five subject liaison librarians at Collins Library who are here to assist you any time you have questions about:

      • Defining the parameters of your information needs
      • Determining what types of sources are available
      • Knowing which tools to use to find these sources, and how to use these tools
      • Deciding how to evaluate different types of sources to find the most appropriate ones for your research needs
      • Figuring out how to properly cite sources

You may ask your questions via e-mail, telephone, or in person. If you have a lengthy or in-depth research problem, it is best to make an appointment so that you can have the librarian's undivided attention.

Liaison Librarian for the English Department:

Peggy Burge, pburge@ups.edu, 879-3512, Collins Library 117

Overviews and Background Information

When you are researching socially and politically contentious issues like poverty, access to healthcare, and homelessness, two types of resources that are especially good as starting points are subject encyclopedias and summaries and edited compilations of multiple perspectives on a selected topic. Both types of resources will provide you with a firm grasp of the essential questions being asked and the main lines of argument being pursued.

Subject Encyclopedias -- located in the Reference section on the first floor of the library, right next to the I-Commons:

  • Dictionary of American History / E 174 .D52 2003 Reference - This multi-volume set has numerous entries that may be helpful to you. Try looking in the index if you initially do not find what you need.
  • Encyclopedia of American Immigration / JV 6465 .E53 2000 Reference - This wide-ranging set covers historical perspectives, legal processes, key issues (including political and economic debates), comparative perspectives, and even includes excerpts from key immigration documents.
  • Encyclopedia of American Social History / HN 57 .E58 1993 Reference - The three volumes are organized thematically. Volume One deals with processes of social change; Volume Two includes extensive entries on work and labor as well as ethnic/regional identity; and Volume Three has chapters on social problems, social control, and social protest.
  • Encyclopedia of Social Issues / HN 57 E59 1997 Reference - Contains entries on issues ranging from abortion to welfare.
  • Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America / E 184 A1 G14 2000 Reference - A typical entry on a specific American ethnic group includes an overview, history, immigration/settlement patterns, acculturation and assimilation, family and community dynamics, religion, employment and economics, politics and government, individual contributions, media, organizations, and suggestions for further study.
  • Women's Issues / HQ 1115 W6425 1997 Reference - Contains historical overviews of such issues as women's wages and the gender gap.

TIPS!

Use the index in an encyclopedia set to locate entries that discuss your topic; it may be that your specific subject is embedded in an entry dealing with a broader topic.

Use the bibliographies located at the end of most encyclopedia entries to track down more detailed information sources (usually books and/or journal articles).

Summaries and Edited Compilations of Multiple Perspectives

  • CQ Researcher - Explores a single issue in the news in depth each week. Numerous charts, graphs and sidebar articles -- plus a pro-con feature, a chronology, lengthy bibliographies and a list of contacts - are included.
  • Current Controversies - Both Current Controversies and Opposing Viewpoints are book series that frequently publish edited compilations of multiple viewpoints on socially and politically contentious issues. To see if a book on your topic has been published, conduct a keyword search in SIMON, using a term for your topic and "current controversies" or "opposing viewpoints."
  • Opposing Viewpoints

Statistics and Other Data Sources

Federal, state, and local governments produce reams of statistics every year. International and non-profit organizations produce yet more. Most of these statistics, especially for recent years, are available online. There are also book publications that attempt to place the data into comparative tables or otherwise organize it in meaningful ways.

FirstGov.gov is the gateway to many federal and state statistics. For example, the first result for a keyword search on "poverty" will take you to a detailed site hosted by the U.S. Census.

Washington State, as well as all other states, and most counties and cities, host their own web access pages. To locate the official website for your state or county or town, do a Google search, but limit your search to .gov domains.

Non-governmental statistics resources include:

National Center for Charitable Statistics

International Comparative Statistics can be located here:

World Bank's World Development Indicators Online

United Nations. Human Development Reports.

United Nations. Social Indicators Statistics.

State Rankings, 2006 / HA 203 U17 2006 Reference -- This publication contains over 550 tables with comparative state data on such issues as crime, unemployment, housing, etc.

Where Women Stand: An International Report on the Status of Women in 140 Countries, 1997-1998 / HQ 1154 N39 1997 Reference -- Provides comparative data on health, employment, wage disparities, education, etc.

Tips!

A single statistic has little meaning by itself. You'll need to put the numbers into some kind of comparative context for them to acquire meaning. For example, the infant mortality rate among African Americans in 2000 was 14.1 per 1,000 live births. By itself, this number is just a fact. However, when you compare this rate with the overall U.S. infant mortality rate in 2000, which was 6.9 per 1,000 live births, the number acquires urgent meaning.

Pay attention to how the information is gathered and how the statistics are calculated--it matters a great deal! For example, how poverty is calculated is a very contentious issue!

The Press

Explore how the media reports on (or doesn't report on) the issues. To locate editorials, add "editorial" or "op-ed" to your search.

  • Alternative Press Watch - (Click on Alternative Press Watch on next screen.) Full text of approximately 250 non-mainstream publications that report on and analyze cultural, economic, political and social change.
  • Ethnic News Watch -- Full text of articles from newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press in North America.
  • Lexis-Nexis Academic -- Click on "News" on the left of the page. Full text of hundreds of U.S. and international newspapers; updated daily.
  • Washington State Newstand - (Scroll down and then click on "Washington State Newstand" link.) Full-text coverage from major Washington state papers.

Special Interest Groups & Advocacy Organizations

There are many special interest groups and advocacy organizations that comment on and propose policies for dealing with social issues. Many of them have websites that may have useful information for you. Always evaluate this information carefully. The reference resources and web evaluation guidelines listed below will help you do so.

Guide to North American NGOs -- a helpful guide put together by Duke University Libraries.

The Right Guide: A Guide to Conservative and Right-of-Center Organizations / HS 2321 .R53 1997 Reference and The Left Guide: A Guide to Left-of-Center Organizations / HS 2321 L447 1996 Reference -- Both of these volumes will give you basic information about the mission, ideological stance, publications, tax status, and other information thousands of U.S. organizations.

Encyclopedia of Associations / HS 17 G334 2007 Reference - Part Three of this multi-volume set offers a thematic index. For example, you can look of "poverty" to get a list of organizations that concentrate on poverty-related issues, and then look up the specifics about these organizations in the other volumes.

WEB EVALUATION--Consider the following criteria when using a website as a research source for your project.

  • Authority (author and publisher)
    • Who is the author?
      • Is it clear who is responsible for the contents of the page?
      • What experiences or formal credentials does the author have?
      • Can you contact the author?
    • Who published the web document?
      • Was this site developed by an academic institution or commercial organization with an established reputation in the topical area?
      • Is there a sponsoring institution? If so, what is its purpose?
  • Coverage
    • What appears to be the purpose of this information?
      • Is the purpose specifically stated or implied?
      • Does it inform, persuade, entertain, or sell something?
    • Who is the intended audience?
      • Is the site for scholars or students of the subject?
      • Is it for the layperson?
    • How thorough or complete is it?
    • What is its range and depth of coverage?
  • Objectivity
    • What point of view is represented? Are there links to other views?
    • Is it fact or opinion? Can you tell?
    • What is the attitude of the page? Is it humorous, outraged, exaggerated or parodic?
  • Accuracy & Currency
    • When was the information created or last updated?
    • Is the source appropriate for your needs? Areas of continuing and rapid development, such as the sciences, demand more current information.
    • How current are the links, statistical data, illustrations, etc.? Don't use undated factual or statistical information.
    • Does the information appear to be valid and well researched, or is it questionable and unsupported by evidence?
    • What is its relation to other works on the subject? Some Internet resources have print counterparts which may or may not contain more information than the Internet resource.

Further Research Steps (Books & Scholarly Articles)

Books:

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..

Titles not in SIMON or SUMMIT can be located in WorldCat, which most likely will find a library (or libraries) which hold the book you want. Simply click on the "Interlibrary Loan (ILLIAD)" button within the item record page to place a request for an Interlibrary Loan. You may also go directly to ILLIAD 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.

Subject Searches: Familiarize yourself with the Library of Congress Subject Headings and the call numbers associated with them. 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. Some specific examples of Library of Congress Subject Headings include:

Scholarly Journal Articles:

Try the following databases to locate scholarly journal articles on your topic:

  • America: History and Life - History of the United States and Canada. Scope of historical coverage is prehistoric to the present; article citations date from 1964. 
  • Social Sciences Index - Citations and abstracts pertaining to the social sciences, including anthropology, economics, geography, law, political science, psychology, social history, and sociology

Getting Your Hands on the Actual Article:

Many databases are just indexes--you'll get just the citation, sometimes with an abstract. Other databases contain a mixture of citations and full-text articles.

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 you will need to check Journal Locator. A link to the Journal Locator is available within each database. When you pull up the Journal Locator record for the periodical, note carefully the "Holdings" section. Periodical issues can be in paper, microform, microfiche, or electronic full-text formats, depending on the date of publication. If the article is available full text, a link to it will be provided. 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.

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 through ILLIAD, or, if available, clicking on the "ILL" or "Interlibrary Loan" button in the database. Often you will receive an electronic version of the article in less than a week.

Resources on Octavia Butler and Fledgling

Learn more about Octavia Butler and her work:

Octavia Butler in Her Own Words

  • A Brief Autobiography published on the Science Fiction Writers of America website
  • Interview with DemocracyNow! on November 11, 2005

Fledgling

Cory Doctorow on Fledgling

"Love at First Bite," a book review by Ron Charles appearing in the Washington Post

 

 

 

Content contact: Peggy Burge

Last updated: 9/2/2008