Women and Gender Studies 325 Susan Paterson

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Women and Gender Studies 325 Susan
Paterson Sept. 29, 2009
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What do you need to know to conduct research for
WMST 325?

• How to
• Connect to library resources from home
• Find primary and secondary sources
• Find print and electronic materials for your
  topic
• Use subject terms to find related materials
• Keep track of your research

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Connect from home

• UBC subscribes to thousands of journals, hundreds
  of databases and much more.
• UBC students get access to these subscriptions
  through our Virtual Private Network (VPN)
• VPNLibrary at home
• How do I connect from home?

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Five steps to finding books and articles

• Step 1 Choose a topic
• Step 2 Identify key concepts and search terms
• Step 3 Look for books and articles
• Step 4 Review your results
• Step 5 Cite what you find

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Step 1 Choose your topic

• Sara Baartman
• b. 1789 d. 1815
• Also known as
• The Hottentot Venus
• Khoikhoi Venus
• Saartjie/Sartje/Sartjee (Sahr-key) Baartman
• Khoisan (Khoi Khoi woman) from South Africa
• Exhibited as a sideshow attraction in London and
  Paris

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Step 2 Identify key concepts and search terms

• What are the main ideas in your topic?
• Sara Baartman, the Hottentot Venus
• Racial constructions of female sexuality
• Representations of the female body as monstrous
  or grotesque
• Feminist history of colonial science
• What search terms could you use?

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Step 2 Identify key concepts and search terms
(brainstorming)

• sara baartman hottentot venus
• khoisan khoikhoi hottentot
• south african slave
• steatopygia hypertrophic labia
  minora
• sideshow attraction human exhibition
• exhibition ethics eurocentrism

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Conceptualize your topic

• Can be done through concept mapping

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Concept mapping on youtube.

• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vKhgxuNvbNrA
• Concept mapping helps form search strategies and
  organize concepts.
• Results from brainstorming.

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Step 3 Finding articles and books
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Why do I need to use Databases and Indexes?

• To find journal articles relevant for your
  research.
• They provide the most up-to-date information on a
  topic, they discuss the research topic in detail.
• Some are "Peer Reviewed" which means they have
  been read and approved by experts in the field
  prior to being published, they are written by
  experts for a scholarly or academic audience.
• It can take many months, even years to publish a
  book and process it to the library shelves
  current events may alter the relevance of the
  contents. Therefore journal articles are often
  the best way of accessing current information.

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Primary Sources Examples

• Once a feminist stories of a generation / by
  Michelene Wandor.
• Interviews of women who where involved in the
  Women Liberation Movement at Ruskin College,
  Oxford
• Search words
• correspondence
• diaries
• personal narratives
• Interviews
• sources
• Travel

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Digital Collections of Primary Documents

• Defining Gender - 1450-1910 - collection of
  original rare primary documents relating to
  Gender Studies, sourced from libraries and
  archives around the world.
• Take a look at the Documents Section Choose
  an area such as The Body Beauty and Fashion

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Digital Collections of Primary Documents
Letters, Diaries, Literature

• Defining Gender - 1450-1920
• North American Women's Letters and Diaries
• Women and Social Movements in the United States
  1600 to 2000.

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Digital Collections of Primary Documents

• Defining Gender - 1450-1920
• Take a look the Documents Section Choose an
  area such as The Body Beauty and Fashion

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Newspaper Resources

• Canadian Newstand- Full text of major Canadian
  daily newspapers, including national and leading
  regional papers, plus regional British Columbia
  paper. Updated daily.
• Proquest Historical Newspapers- Covers The New
  York Times (1851-2003) The Wall Street Journal
  (1889-1989) The Washington Post (1877-1990) and
  The Christian Science Monitor (1908-1993)
• Times Digital Archive (1785-1985) Online
  archive of every page published by The Times
  London from 1785-1985. The text within the
  images is fully searchable at the article level.
• Globe and Mail Canadas Heritage from 1844. (up
  until 2001)

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Hands on Search Canadian Newstand

• This topic is ideal to search in newspapers as it
  was a hot topic in the news media
• Emilie Ouimet
• Hijab/Head scarf
• Montreal
• High schools
• Tolerance
• Racism

Possible keywords
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Finding Articles

• Full-text articles are found in two main formats
  
• Print access through Library Catalogue
• Electronic access through indexes and databases

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Step 3 Find books and articlesGet Started
Boolean Searching

• AND Narrows a search
• i.e. Qualitative and quantitative
• OR Broadens a search
• i.e. qualitative OR quantitative
• Phrase
• i.e. qualitative research
• ? Wildcard
• i.e. Wom?n Women, woman, womyn
• - Truncation
• i.e. Feminis Feminist, Feminists, Feminism

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Find articles

• Womens Studies International
• Covers core disciplines in Womens Studies to the
  latest scholarship in feminist research
• Full-text and index from 1972 to the present
• Use for broad disciplinary coverage
• Save search history/create alerts
• Cite this article feature
• RefWorks compatible

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Finding articles

• Contemporary Womens Issues
• A multidisciplinary, full-text database "that
  brings together relevant content from mainstream
  periodicals, "gray" literature, and the
  alternative press -- with a focus on the critical
  issues and events that influence women's lives in
  more than 190 countries."
• Gray Literature a body of materials that cannot
  be found easily through conventional channels
  such as publishers, "but which is frequently
  original and usually recent."

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Finding articles

• Academic Search Complete
• Multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more
  than 6,100 full-text periodicals, including more
  than 5,100 peer-reviewed journals.
• The database features PDF content going back as
  far as 1887, with the majority of full text
  titles in native (searchable) PDF format

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Finding articles

• Google Scholar
• Searching for scholarly literature / beta phase
  not exactly sure what its searching
• Cited By (similar to Web of Science)
• Related Articles
• Library Link

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Finding articles

• JStor
• 100's of titles and increasing generally
  providing a back run from the journal's
  inception, period varies from six months up to
  five years from the present.
• JSTOR is NOT a current issues database.

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(No Transcript)
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Finding articles

• Contemporary Womens Issues
• Find full-text and index articles in all areas
  relating to Womens Studies
• Use for catching articles not covered anywhere
  else
• Search by subject area
• i.e. beauty standards
• 4 concurrent users

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Other key resources

• Women and social movements in the United States,
  1600 to 2000
• Defining gender, 1450 to 1910
• eHraf World Cultures

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Step 4 Evaluate your results Overview

• General questions you should ask
• Is it primary or secondary source material?
• Who or what is the source of the materials?
• Who is the publisher of the material?
• When was the material published?
• What is the material about?
• Is the material appropriate for your research?

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Step 4 A more in-depth critical analysis

• Timeliness
• Authority
• Accuracy and completeness
• Objectivity
• Quality control
• Coherent organization
• Reasonableness

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Step 4 Evaluate your results Questions to ask.

• What is the authors main argument?
• How does the author go about making and defending
  this argument?
• What style do they use?
• What literature or theoretical traditions do they
  draw from, build upon, and criticize?
• What are the readings strengths and
  shortcomings?
• How might this topic, study, or argument be
  approached differently?
• How does it compare with previous readings and
  discussions in the class?

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Step 5 Citations

• You need to cite what you find for your
  bibliography.
• Citation Styles
• APA (Social Sciences)
• MLA (English and other humanities)
• Chicago (History/Humanities)
• Help
• Womens Studies Subject Guide
• Diana Hackers website http//www.dianahacker.com
  /resdoc/
• Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
  http//owl.english.purdue.edu/

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Evaluation

• Student and faculty feedback is invaluable in
  keeping instruction sessions relevant and current
• Womens Studies Library Tutorial Evaluation

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Thank you!

• Any Questions?