History 297A
Research Seminar in European History
and the History of Science
Fall 2007
Library Research Guide
Ellen Broidy
Librarian for Anglo-American History
and History of Science
Getting
to this page:
Go to the
UCLA Library's webpage (www.library.ucla.edu)
and follow these simple steps:
Introduction:
This guide
is designed as an introduction to print and online resources critical for
accessing materials relevant to the study of early modern European thought and
the history of science located at the UCLA Library and beyond. It is extremely
selective, both in terms of the sources cited and the strategies recommended
(or implied). All reference and "finding" sources listed are available at UCLA;
however, a number of these point to materials located at libraries, both real
and virtual, beyond the borders of the campus.
The guide
covers the following areas:
1. Basic
research strategies and tips
1.1 Search tips ~ systems
and serendipity: Successful research is often a combination of systematic
approaches and, when appropriate, serendipity.
1.2 Topic identification
and description: Identify a topic of interest and describe it in as narrow and
focused a way as possible. Consider subtopics, perspective you wish to take,
geographic or chronological focus. As the four "W" questions: What" Who? When?
Where? If you are so inclined, asked Why?
1.3 Search vocabulary:
Make a list of search terms ("keywords") that describe your topic. Include
synonyms, relevant proper names, etc. Avoid very common words if possible but also
include some general terms.
1.4 Truncation: Use
truncation symbols (?, *, or #) to build on the root
of a word or, if the system permits, within a word to expand your retrieval.
The specific symbol depends on the system you're searching.
Examples:
imperial? = imperialist, imperialism
wom#n = woman, women
1.5 Call numbers: Call
numbers are determined by the first/primary subject heading assigned to the
publication. Thus there is an excellent chance that most, although by no means
all, books on 18th century travel in
1.6 Search documentation:
Keep careful track of your research process and progress: sources consulted,
date ranges covered, search terms used, as well as all promising citations. Use
a notebook, index cards, e-mail messages to yourself, or an online system such
as EndNote.
1.7 What to keep in mind
when assessing the quality and usefulness of print and electronic resources:
Author: Credentials? Scholar?
Academic field? Other publications?
Publisher: University press? Other scholarly publisher? Trade press?
Notes: Bibliography? Index? Footnotes?
Date: Original publication date? Date of revision, new edition?
Reviewed: If a book, can you locate a (favorable) book review?
This is the front door to a
wide variety of print and electronic resources in European history, economic
history, history of exploration and travel, and the history of science and
technology, including links to the UCLA Catalog; MELVYL, the union catalog for
the University of California libraries; California Digital Library holdings;
UCLA-licensed web resources, and subject-related web pages developed at UCLA.
3. Finding
Books/UCLA Catalog and MELVYL
Identifying and locating
books on your topic is most conveniently done through a keyword or subject
search in the UCLA Library Catalog or the UC systemwide MELVYL Catalog. Keyword searching is the most flexible, usually
producing the largest retrieval (but also including "false drops" or unintended
results) while subject searching can often be more precise (but limited)
because it relies on an authorized list of subject terms called Library
of Congress Subject Headings.
3.1
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Although the advent of
online catalogs with keyword search capabilities has sounded the death knell
for rigidly structured subject heading/classification schemes, it is still
worth considering how language is used to organize materials in a research
library.
A subject heading is a word
or term that describes, often quite broadly, the contents of a book, videotape,
dataset, etc. All nonfiction books and media are assigned one or more subject
headings, allowing for multiple points of access to the same item. "Authorized"
headings are listed in Library of Congress Subject Headings, a
four-volume set with a bright red cover located near the reference desk in YRL.
One of the best and most efficient
ways to identify subject headings for your topic is to do a keyword or title
search in the catalog and then check the subject headings assigned to the book.
Note the most promising heading(s) and click on the live link to execute a
subject search.
The UCLA Library Catalog
provides quick and efficient access to the holdings of the UCLA Library. The
catalog should be your first stop for books, periodicals, media and other
library materials.
The UCLA Library Catalog is accessible via the link on this
webpage and from the Library's homepage. Click on the Search and find" tab. The
catalog is the first item on the drop-down menu.
The UCLA Catalog offers the following features:
Circulation
status of materials
- lets you know whether a book is available (on the shelf), checked out (and
the date it's due back), or missing.
Serials
information -
catalog lists both print and electronic serials, with UCLA holdings.
Personal
circulation data -
allows you to keep track online of materials you have checked out of the
Library. Click on My Account and type in your UCLA Bruin Card number.
If your UCLA Library
Catalog search does not produce the desire results, you may want to search the
holdings of other libraries, particularly other UC libraries. The UC MELVYL
Catalog opens up doors to worlds beyond UCLA .
To get to the MELVYL
Catalog, use the link on this website or click on the Search and find and then Other catalogs. MELVYL is the first in this list. To
research a topic, you may use either the default Basic search option or click
on Advanced in the gold bar at the top of the page.
3.4 WorldCat
OCLC
FirstSearch catalog of books, serials, web resources and other materials
worldwide. Access via this page or the the UCLA Library homepage - click on
Search and Finf, then Other Catalogs.
The quickest way to get to
indexes to periodical literature or to full-text articles online is via the Library's
homepage. Click on Search and Find and then on E-Resources (last item in the
drop down menu). This will point to several options for locating indexes and
online journals.
Recommended general online
resources (indexes) for European History:
The "world's leading
historical bibliography" covers the history of the world from 1450 to the
present (excluding North America but including the rest of the
History of Science, Technology and
Medicine
Integrates four major
bibliographies in the history of science:
Provides indexing and
abstracts from books and journals of philosophy and related fields; covers
ethics, aesthetics, social philosophy, political philosophy, epistemology, and
metaphysic logic as well as material on the philosophy of law, religion,
science, history, education, and language.
Periodical Archive Online (PAO)
Index to millions of
articles published in 4,547 periodicals in the humanities and social sciences
from 1770 to 1995, including full text for 200 complete journal runs.
A
multilingual, multidisciplinary database indexing books and journal articles in
the humanities, social sciences, and economics. It is strong in religion, the
history of art, and literature, with particular emphasis on current trends in
European and world literature. Most items have abstracts.
IBZ: Internationale Bibliographie der
Zeitschriftenliteratur
Multilingual database,
indexing over 5600 periodicals, including a significant proportion of the
periodicals published on the European continent, 1983 to the present.
Arts and Humanities Citation Index; Social
Science Citation Index
A
multidisciplinary database, with searchable author abstracts, covering the
journal literature of the sciences; social sciences; and arts & humanities. Indexes major journals across
disciplines with all cited references captured. Through the Web of Science,
users can access the three ISI Citation Databases: Science Citation Index
Expanded; Social Sciences Citation Index; Arts & Humanities Citation Index.
These are multidisciplinary databases of bibliographic information indexed so
that you can search for specific articles by subject, author, journal, and/or
author address. Because the information stored about each article includes the
article's cited reference list (often called its bibliography), you can also
search the databases for articles that cite a known author or work. Cited
reference searching, unique to ISI, lets you use a given work as if it were a
subject term.
Provides selected full-text articles and images from 2,600 scholarly
journals, magazines, newspapers, with the earliest citations dating back to
1980. Spans all academic disciplines from arts and humanities to social
sciences, science, and technology.
5. Book
Reviews
5.1. Web Resources
Generally best to use the
book title as your search term.
Search hint: On search page
under Scope: Limit to Book Reviews Only
Although there is no
separate limit for book reviews, citations to reviews are clearly marked in the
record.
Search hint: Unfortunately Historical
Abstracts does not index by Book Review. However, you can sometimes
retrieve reviews by adding "review" to a keyword or subject search.
An index to book reviews
from approximately 600 scholarly and popular English-language journals with
links to more than 630,000 full-text reviews.
5.2 Print Resources
C.R.I.S.: The Combined
Retrospective Index Set to Journals in History, 1838-1974. 11 vols. YRL Stacks Z6205
.C112
Combined
Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Scholarly Journals, 1886-1974. 15 vols. YRL Ref. Z1036 Ai C65
(Case O).
6. Full-Text
Journals on the Web
Full text
of core scholarly journals from their beginning to approximately five years
ago. Disciplines
include botany, business, ecology, general science, humanities, mathematics,
social sciences, statistics. Browsable
by discipline and full-text searchable across all disciplines.
Full-text
of over 40 current academic journals in History. Coverage varies by title by tends
to range from 1993 to the present.
UCLA's membership in the
History Cooperative provides online access to current issues of major history
journals, including:
American Historical
Review
Commonplace
Law and History Review
William and Mary Quarterly
Journal of World History
Journal of Social History
Contains Palmer's
Index to the Times, 1790-1905 and full-text of the Times for the
same period.
7. Selected
Primary Sources on the Web and Elsewhere
This
database is being published in five sections between 2003 and 2007 offering
approximately 60,000 images of original documents linked to essays by leading
scholars in the field of Empire Studies. The sections cover Cultural Contacts,
1492-1969 (2003); Empire Writing and the Literature of Empire (2003/4); The
Visible Empire (2004/5); Religion and Empire (2005/6); and Race, Class and
Colonialism, c1783-1969 (2006/7). The images will be sourced from about ten
different libraries and archives around the world, including a strong core of
document images from the British Library, including the Oriental and India Office
Collections at the British Library; the
Making of the Modern
World: The Goldsmiths-Kress Library of Economic Literature
A digital
collection of over 61,000 books from 1466-1850. Based on the holdings of the
Goldsmiths' Economic Library at the
Citations from early
English texts from 1475 to 1700, presented as digital images. Includes works by
Malory, Bacon, More, Erasmus, Boyle,
Gerritsen Collection:
Women's History Online, 1543-1945
The Gerritsen Collection
was begun by Carl and Aletta Jacobs Gerritsen in the late 1800s. The original
printed materials are located at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library of the
Industrial Revolution: A Documentary History. Microfilm:ser.1:pt.1-10,12-14,ser.3:pt.1-3
HC254.5
.I382 1992 - SRLF, YRL; guide available
History of Science and Technology. Ser. 1, The Papers of Hans Sloane. Microfilm.
Q125 .H58 - SRLF
American Historical Association
H-Net Humanities and
Social Sciences Online: List of Discussion Networks
ejb9/07