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Professor
Denise Askin
Library Liaison
Gwen Verkuilen
Contents
Introduction
Research Basics
Reference Sources for
Background Information
Search Tips
Find Books/Secondary Sources
Find Journal Articles
Selected Internet Resources
How to Cite Your Sources
Subject Guide
English
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This is a guide to selected sources of information related to the Native American Voices course. Due to the depth of our collection on this topic as well as the variety of topics and subject areas you are able to pursue in this course, the guide is only meant to be a starting point for your research. For further research assistance, please take advantage of the reference services available to you in Geisel Library.
The reference librarians have created a group of Web pages named Research Help and a tutorial called Searchpath to help teach you the basics of library research and to introduce you to Geisel Library. On the Research Help pages, you will find a guide on Research Basics and a helpful guide on evaluating Web resources titled, Judging What You Find. Please take advantage of these resources.
Reference books are shelved by Library of Congress call number in the reference stacks near the reference desk. They may not be checked out but photocopiers are available on the lower level of the Library. Online reference sources can be found in the library catalog, or listed on E-Reference Resources.
General Reference Resources
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online
Find overviews on a wide variety of topics by searching this online encyclopedia. This is a good resource for obtaining background information on authors and for brainstorming keywords that represent your topic.
Oxford Reference Online
This database enables you to search within many of Oxford's highly-regarded reference works in the fields of literature and history, including the Oxford Companion to American Literature. This is a good place to get basic background information on an author or literary movement.
General Native American Reference Resources
Encyclopedia of Indians of the Americas
Ref E54.5 .E52
Encyclopedia of American Indian Contributions to the World: 15,000 Years of Inventions and Innovations
Ref E54.5 .K46 2002
Encyclopedia of North American Indians
Ref E76.2 .E53
Handbook of the American Frontier: Four Centuries of Indian-White Relationships
Ref E76.2 .H43
Reference Encyclopedia of the American Indian
Ref E76.2 .R4
Macmillan Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes
Ref 76.2 J63
Handbook of North American Indians (17 volumes)
Ref E77 .H25
Native Americans: An Annotated Bibliography
Ref E77 .H68
A Broken Flute: The Native Experience in Books for Children
Ref E77.4 .B76
Literary Reference Resources
Literature Resource Center's interactive list of Native American authors
Encyclopedia of American Indian Literature
Ref PS153 .I52 E53
Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature
Ref PS153 .I52 C36
American Indian and Eskimo Authors
Ref PS508 .l5
Dictionary of Native American Literature
Ref PM 155 .D53
American Indian and Eskimo Authors: A Comprehensive Bibliography
Ref PS508 .I5
Native American in Long Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography
Original and Supplement
Ref PS374.I49 B42
American Indian in Short Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography
Ref PS374.I49 B44
Facts on File Companion to the American Short Story
Ref PS374.S5 F33
Columbia Companion to the 20th Century American Short Story
Ref PS374.S5 C57
See page 65 "The Native American Short Story."
Contemporary American Women Fiction Writers
Ref PS374.W6 C66
Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism
Ref PN761 .N56
See Vol. 64 page 262–389 for an excellent overview of Native American literature.
Contemporary Literary Criticism
Ref PN94 .C65
See Vol. 76 page 440–476 for an excellent overview of Native American literature.
Arts and Culture Reference Resources
American Women Artists: From Indian Times to the Present
Ref N6505 .R8
Ethnic Groups in Hollywood
Ref PN1995.9 .M56 M85
Social Science Reference Resources
CQ Researcher
Look for reports by topic: see Indians of North America, or Indian Affairs, U.S. Bureau of, or use the Search query.
Native Americans: Social, Economic and Political Aspects: Bibliography
Ref E98 .W8 N67
Native American Woman: Social, Economic and Political Aspects: Bibliography
Ref E98 .W8 N67
Encyclopedia of Multiculturalism (6 volumes)
Ref E184 .A1 E58
Religion and Philosophy
Encyclopedia of Native American Religions
Ref E98 .R3 H73
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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To search the library catalogs and databases listed below you will need to use Boolean operators (ANDs and ORs), truncation, and quotation marks to pull up books and articles on your topic. Here is a brief overview of how to use Boolean operators and truncation:
- "AND" – use AND to link together search topics (Pocahontas AND history)
- "OR" – use OR to link together synonyms or like concepts (Indian gaming OR Indian casinos)
- "*" – use truncation to pull up the root of a word with variant endings (Type art* to pull up items with the words art, arts, artist, artists, etc.)
- Quotation marks – When performing keyword searches use quotation marks to search for your keywords as an exact phrase (Type "Native American" to look for the exact phrase of: Native American. If you do not enclose your phrase with quotes the catalog will look for the term Native and American as separate words throughout the entire catalog record)
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Search the Geisel library catalog by keyword or subject heading to locate books in Geisel Library. There are 2 main ways to search the library catalog, by subject heading or by keyword. Each method has its own benefits and drawbacks, it is important therefore to know the best time to use each method.
Subject Headings
Subject headings are keywords that are assigned to books to capture the item's key subject matter and themes. Use subject headings to look for books on broad concepts such as criticism on Native American fiction or books on Native American creation myths.
Examples of subject heading searches relevant to this course include:
- American literature – Indian authors – History and criticism
- Cherokee Indians
- Indian women – North America – Biography
- Indians in Literature
- Indians, Treatment of – United States
- Indians of North America – New England
- Indians of North America – Intellectual Life
Keyword Searches
Keyword Searches work best if you are researching a narrow concept or if you have an author, title, historical figure or historical event that you would like research on. Keyword searches will look for your search term(s) in the citation, subject headings, and chapter titles (if available).
Examples of possible keyword searches relevant to this course include:
- Indians AND assimilation
- Indians OR "Native Americans" AND religion
- Cherokee AND religion OR ceremony
- "American Indians" OR "Native Americans" AND art*
If you searched the Geisel Library Catalog but could not locate a book on your topic try searching WorldCat, a database that allows you to search the collections of libraries throughout the United States. If you find a book that you want you can request it through interlibrary loan (ILL) by clicking on the ILL icon in the book's catalog record.
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Core English Research Databases
Literature Resource Center
Find biographical information on authors, as well as bibliographies, plot summaries, and literary criticism of their works. This resource also provides the full text of articles from more than 100 literary journals.
MLA International Bibliography
Produced by the Modern Language Association of America, this electronic index consists of bibliographic records pertaining to literature, language, linguistics, and folklore. (1963–present) User Guide
Academic Search Premier
Gain access to full-text as well as indexing and abstracting for a wide range of journal titles covering business, social sciences, humanities, general science, and education.
Additional Research Databases
The databases listed below are only a sampling of the electronic databases that will help you perform research for this course. What database you should use will be determined by what topic you are researching. For assistance in determining what resource would be best for your topic please consult the databases by subject page or ask a librarian.
API – Alternative Press Index (1991–present)
API – Alternative Press Index Archive (1969–1990)
Use API to locate articles on social, cultural, or political movements that are not heavily covered by the mainstream media. API is an abstract only database; you will need to use WebBridge to locate the article in full text.
America: History and Life
Provides abstracts to journal articles, book/media reviews, and dissertations with a focus on United States and Canadian history and culture from prehistoric times to the present. (1964–present)
Early American Newspapers, 1690–1876
"Early American Newspapers features cover-to-cover reproductions of hundreds of historic newspapers, providing more than one million pages as fully text-searchable facsimile images."
JSTOR
JSTOR contains the full text of back issues of major journals in the humanities and social sciences, including Annual Review of Sociology, Nineteenth-Century Literature, Philosophical Quarterly, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Coverage is generally from the beginning of publication to within 5 years of the current issue.
New York Times
"The New York Times (1851–2003) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue."
Project MUSE
"Project MUSE provides online, worldwide, institutional subscription access to the full text of more than 200 scholarly journals in arts and humanities, social sciences, and mathematics."
SocINDEX
SocINDEX, the core sociology database on campus, indexes over 590 academic journals, monographs, and conference papers related to the field of sociology. With thousands of full-text articles available, SocINDEX is an essential tool for researching how your topic has been examined by sociologists.
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Searching the Internet can yield a vast amount of information, but in terms of quality and reliability, your results may be uneven at best. The ease and speed with which individuals can publish information on the web, regardless of accuracy or quality makes it imperative that when doing research on the web you know how to evaluate the information you find. To learn more, see Judging What You Find.
If when searching the Internet, you locate references to books or articles that you would like to view please check with a reference librarian to see if the items can be located in Geisel Library's print or electronic collection or through Interlibrary Loan.
Electronic Book Collections
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg allows you to read ebook versions of novels for free on its website. Search by author, title, or genre to locate a book of your choosing. To search by genre, click the Bookshelf link on the left side of the screen. Books are limited to those works that are no longer copyright protected.
Google Book Search
Google Books also lets you read digitized books on its website. To search for full text versions of works:
- Click Advanced Book Search
- Enter in your keywords
- Click the "Full View" radio button
By selecting Full View you are limiting your search to only those books that are available in full text in the Google Books collection. Full View books are limited to those works that are no longer copyright protected.
WEBSITES
General Websites
American Indians of the Pacific Northwest (Library of Congress: American Memory)
This digital collection integrates over 2,300 photographs and 7,700 pages of text relating to the American Indians in two cultural areas of the Pacific Northwest, the Northwest Coast and Plateau. These resources illustrate many aspects of life and work, including housing, clothing, crafts, transportation, education, and employment.
Native American Languages (University of Osaka)
Links to web sites on the languages of Native Americans. Includes "Dictionaries, Fonts, and Specific Languages According to Family" for Algonquin, Arapaho, Cheyenne, Gros Ventre, Iroquoian, Cherokee, Siouan, and more.
The North American Indian: Edward S. Curtis (Northwestern University)
Digital collection of, The North American Indian, by Edward S. Curtis. 1907 -1930. The twenty volumes, each with an accompanying portfolio, are organized by tribes and culture areas encompassing the Great Plains, Great Basin, Plateau Region, Southwest, California, Pacific Northwest, and Alaska. Featured here are all of the published photogravure images including over 1500 illustrations bound in the text volumes, along with over 700 portfolio plates.
Native American Sites (American Indian Library Association)
Links to home pages of individual Native American Nations, organizations, tribal colleges, media, powwows, the mascot controversy, and more.
Native Americans and the Environment (National Council for Science and the Environment)
Contains over 2200 bibliographic entries and Internet sites on Native American environmental issues, including land and water rights, hunting, fishing, forestry, and energy. Searchable by tribe/native nation, subject, and cultural region.
Native American Health (National Library of Medicine)
National Library of Medicine/Medline Plus web page on Native American Health, with links to information on prevention, screening, research, specific conditions, directories, law and policy, lists of print publications, organizations, statistics, children, women, and Spanish-language sources.
Literary Websites
American Native Press Archives (Digital Collection)
The Native Writers Digital Text Project brings the works of Native poets and writers of fiction and other prose to readers world wide. Featuring out-of-print literary efforts of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and First Nations people of Canada, the project seeks to broaden the definition of "Native Writing" not only by focusing on writers who are not ordinarily anthologized, but also by publishing works which originally appeared in "ephemeral" sources, the periodical press, especially in those publications edited and produced by Natives. 1772–1945
United States Census Bureau Websites
American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) Data and Links (U.S. Census Bureau)
This comprehensive page of links offers over 130 tables on American Indian population numbers and characteristics by nation, region, division, and state, as well as numerous tables and maps by tribe. Population estimates and projections are given up to the year 2025. A link to a Tribal Leaders Directory is included and much more.
Census Facts for Features: American Indians, 2004
Current statistics on population, age, state and county distribution, families, education, homeownership, veteran status, language and employment.
Facts on the American Indian and Alaska Native Population
Legal Websites
Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties (Oklahoma State University Library Digital Publications)
Native American Constitution and Law Digitization Project (University of Oklahoma Law Library and The National Indian Law Library of the Native American Rights Fund)
Treaties Between the United States and Native Americans Avalon Project
Relations Between The United States and Native Americans Avalon Project
Statutes of the United States Concerning Native Americans (Chronological Avalon Project)
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See the library's How To Cite Your Sources guide for resources on how to properly cite research materials. Always confirm the style required by your instructor.
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