My Research: Humanities Module 2 Julie Jones Sharon Rankin Natalie Colaiacovo [

“It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas. Obviously those two modes of thought are in some tension. But if you are able to exercise only one of these modes, whichever one it is, you’re in deep trouble.” --Carl Sagan “The Burden of Skepticism.” Skeptical Inquirer, vol. 12, Fall The research mindset…

Skepticism in action…

After today’s workshop, you will be able to:  Develop an effective search strategy for a research topic  Find relevant material for your topic using the library catalogue  Search general academic databases for article literature  Locate information beyond McGill Learning outcomes

The Research Process Clara M. Chu, “Literary Critics at Work and Their Information Needs: A Research- Phases Model,” Library & Information Science Research 21, no. 2 (1999): 263. It can seem long and circuitous…

The Research Process Christine D. Brown, “Straddling the Humanities and Social Sciences: The Research Process of Music Scholars,” Library & Information Science Research 24, no. 1 (2002): 88. Long and circuitous = normal… DON’T PANIC!

Case study: The New Woman, Cybill Shepard in the movie of Henry James’s 1878 novella Daisy Miller

By 1890 a new, more modern culture was emerging in the United States....As women pushed the boundaries of the private sphere to participate more fully in wage earning, education, the professions, or community service, the concept of “true womanhood” was pushed aside in favor of the “New Woman.” Lucille A. Adkins, "Women's Movement, United States, 20th Century," in The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest, edited by Immanuel Ness. Blackwell Reference Online. Accessed February 12, 2013, Case study: The New Woman,

How did the idea of the “New Woman” impact depictions of domesticity in American literature? Sample research question

Relevancy Retrieval (# of search results) Broad Questions Narrow Questions High = lots of articles Low = very few articles High = directly relevant articles Low = mostly irrelevant articles How questions influence search results

How did the idea of the “New Woman” impact depictions of domesticity in American literature? Break it down: pull out key concepts

Strategies: Generate synonyms and related terms Brainstorming Concept maps Reading articles and books Mining bibliographies Using thesauri and subject headings

“New Woman”“domesticity”“American literature” feminism First Wave feminism women’s suffrage Suffragists Progressivism women’s rights marriage family gender femininity sexuality “True Womanhood” American novels American poetry Henry James Willa Cather Edith Wharton Kate Chopin Mina Loy American literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism. American literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism. Generating keywords

Your turn

Boolean operators Combine terms

AND

“New Woman”“domesticity”“American literature” feminism First Wave feminism women’s suffrage Suffragists Progressivism women’s rights marriage family gender femininity sexuality “True Womanhood” American novels American poetry Henry James Willa Cather Edith Wharton Kate Chopin Mina Loy American literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism. American literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism. Boolean Operators AND

“New Woman”domesticity

OR

“New Woman”“domesticity”“American literature” feminism First Wave feminism women’s suffrage Suffragists Progressivism women’s rights marriage family gender femininity sexuality “True Womanhood” American novels American poetry Henry James Willa Cather Edith Wharton Kate Chopin Mina Loy American literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism. American literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism. Boolean Operators OR

domesticity marriage

NOT

American literature American literature Poetry

NOTE: The symbols used will vary from one database to another. Truncation * !? Suffrag* Suffrage Suffragist Suffragists Suffragette Suffragettes Use to retrieve variant endings or plurals #

Wildcard * !? wom?n woman women Use to replace character(s) within a word # NOTE: The symbols used will vary from one database to another.

 Quotation marks  Use for phrase searching  Example: “ New Woman ” “ First Wave Feminism ”  Parentheses  Device that allows you to control the order of your search  Example: ( “New Woman” OR suffrag* ) AND ( domesticity OR marriage ) More advanced search techniques

(“New Woman” OR “First Wave Feminism” OR “women’s suffrag*”) AND (domestic* OR marriage OR family OR gender OR sexuality) AND (“American literature” OR “American poetry” OR “Kate Chopin” OR “Willa Cather” OR “Mina Loy”) Putting it all together

McGill WorldCat vs. Classic Catalogue

One Catalogue, two ways to search McGill WorldCat Classic Catalogue

Advanced Search – Classic Catalogue

Advanced search in WorldCat

Your turn

Library catalogue exercise

General academic databases

Web of Science includes the Arts & Humanities Citation Index

  VPN recommended. Install it on your computer. If you have any problems, call Off-campus access

Your turn

 Using Boolean logic, run some searches in your subject area using one of the general academic databases.  Save at least one relevant article to your EndNote library. Exercise

 Use the Google tips handout to have more control over your searches.  Set up Library Links in Settings.  If using citation management software, set up for direct export in Settings.  Take advantage of the Alert option. Maximizing Google Scholar

Your turn

 Run some searches in Google Scholar.  Use at least 2 of the Google search tips from the handout.  If you are happy with the search results, set up an alert. Exercise

What will you get in your results?  Academic journal articles  Book chapters from Google Books  Theses and dissertations Searching in Google Scholar

For more details: Theses and Dissertations eScholarship ProQuest Dissertations and Theses full text McGill theses Allows searching by faculty advisor McGill theses from 1934 to present day Full text Selected full text before 1997 Also contains: journal articles, conference papers, technical reports, book chapters written by McGill faculty and students Also contains: theses written by students from North American and European universities Use for: McGill-specific search requirements Use for: Broader scope of current research

1.Conduct a keyword search in ProQuest Dissertations and Theses to find a thesis related to your research.  Check the bibliography to see if any articles could be useful for your research 2.Search eScholarship to find a thesis supervised by your current supervisor, or by a professor in your department. Specialized Resources

 Allows you to borrow books from other universities in Quebec and Canada.  Obtain a CREPUQ card at any Library Services Desk on campus. CREPUQ card: what is it?

 Use when McGill and other local universities do not have an item.  Administered through COLUMBO; instructions here.here Interlibrary loan: what is it?

 Borrow in person from other libraries  CREPUQ  Interlibrary loan  COLOMBO Access beyond McGill

 What do you need to borrow books from Concordia? CREPUQ card  Which will retrieve more results? 1)“new woman” OR feminism 2)“new woman” AND feminism ANSWER: 1  Name a multidisciplinary, general academic database database we used today. Academic Search Complete, Web of Science, Google Scholar are all good examples.  Name a source for locating theses and dissertations. Proquest Dissertations and Theses Full-Text, Google Scholar Review

 Liaison librarians   Subject guides   Subject-specific databases Next time…

Complete the brief Module 2 survey online: bit.ly/myresearch-module2 Share your feedback