ETH STD 101: Humanities Methods in Ethnic Studies

Search an article database to find citations (title, author, title of journal, date, page numbers) for articles on a particular topic.  The Library gives you access to over 200 article databases covering different disciplines.

1.  Think about which academic disciplines might write about your topic.  Examples:  literature, film, anthropology, history...

2.  Find the appropriate article database by subject (academic discipline or department).  Look for "Recommended" databases.

Library home > Articles > Article Databases by Subject

Sample searches in CSA Illumina Social Sciences

Library home > Articles > Article Databases by Subject > Sociology > Sociological Abstracts:  click instead on CSA Illumina Social Sciences to search multiple social science databases

1.  Example of a search using multiple terms, phrase searching, alternative terms, truncation,etc

african american* or black*
media
representation* or image* or stereotyp*

(add a row)

single parent* or single mother* or single father*

keywords = searches most important parts of the record

an alternative:

african american* or black*
media
representation* or image* or stereotyp*
family or families

* = truncation symbol or wildcard;  child* = child, childs, children, childish, childhood

2.  search using official subject terms ("descriptors")

latino* or mexican american* (keywords)
recidivis*  (descriptor)

Sample Search in MLA Bibliography

Library home > Articles > Article Databases by Subject > Literature > MLA Bibliography

footbind* or foot bind* or bound feet

Sample searches in Ethnic NewsWatch:

Library home > Articles > Article Databases by Subject > Ethnic Studies > Ethnic NewsWatch

spokane (citation and document text )
tribe* or triball* (citation and document text)
indian*  (citation and document text)

ethnic group:  Native People

(note:  ethnic group refers to the selection of the newspaper)

• click on the title to see full record (including abstracts and descriptors)
• to limit by publication type (peer-reviewed journals, conferences, books, etc.) click on the appropriate tab or link
• if necessary,look for other limits (latest update, journal articles only, english only) and more advanced searches
• select records to save to your personalized list; lists may be e-mailed, downloaded, printed