Humanities

Hello, this is the library research guide for HUM 490 Senior Seminar in Classics and Humanities with Professor Kishauna Soljour. There's information on finding primary and secondary sources for your research paper, plus general tips for using OneSearch to find materials and some advanced search strategies.

The library's guide to Chicago citation style and guide to citation management tools may be of use.

Need help? Check out the links on the left, below the black nav bars.

During the library session, you'll be working on some practice questions to help with your assignment. Please right click the link to this Google doc and open it in a new tab. It will prompt you to log into your Google account and then save a copy. 

When you've completed all the steps, please rename the document to something that includes your name and HUM 490, and email it as an attachment to lbliss@sdsu.edu.  

• Use OneSearch to find books, including ebooks. Stick with subject databases to find articles.
• One exception: OneSearch works well when you have a citation to an article and need to know if we have it in full text.
• Use the Advanced Search option for the most control over your search.
• Two of the most helpful ways to "Tweak my results" are limiting by resource type (aka books) and publication date.
• Expand your search by clicking the "Other Collections" radio button. You can request books from other CSU libraries and pick them up at the Circulation Desk.
• Once you've found a book that looks interesting, click the "Cite" icon for the book's citation formatted in any style you choose.
• Logging into "My account" allows you to save records for later or you can email them to yourself.

Primary source documents are frequently collected in published books. To find these collections in the library catalog, follow these steps.

1. Brainstorm some keywords and phrases about your topic. If you were researching women's suffrage in America, for example, some good keywords and phrases might be "suffrage," "women," "feminis*," "nineteenth amendment," "vote*," or "activis*". (Note: the asterisk is used to truncate a word, so the system will search for all variations).

2. At the Advanced Search, pair your keyword with some of them common words found in subject headings for primary sources. These include:

* sources
* correspondence
* diaries
* speeches
* personal narratives
* documents
* interviews

3. If you want to impose any limits on your search, such as as location or language, choose them in the options box. Then click Submit.

4. Browse your results and click on titles which sound relevant or useful to your topic.

• Generate keywords to describe your topic, being mindful of synonyms.
• Keep your search simple at first, using only a couple of words. Try different combinations of words.
• Use quotes for phrases such as "new york" to keep the words together. 
• Use the asterisk for truncation, so that photo* will bring up photographs, photographers, etc.
• Limit your search by filters such as date of publication, language, or peer-reviewed articles.
• If you find a source that seems directly on topic, look closely to see what words they use. These can be in the title, table of contents, subjects, or summary.
• Try your search in different databases.