First Year Seminar 5: Coming of Age in America
Researching Where Do I come From?
Fall 2006
Books and Articles
Five College Library Catalog: New catalog to all books, music, videos, online resources, etc., in Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Smith and UMass libraries. Search all together or search one library at a time.
WorldCat: Search for books in a database made up of catalogs from thousands of libraries.
WorldCat: Search for books in a database made up of catalogs from thousands of libraries.
Expanded Academic ASAP and Academic
Search Premier: References to articles from a wide range
of journals, covering many topics, many with complete articles online.
Try ACLinks to look for articles not immediately available.
LexisNexis:
Articles from newspapers worldwide from about 1980 on. Regional
as well as larger newspapres covered.
Ethnic Newswatch for news from ethnic, minority and native press.
America:
History & Life: Access to scholarly articles about all
aspects of American history, including local histories.
Journal Locator: See if a journal is available at AC; connect to electronic copies or look in library catalog for print journals
Census Data and Other Statistics
U.S. Census, via American FactFinder provides demographic information about every household in the U.S. in 2000 and 1990. It includes information about race, income and poverty, occupation, educational attainment, and much more. Instructions on using detailed tables.
The Historical Census Browser from UVa provides online access to some historic data... but only to the county level (no towns or cities). For more detailed historic data, see the bound volumes in the book stacks.
The Census Bureau cannot ask questions about religion as part of the mandatory Census... but the Association of Religion Data Archive has data provided by the religious groups themselves (with the exception of historically African American denominations who did not participate in 2000).
Statistical Abstract of the United States online or Statistical Abstract of the United States in print (HA 202 U58; most recent kept at Reference Desk): Large collection of annual statistics about the United States and Historical Statistics of the United States
Handy Reference Sources: Online & In Print
World Encyclopedia of Cities: North
America (Reference HT 108.5 K87 1994): A 10-year-old encyclopedia,
arranged by city names, about major cities in the US and Canada.
Odd bits of information you don't find in other sources.
Britannica Online:
For basic information, a good encyclopedia is often best.
African American Almanac 9th edition: 2003 (Reference E 185.5
N34): Statistics, brief historical articles, documents, and more.
Atlas of Asian-American History (Reference xE 184.06 A89
2002): Maps showing social and economic data-- including from the
2000 Census, photographs, brief articles.
Asian American Encyclopedia (Reference E 184 O6 A827 1995):
Published in 1995, before the last Census, but still full of information
relevant to community studies.
Google:
Everybody's favorite search engine. Does your hometown -- or its
schools and other organizataions -- have a website? Be specifc about
what you want. Try out Google Scholar for academic paers, articles, and studies of all kinds. And Google Maps.
OED
Online or the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary (Reference
PE 1625 O87 1989): Online or in print, a great dictionary. Don't
read literature without it.
Other Practical Matters
Ask for help! Reference and research advice from the experts. Or just email us: Margaret Groesbeck (magroesbeck) or Susan Edwards (seedwards)
Cite the sources you use. Consult Citing References: MLA Style for the way to cite in the humanities in general, and How to Cite Online U.S. Census Information.
Map of Frost Library Find the book or print journal on the shelf
Hours of Frost Library
Don't forget Level A and its computers
And the Writing Center and Information Technology are always standing by...
(A bonus for those of you from New York City: Take a look at the course guide for Professor Sandweiss' First Year Seminar 7.)