Philosophy 01: Rights and Wrongs
Spring 2008
GENERAL SOURCES | ENCYCLOPEDIAS, HANDBOOKS, ETC. | BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND INDEXES | A FEW WORDS ABOUT JOURNAL ARTICLES | WORLD WIDE WEB RESOURCES
GENERAL SOURCES
One of the best places to start research is in the computerized Five-College Library Catalog. All books are listed by their AUTHORS (last name first), TITLES (drop initial articles "the", "a", "an"), and SUBJECTS, and you can also use the KEYWORD function to search.
KEYWORD searching is not likely to yield a complete list of locally-owned books on any particular topic, but it's a good way to start; type in a common language characterization of your topic, say "family obligation*" (the asterisk is a truncation symbol, retrieving both "obligation" and "obligations" in this case), select titles from the resulting list that interest you, note which official subject headings are assigned to those titles, then click on them to do a more thorough SUBJECT search.
SUBJECT searching, as such, requires that you use the exact word or phrase libraries have chosen to describe your topic; for example, libraries list books about familial obligations under the subject heading "family" with various subdivisions, but also under related subject headings like "kinship," "households," "filial piety," etc. Be as specific as possible when SUBJECT searching, and keep in mind that most major subject headings have detailed sub-divisions, so browse through those as well. Ask at the Reference Desk if you're not sure what words or phrases to use.
For quick background information, try the Britannica Online from any computer on campus; just click on the colored link.
ENCYCLOPEDIAS, HANDBOOKS, ETC.
Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
An online encylopedia with articles on philosophical concepts, thinkers, etc., along with citations to books and articles for further reading. For access, click here from any computer networked at Amherst: http://www.rep.routledge.com/advanced-search?authstatuscode=202. There's also a 10-volume printed version, in the Reference Collection on the main floor of Frost (Ref B 51 R68 1998)
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Another online resource, in progress, with articles on a range of issues and individuals in Philosophy. Click here: http://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html
Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics. San Diego, Academic Press, 1998. 4 volumes.
A printed, multi-volume encyclopedia with 5- to 20-page essays, most of which have bibliographies appended. (Ref BJ 63 E44 1998)
Encyclopedia of Ethics. New York & London, Routledge, 2001. Second edition. 3 volumes.
Another printed encyclopedia, with briefer entries and a slightly broader focus than the above title. (Ref BJ 63 E45 2001)
Depending on your chosen topic, there may be other relevant encyclopedias in the Reference Collection that can get you oriented and provide pointers for further research, like the Encyclopedia of Global Environmental Change (Ref GE 149 E443 2002), the International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family (Ref HQ 9 E52 2003), Sex and Sexuality (Ref HQ 21 S4716 2006), the Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice (Ref HV 6017 E52 1983), The Philosophy of Law (Ref K 204 P49 1999), the Encyclopedia of Bioethics (Ref QH 332 E52 2004), etc. Ask at the Reference Desk for advice on subject-specific encyclopedias that might help you.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHIES, AND INDEXES
Subject bibliographies and indexes, which list books and/or articles on particular topics, can lead you to substantial reading lists in your area of research; they are useful even when older and not including citations to current publications; computerized indexes enable you to update.
Depending on your research topic, one or more of the following may be useful: A Bibliographic Guide to the Comparative Study of Ethics (Ref BJ 69 B53 1991), Human Rights (Ref K 3236 H86 1985), Beacham's Guide to Environmental Issues & Sources (Ref GE 115 B43 1993), Abortion (Ref HQ 767.5 U5 C67), A Bibliography on Animal Rights and Related Matters (Ref HV 4708 M34 1981), Criminal Justice Ethics (Ref HV 9950 S36 1991), etc., etc. Again, consult a Reference Librarian for appropriate recommendations.
Online indexes are computerized listings of journal articles and/or books, searchable, usually, by authors, titles, keywords, subjects, dates, etc. The basic index in Philosophy, which lists books and articles as well as essays in anthologies, going back to 1940, is Philosopher's Index (click here). Other potentially useful indexes (available by clicking on the following links) are PsycINFO, Westlaw Campus, Environmental Sciences and Pollution Management, the ATLA Religion Database, and the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS). You can also try Academic Search Premier and Expanded Academic Index, both of which are more general in their topical coverage - and therefore are significantly more selective than discipline-specific listings - and go back only to the 1980s, for the most part; on the other hand, they have the advantage of including links to many electronic, full-text articles.
A FEW WORDS ABOUT JOURNAL ARTICLES
Printed and computerized indexes and bibliographies provide citations to journal articles which may or may not be owned by the Amherst College Library. To find out if and where we have a backfile of a particular journal, you must look up each journal title (not article titles or authors) in the Library Catalog. Be attentive to volume numbers and dates since sometimes we've started or stopped a subscription in the middle of a run.
Please note: some older volumes of journals may be housed in the Amherst College Depository, an off-campus storage facility. You can request volumes from the Depository by filling out a brief form which appears onscreen when you select 'Request Forms' from the Library Homepage, then click on 'Depository'; materials will be delivered to the Circulation Desk in Frost the next weekday.
More and more journals are offering full-texts in electronic form; those we subscribe to are linked to records in the online Library Catalog and/or you can search for electronic versions using the Journal Locator, (click here or in the Quick Search box, above right). Also, when using most electronic indexes (like Philosopher's Index), a button labeled 'AC Links' permits you to search automatically for electronic versions of articles you find cited; if the Library does not have access to an electronic version, 'AC Links' will automatically search for a print-format version of the journal in the Library Catalog.
WORLD WIDE WEB RESOURCES
The Library's Research pages provide reasonably direct, organized access to Internet resources like library catalogs in the U.S. and abroad, search engines for finding particular sites, and via the Amherst Library's Philosophy page, to pre-selected, academically-oriented meta-sites, image collections, etc. Always remember that the World Wide Web, unlike the Library, is largely un-refereed, that is, the information mounted may or may not be legitimate. Be skeptical, and read critically.
Comments regarding this page should be directed to: Michael Kasper (email mkasper)