German 65: Making Memorials
Fall 2005
GENERAL SOURCES | ENCYCLOPEDIAS, HANDBOOKS, ETC. | BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND INDEXES | A FEW WORDS ABOUT JOURNAL ARTICLES | WORLD WIDE WEB RESOURCES
GENERAL SOURCES
The
Five-College Library Catalog (one segment lists books and journals
in the Four Colleges, another lists UMass holdings) is a good place to
start library research. All books are listed by their AUTHORS, TITLES,
and SUBJECTS, and you can also search by KEYWORD.
KEYWORD searching is not likely to yield a comprehensive
list of books on any particular topic, but it's often a good way to start;
you can type in a common language characterization of your topic, say
"memorials", then, if you browse through the resulting list,
select titles related to your research interests, and note which official
subject headings are assigned, you can click on those and do a thorough
SUBJECT search.
SUBJECT searching, as such, requires that you use the
exact word or phrase libraries have chosen to describe your topic. The
official SUBJECT for the topic above, for instance, is indeed "memorials,"
but other subject headings, like "holocaust memorials," "war
memorials," or, who knows, "disasters--history" may also
be pertinent, depending on your research topic. Be as specific as you
can be when searching, and keep in mind that most major subject headings
have detailed sub-divisions, so browse through those as well. The five-volume
Library of Congress Subject Headings, near the Reference Desk, is a thesaurus
of official library terminology. Consult it if you're not sure of the
official subject vocabulary, or use the KEYWORD feature interactively,
and/or ask for assistance from a Reference Librarian.
For quick, general information, try
Britannica Online from any computer on campus;
just click on the colored link.
ENCYCLOPEDIAS, HANDBOOKS, ETC.
Encyclopedia of Psychology. N.Y., Wiley, 1994; 2nd
edition; 4 volumes.
Concise entries on concepts, behavioral events and categories,
theories, etc., with brief bibliographies. (Ref BF 31 E52 1994)
Encyclopedia of American Social History. N.Y., Scribner's,
1993; 3 volumes.
10- to 15-page overviews, with useful bibliographies,
on periods in American history, social identities, regionalism, etc. (Ref
HN 57 E58 1993)
The Encyclopedia of European Social History from 1350
to 2000. N.Y., Scribner's, 2001; 6 volumes.
Similar to the above title, for European places and
topics. (Ref HN 373 E63 2001)
Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. N.Y., Macmillan, 1990;
4 volumes.
Alphabetically-arranged entries on events, places, people,
etc. (Ref D 804.3 E53 1990)
Encyclopedia of Contemporary German Culture. London
& N.Y., Routledge, 1999.
Brief articles on selected issues and individuals in
German cultural studies. (Ref DD 290.26 E53 1999)
The Dictionary of Art. N.Y., Grove's Dictionaries,
1996; 34 volumes.
This basic encyclopedia includes entries on artists
(short biographies), topics, terms, etc. Many articles have brief bibliographies.
(Ref N 31 D5 1996) There's also an online version accessible from any
campus computer.
The Encyclopedia of Sculpture. N.Y., Fitzroy Dearborn,
2004; 3 volumes.
Brief entries on sculptors, themes, techniques, etc.
(Ref NB 198 E53 2004)
Encyclopedia of 20th-Century Architecture. London
& N.Y., Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004; 4 volumes.
A-Z entries, illustrated, on architects, building types,
notable buildings, countries, cities, movements, materials, theory, etc.,
most with small bibliographies. (Ref NA 680 E495 2004)
In addition to the above sources, there are some convenient and reliable electronic reference collections, like Oxford Reference Online and Xreferplus, clickable from these colored links.
BIBLIOGRAPHIES AND INDEXES
Printed 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. Use the SUBJECT category
in the Library Catalog to track them down, guess at KEYWORD(s), or ask
for assistance at the Reference Desk.
Online indexes are computerized listings of journal
articles and/or books, searchable, usually, by authors, titles, keywords,
subjects, dates, etc. The most relevant indexes for this course include
PsycInfo,
Historical Abstracts, America:
History and Life, Art
Abstracts, The
Bibliography of the History of Art (RILA/BHA), Avery
Architectural Index, and MLA
(literary criticism). Click on any of these links to connect.
You can also try Academic
Search Premier and Expanded
Academic Index, both of which are more general in their coverage
and therefore significantly more selective than discipline-specific listings,
but have the advantage of including many electronic, full-text articles.
A FEW WORDS ABOUT JOURNAL ARTICLES
Printed and computerized indexes and bibliographies provide citations to articles which may or may not be owned by the Amherst College Library. To find out if and where we have older issues of journals, you must look up each journal title (not article titles or authors) in the Library Catalog. Be attentive to volume numbers and dates which show up onscreen since sometimes we've started or stopped a subscription in the middle of a run. 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 form which pops up when you select Request Forms from the left side of the Library Homepage, then Depository. More and more journals are offering fulltext in electronic form; most of those we have access to are linked to records in the online Library Catalogs and are reachable using a JOURNAL TITLE search. Another finding tool is the Journal Locator, clickable from the QuickSearch box in the Library homepage.
WORLD WIDE WEB RESOURCES
A Google search using "memorials"
yields nearly 10 million hits.
It's more efficient to use what are called metasites - sites
which compile relevant links - provided the selection is worthwhile. One
page within the Library website is entitled Online
Resources by Academic Department. There you'll find a selection
of reliable World Wide Web addresses arranged by academic department;
for this course, try Art, German, American Studies,
and/or History.
With respect to limiting Google output, look for a so-called
directory service in your results, like Yahoo, which has done some preselection.
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. Look for explicit signs of authorship,
institutional affiliation, and date.
Comments regarding this page should be directed to: Michael Kasper