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History 4013: Research Strategies Literature Review

History 4013: Research Strategies Literature Review. Frederic Murray Assistant Professor MLIS, University of British Columbia BA, Political Science, University of Iowa Instructional Services Librarian Al Harris Library frederic.murray@swosu.edu. American Southwest & Borderlands.

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History 4013: Research Strategies Literature Review

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  1. History 4013:Research StrategiesLiterature Review Frederic Murray Assistant Professor MLIS, University of British Columbia BA, Political Science, University of Iowa Instructional Services Librarian Al Harris Library frederic.murray@swosu.edu

  2. American Southwest & Borderlands Cabeza de Vaca: 1528 - 1537

  3. SEE THE FILM

  4. American Southwest & Borderlands 19th & 20th Century Histories

  5. Slotkin Reff

  6. Outline of session • What is a literature review? • Why review the literature? • Plan your search/Keywords/Boolean • Citations/Identifying//Reading/Tracking • Choosing appropriate Sources/Databases • Google Tricks • Sample searches • A good literature review…

  7. Major Concerns • Topic Selection • Narrowing the search • Using the library effectively

  8. What is a literature review? “… a systematic…method for identifying, evaluating and interpreting the …work produced by researchers, scholars and practitioners.” FINK, A., 1998. Conducting literature research reviews: from paper to the internet. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage., p.3.

  9. Why review the literature? “…without it you will not acquire an understanding of your topic, of what has already been done on it, how it has been researched, and what the key issues are.” HART, E., 1998. Doing a literature review: releasing the social science research imagination, by E. Hart and M. Bond. London: Sage., p.1.

  10. Define what you want to know “I am looking for literature and sources that focus on Spanish exploration and settlement.” Use this statement to choose keywords and key phrases

  11. Define key words and phrases Spanish Exploration Settlement or Mexican or Conquest or Colonization Accurate Search Requires Accurate Language

  12. Identifying Keywords • Identify the significant terms and concepts that describe your topic from your thesis statement or research question. • These terms will become the key for searching catalogs, databases and search engines for information about your subject.

  13. AND = Narrow OR = Expand Boolean • NOT = Exclude

  14. Class Exercise • Keyword Building Exercise Topic: Spanish Exploration & Settlements • Thesaurus.com

  15. Spanish Exploration & Settlements Missions Texas Conquest Exploration Jesuits Southwest Explorers Mexico Trade

  16. Books • Al Harris Catalog • Open World Cat • Ebrary

  17. Open World Cat • Meta search engine for online catalogs of libraries all over the world. Search for any book using a geographic location for the closest sources. • Over 9000 libraries combined. • If you find it in WorldCat, and it's not in our library, we can get it through ILL. • CREATE A USER ACCOUNT

  18. Ebrary: eBooks • 24/7 • Full Text Searching* • Highlight Markup • Note Taking • Changeable Font Size • Multiplicity of Use • CREATE A BOOKSHELF

  19. Choose Appropriate Databases • Google is not (usually) the answer • Start with Library Resources for your Subject First • Search a range of databases • Think about the range of sources: books, journal articles, statistics, websites, conference reports…

  20. Journals • Southwestern Historical Quarterly • Found in Project Muse (2006 to Current) • Hispanic American Historical Review • Found in Project Muse • The Southwestern Historical Quarterly • Found in JSTOR (1912-2007) • Journal of the Southwest • Found in JSTOR

  21. Databases: Social Sciences • JSTOR • Project Muse • America: History and Life with Full Text • Historical Abstracts with Full Text • And Many More…..

  22. JSTOR • Includes archives of over one thousand leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. • Search by discipline: History

  23. Project Muse • Peer-reviewed journals • Wide variety of humanities and social science subjects • Complete journal content, including charts, graphs, and images

  24. EBSCO Databases • America: History and Life with Full Text • Historical Abstracts with Full Text

  25. We think of citation patterns as the flow of information," says Carl Bergstrom, a biologist at the University of Washington. "That's what a citation is — the trace that an idea flowed from one place to another."

  26. Handout: Identifying types of citations • Book • Journal or Magazine • Conference Reports • Newspaper Article • Website

  27. Handout: Reading citations A citation is a short, multi-part description of a specific information source. It provides the information that is needed to find a particular source. Journal citations contain such basic information as:

  28. Snowballing • Building on the works of others • A scholarly article will always have References/Bibliography • A bibliography is always ripe for the picking…

  29. Tracking Citations

  30. Tracking Citations Damp, Jonathan E., Stephen A. Hall and Susan J. Smith 2002 Early Irrigation on the Colorado Plateau near Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico. American Antiquity 67: 665-676

  31. Tracking Citations Damp, Jonathan E., Stephen A. Hall and Susan J. Smith 2002 Early Irrigation on the Colorado Plateau near Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico. American Antiquity67: 665-676

  32. The Citation Video

  33. Class Exercise Is it a book or a journal? Check the appropriate source Open WorldCat/Ebrary/Al Harris Catalog Periodicals List If the citation is an article, do we have access through the databases?

  34. How does Google Search work?

  35. Google Search • PageRank (algorithm) • 500 million variables • 2 Billion Terms • Bias? • Popularity is a Proxy for Importance

  36. Personalized Search • Google’s algorithm will suggest “what is best for you” – based on past searches. • It’s as if we looked up the same topic in an encyclopedia and each found different entries.

  37. Personalized Search • Find information that is most likely to reinforce your own worldview • We begin to lose dissenting opinion/conflicting points of view • Yet search seems neutral, objective, unbiased.

  38. Personalized Search & the Internet • When ideology drives the dissemination of information, knowledge is compromised. • Inadvertently we indoctrinate ourselves with our own ideas. • Google is likely to direct you to material with which you already agree.

  39. SO WHAT?

  40. What are the repercussions for research carried out in an environment where Search itself is being compromised?

  41. Google: Improve Your Searches Site Specific Command What it does: searches only specific domains What to type: Zuni Indians site:edu Zuni Indians site:gov

  42. Google Scholar • Google Scholar provides a simple way to search for scholarly literature. Search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.

  43. Google Scholar • Works best for Citations • Restrictions to Content • Fee-based • Often your Library already owns material • We’re working on improving access

  44. Southwest History:Internet Resources • Parallel Histories: Spain, United States and the American Frontier • U.S.-Mexico Border Issues: A Selected Bibliography from the Smithsonian Institution Libraries' Collections • Exploring Hispanic History and Culture

  45. Review • Keywords/Boolean • Books: • Open WorldCat/Ebrary/Catalog • Databases: • JSTOR/Project Muse/American History EBSCO • Google Site Search/Scholar

  46. Class Exercise Divided into teams of four Find 2 articles & 2 books on Spanish Settlement and Exploration in the North American Southwest Use JSTOR/Ebrary/Open WorldCat Jot down Titles & Sources

  47. A good literature review… • Goes beyond simply listing relevant literature • Is a critical essay • Assesses the range of literature available • Is a critical summary of the literature • Examines the background against which your own research is set • Forms a significant section of your dissertation

  48. A good literature review… • Offers opinions and personal response to the different writings • Relates different writings to each other, compares and contrasts • Does not take the literature at face value • Shows an awareness of the theories and values that underpin the research • Uses particular language: authors assert, argue, state, conclude, contend

  49. Questions? • Contact me: • Frederic Murray • 774-7113 • frederic.murray@swosu.edu

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