HIST 300: Search Strategy April Duncan, Reference Librarian Langsdale Library Originally presented by Tamara Smith, on 9/11/08

Plan for Today Search Strategy Historical Research Getting Articles Activity: Learn a Database Wrap-up 5-minute Evaluation (for library) 2

Traditional Search Strategy Research Question: How has women’s suffrage changed politics in 20 th century America? 3

Traditional Search Strategy Women’s suffrage politics20 th Century America votingelections1900’sU.S. Women’s rights legislationmodernUnited States 19 th Amendment politiciansAmericans 4

Search Statement “Women’s suffrage” AND politic* suffrage AND politic* AND twentieth century “Women’s rights” AND legislat* AND america 5

Boolean Operators AND: joins concepts/ideas together (both/all) OR: combines synonyms or related terms (either/any) 6

Combining Keywords Nesting: combine like terms in parentheses; used to combine synonyms Truncation (*): special symbol used to represent missing letters; used in place of retyping an entire word 7

Combining Keywords (“women’s suffrage” OR “women’s rights”) AND (politic* OR legislat*) AND “twentieth century” AND (“United States” or America*) 8

Historical Research Research Topic: Write a biographical essay about Lucy Stone and her place in American History. 9

Historical Research What we know: American What we need to know: Where in America? Known for what? When in history? 10

Historical Research Where to start? Textbook Encyclopedia Wikipedia Search engine Database 11

Historical Research Lucy Stone Born 1818 Grew up in Massachusetts 12

Historical Research Not finding what you want? Get creative! + 13

Historical Research Keywords Names –Lucy Stone –Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony –Alice Stone Blackwell Places –Massachusetts; New Jersey –United States 14

Historical Research Keywords Events –1869: Schism between feminist parties Topics –Suffrage –National American Woman Suffrage Association –Women’s rights movement 15

Finding Journal Articles Subject-Specific Databases: America: History and Life Humanities International Complete JSTOR (full text access for part of the database)JSTOR 16

Finding Journal Articles General Databases: Academic Search Premier Historical Newspapers Lexis-Nexis Academic 17

Getting to the Full Text Do we own it? Find It button Journal Finder If we don’t own it, use ILLILL 18

Questions?

In-Class Exercise: Learning a Database

Wrap-Up If your topic is too broad, add another concept (AND) If your topic is too narrow, add synonyms and related terms (OR) When doing historical research, be creative (related people, topics, places, etc.) Different databases = different results (try more than one) 21

Thank You! Reference Help: Phone: IM: ublangsdale HIST 300 Course Page: se_websites/fa08/hist300_nix.htm 22

Photo Credits Lucy Stone: Encyclopædia Britannica Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 15 Sept eb.com/eb/article