1. HIST 300: Search Strategy Susan Wheeler, Reference Librarian Langsdale Library swheeler@ubalt.edu 410-837-4299

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

3. Search Strategy Research Question: Has integration resulted in a better education for black children? What are your main concepts (=keywords)? 3

4. CHOOSE SYNONYMS Finding other words may help when an initial search fails to find enough 4

5. MY SYNONYMS integrationeducationblackchildren DesegregationLearningColoredchild SegregationTeachingNegroyouth BusingAfro- American student African- American 5

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

7. Search Statement Integration AND Education Integration AND Education AND Child* Desegregation AND Black* AND Student 7

8. 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 8

9. Combining Keywords (Integration OR Desegregation) AND (Education OR Learn*) AND (Black* OR Negro OR African- American) 9

10. Historical Research Research Topic: Write a biographical essay about Linda Brown Thompson and her place in American History. 10

11. Historical Research What we know: American What we need to know: Where in America? Known for what? When in history? 11

12. Historical Research Where to start? Textbook Encyclopedia Wikipedia Search engine Database 12

13. Historical Research Linda Brown Thompson Born 1943 Grew up in Topeka, Kansas Brown v. Board of Education (1954) 13

14. Historical Research Not finding what you want? Get creative! + 14

15. Historical Research Keywords Names –Linda Brown Thompson –Oliver Brown (father) –Cheryl Brown Henderson (sister) Places –Topeka –Kansas –United States 15

16. Historical Research Keywords Events –Brown v. Board of Education (1954) –Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Topics –Segregation/desegregation –Civil Rights Movement –Jim Crow or “black code” –Racism 16

17. Finding Journal Articles Subject-Specific Databases: America: History and Life Humanities International Complete JSTOR (full text access for part of the database)JSTOR 17

18. Finding Journal Articles General Databases: Academic Search Premier Historical Newspapers Lexis-Nexis Academic 18

19. Getting to the Full Text Do we own it? Find It button Journal Finder If we don’t own it, use ILLILL 19

20. Questions?

21. In-Class Exercise: Learning a Database

22. 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) 22

23. Thank You! Reference Help: Phone: 410-837-4274 E-mail: langref@ubalt.edulangref@ubalt.edu IM: ublangsdale HIST 300 Course Page: http://langsdale.ubalt.edu/howto/cour se_websites/fa09/hist300_nix.htm 23

24. Photo Credits Young Linda Brown: http://www.policyalmanac.org/cultur e/archive/7174761-140.jpg (accessed 9/10/08) http://www.policyalmanac.org/cultur e/archive/7174761-140.jpg Cheryl Brown Henderson & Linda Brown Thompson: http://www.canisius.edu/images/use rImages/chuckp/Page_5311/browns_ 300.jpe (accessed 9/10/08) http://www.canisius.edu/images/use rImages/chuckp/Page_5311/browns_ 300.jpe 24