Other Class Guides: American Studies: Research

Good research is the result of good thinking. 

Brainstorm a list of keywords and phrases relevant to your topic, and include synonyms.  This is an essential step you should never skip.  Think about synonyms for your keywords and phrases.

Use quotation marks for exact phrases:

• ex:   "the things they carried"
• ex:   "tea cake"
• ex:   "Mrs. Das"

Wild cards find all versions of a word when added after the word's root:

• ex:  immigra* finds immigrant, immigrants, immigrate, immigration, etc.
• ex:  narrat* finds narrate, narrates, narration, narrator, and narrative, etc.  

Start with a general search, and narrow it down as you look through your results.

Books on Reserve

SHARE • CHECK OUT USING SLIPS • RETURN PROMPTLY • BE RESPONSIBLE

Look for the Course Reserves shelf for American Studies on the east side of the US Library.  

Please practice ethical behavior using reserve materials:

• you MUST use the slips to check out any item you remove from the Manuscript Room
• YOU are responsible for the on-time return of any item you borrow
• books may be borrowed for ONE BLOCK at a time, or overnight/over the weekend when signed out at the end of the school day
• all borrowed items must be returned BY 8:30AM SHARP the next school day
• be kind to one another by observing all of these rules, and avoiding hoarding behaviors that hurt the entire class

What's on reserve?

• Books of criticism by a single author
• Books of critical essays written by multiple authors, and gathered by an editor into a single volume
• A selection of literary biographies

Save Yourself a Huge Headache

Be sure to copy the title page of the book when you copy an article/section of the book.  You'll be able to locate it and cite it later on.  Another resource for citing is the US Library Catalog.  Look up the book you're using, and obtain information about authors, editors, date and place of publication, edition, etc.  Have questions?  Sue and Derek are here to help you.

Useful Databases for Literary Research
Different databases are useful for different kinds of research.  For our purposes, JSTOR will be the top choice.  Click on the Logins and Passwords page at the upper left of this page.

Search Engines & Image Libraries

You establish your credibility by showing that the sources you use are written by knowledgeable, professional people with expertise.  Here are some possible credentials an author might have:

• is an Associate Professor of American Literature at Lewis and Clark College
• authored a book on James Baldwin, and several academic articles
• has several academic articles published in journals that you found through JSTOR
• earned an advanced degree in the field of study s/he/they are writing about
• shows evidence of deep experience on the topic (e.g., a chef writing on cooking, or a seasoned mountaineer on climbing)

How to Credential a Journal Article

There are 3 quick places to look:

1. first page of the article, adjacent to the author's name
2. last page of the article, just before the Works Cited or Notes section
3. by clicking on the author's name in the database, and seeing what else comes up

Need help?  Ask Sue, Derek, or Maureen.

Credentialing a Book Author or Contributor

Book publishers and editors often do a bunch of the work for you!  Here's where to look:  

• check the book flap for a brief bio of your author (inside front or back cover)
• check the back of the book
• If the book has an editor and chapters by different authors, check the table of contents for a chapter called CONTRIBUTORS, or something similar.

Simple Searching
You are most likely to succeed with fairly simple terms, and phrases in quotation marks in the search bar.  Here are some examples using quotation marks for exact phrases:

• "black farmers"
• "ethnic grocery stores"

Academic Search Premier can be very helpful with these topics, as can the Oregon Historical Newspapers when you sort by date.  Be sure to narrow down your searches with lots of keywords so you can obtain a manageable number of relevant results.

Wild cards find all versions of a word when added after the word's root:

• farm* finds farm, farmer, farmers, farmworker, farming, etc.

Start with a general search, and narrow it down as you look through your results.

Databases & Ebooks for Research on Food

Databases can contain lots of things, including:  book chapters, ebooks, journal articles, etc.  We'll also have access to ebooks that are the electronic version of print reference books by reliable, knowledgeable authors and publishers.

Multnomah County Library Ebooks
There are some great ebooks available with your MultCoLib card. Here they are! Need help learning how to access them? Ask Sue or Derek.

Search Engines & Image Collections
These are some useful places to locate additional information on your topics, including some primary sources.

This Digital Collections link provides searchable access to some primary sources. It is not that easy to search, so you might need to be persistent.  Images and documents come from across the PNW.

Books on Reserve

We have a small selection of books on reserve on the east side of the library.  Look for the "Course Reserves" sign.  These include:

• books about Native American foods
• books about farmworkers, black farmers, and CSAs
• books about food carts and farmers markets

IMPORTANT:  Reserve books check out for 1 block at a time, and can be borrowed at the end of the day for overnight work.  They must be returned promptly by 8:30am the next school day. 

Need help?  Ask Patrick, Sue or Derek.