research for women, gender & sexuality

Assessing and Finding Sources for Women, Gender & Sexuality

Nicole Branch, Anthropology Librarian

Anthropology 170

October 13, 2015Image courtesy of Flickr user Carolyn Speranza.

Today we will…

• Distinguish between different types of sources

• Define searchable key words for women, gender & sexuality

• Identify & search relevant databases

Background image courtesy of Flickr user Paree.

Source types.

Image courtesy of Flickr user spyros papasyropoulos.

Breaking Down Source Types

• Scholarly

• Popular

• Trade/Practitioner

• Reference

Scholarly

• author: experts (such as academics)

• audience: scholars and researchers in the field

• purpose: make available original research

• references: frequent citations or extensive bibliography

Popular

• author: journalist or freelance writer

• audience: general, non-expert readers

• purpose: entertain, persuade, or inform readers

• references: no citations or bibliography

Reference

• author: usually editor, not author, listed

• audience: general, non-expert readers

• purpose: provide background information on a topic

• references: sources either not cited or a short bibliography provided for further reading

Trade/Practitioner

• author: practicing professionals (e.g. teachers, nurses, business)

• audience: working professionals in that profession

• purpose: share techniques or trends within profession or industry

• references: sources sometimes cited.

Identify Key Words

How have media representations of transgender people changed in the past ten years?

Identify Key Words

How have media representations of transgender people changed in the past ten years?

Identify a Database

• Determine primary subject area or type of source

• Identify specialized databases

• Search multiple sources

Search & Refine

• Identify subject terms

• Use subject limiters

• Identify key figures in the conversation

Nicole Branch,

Anthropology Librarian

nbranch@scu.edu

x5436

Image courtesy of Flickr user Thomas Hawk.