History 4013:Research StrategiesLiterature Review

Frederic Murray Assistant ProfessorMLIS, University of British ColumbiaBA, Political Science, University of Iowa

Instructional Services LibrarianAl Harris Library frederic.murray@swosu.edu

American Southwest & Borderlands

Cabeza de Vaca: 1528 - 1537

SEE THE FILM

American Southwest & Borderlands

19th & 20th Century Histories

Slotkin Reff

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…

Major Concerns • Topic Selection

• Narrowing the search

• Using the library effectively

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.

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.

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

Define key words and phrases

Spanish

Exploration

Settlement

or Mexican

or Conquest

or Colonization

Accurate SearchRequiresAccurate Language

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.

Boolean• AND = Narrow

• OR = Expand

• NOT = Exclude

Class Exercise• Keyword Building Exercise

Topic: Spanish Exploration & Settlements

• Thesaurus.com

Spanish Exploration & Settlements

Missions

Jesuits

Explorers

Southwest Exploration

Mexico

Texas Conquest

Trade

Books• Al Harris Catalog• Open World Cat • Ebrary

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

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

• CREATE A BOOKSHELF

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…

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

Databases: Social Sciences• JSTOR• Project Muse• America: History and Life with Full

Text• Historical Abstracts with Full Text• And Many More…..

JSTOR• Includes archives of over one

thousand leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences.

• Search by discipline: History

Project Muse• Peer-reviewed journals• Wide variety of humanities and

social science subjects• Complete journal content,

including charts, graphs, and images

EBSCO Databases• America: Histor

y and Life with Full Text

• Historical Abstracts with Full Text

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."

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

Handout: Reading citationsA 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:

Snowballing • Building on the works of others

• A scholarly article will always have References/Bibliography

• A bibliography is always ripe for

the picking…

Tracking Citations

Tracking CitationsDamp, 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

Tracking CitationsDamp, 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

The Citation Video

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?

How does Google Search work?

Google Search • PageRank (algorithm)

– 500 million variables– 2 Billion Terms

• Bias?

• Popularity is a Proxy for Importance

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.

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.

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.

SO WHAT?

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

Google: Improve Your SearchesSite Specific Command

What it does: searches only specific domains

What to type: Zuni Indians site:edu Zuni Indians site:gov

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.

Google Scholar• Works best for Citations

• Restrictions to Content– Fee-based

– Often your Library already owns material

– We’re working on improving access

Southwest History:Internet Resources• Parallel Histories: Spain, United St

ates and the American Frontier• U.S.-Mexico Border Issues: A Selec

ted Bibliography from the Smithsonian Institution Libraries' Collections

• Exploring Hispanic History and Culture

Review• Keywords/Boolean• Books:

– Open WorldCat/Ebrary/Catalog• Databases:

– JSTOR/Project Muse/American History EBSCO

• Google Site Search/Scholar

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

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

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

Questions?

• Contact me:– Frederic Murray

• 774-7113• frederic.murray@swosu.edu

Thanks!