Professor Igra
Spring 2009

• Getting Started
• Finding Scholarship
• Primary Sources
• Even More
  
• Keeping Track
• Citing Sources
• Librarian

Getting Started

• Use relevant assigned reading from your courses as a starting point if you are interested in exploring similar topics or themes. Scholars document their sources, so following up on references and bibliographies of works that you are familiar with is an excellent path into other secondary literature on your topic.

• Reference Books are helpful for giving an overview of a topic and pointing to relevant secondary literature:
  • "Reader's Guide" series, like the Reader's Guide to Women's Studies,  Reader's Guide to American History and the Reader's Guide to the Social Sciences, have review essays with substantial bibliographies.
  • Specialized reference books like the New Dictionary of the History of Ideas, Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures and Women in the Third World: Contemporary Issues have lengthy entries with bibliographies.
    
  • Consult the research guides here for additional recommendations.
    

• Book Reviews/Review Essays
  Book reviews often talk about the reviewed work in the context of the larger field in which the book is situated. As such, you can use them to get clues about the state of a field on a given topic. Many of the databases above allow you to limit your search just to reviews. If you don't see this option, add the key words "review" or "review article" to your search.

Finding More Scholarship

Databases and indexes are another path into the secondary literature of topic. Use them to find articles, book chapters, and essays. The following are a sample of the possible databases that could be useful for your research.

Again, because you may use scholarship from multiple disciplines, explore the Subject Research Guides to identify other databases.

WGST

African Women's Bibliographic Database (1986-present)
Indexes books, essays in books, periodical articles, theses and dissertations, government documents, videotapes, and conference papers in English dealing with African women.

Women Studies Abstracts (1972-)
CC Reference HQ1111 .W65
Includes indexing to essays in edited works and anthologies.

Women’s Studies Index (1989,1991-)
CC Reference HQ1180 .W683
Includes indexing to essays in edited works and anthologies.

  Women's Studies International
Covers women's studies literature and feminist research, including political science, humanities, sociology, history, business and education.

Disciplinary focused 

Art Index and Art Index Retrospective
Primarily for articles on art and art history, this database does include many articles on cinema.

MLA International Bibliography
Provides citations to articles dealing with literature, folklore, language, film, media studies and linguistics. 

Sociological Abstracts
Provides citations to articles within the sociological literature.

World Wide Political Science Abstracts
Covers international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration / policy.

Multi-disciplinary

Academic Search Premier (full-text articles, citations; varying dates)
Scholarly, multi-disciplinary journals. Many journals of interest to women's studies indexed here.

JSTOR
Provides full text of complete runs of journals. While back issues are available often to the inception of the journal, the most recent years (last three to five) are not included. Quick Tip: Always use the advanced search and start with the most specific terms.

Project Muse
Another journal archive, but this one includes recent issues of journals.  Gender and Sexuality studies are a strength of this database.

Primary Sources

It is critical to locate appropriate primary sources early in the research process. No matter how compelling a research topic may be, it will not be a feasible research project without primary sources.  Some suggestions are below, but there are many other avenues to explore depending on your research interests! 

Media

AllAfrica.com

Alternative Press Index
Provides indexing to over 300 alternative, radical and left periodicals, newspapers and magazines.  Considered one of the best sources for searching alternative press.

LexisNexis Academic 
Full-text documents from over 5,600 news, business, legal, medical, and reference publications.

More Media (from UW Women's Studies Librarian)
Links to several major news sites focused on women and gender issues.

World News Connection (1995 - current)
Translated and English-language news and information. Particularly effective in its coverage of local media sources from around the world.

IGOs, non profits, advocacy groups 

Contemporary Women's Issues (1992-present)
Provides access to information about women in over 150 countries; indexes books, journals, newsletters, research reports from non-profit groups, government andinternational agencies; many articles are full text.

Researching Violence Against Women Online
Links to many advocacy and policy organization and resources. 

WomenWatch (United Nations)
"Central gateway to information and resources on the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women throughout the United Nations system"

Social Media 

BlogHer
Organization of women bloggers.  

More Media (from UW Women's Studies Librarian)
Links to some web directories of blogs, wikis, and other social media.

Digital Archives

Women and Social Movements in the United States (1600-2000)

Women's Studies in Digital Archives
Guide to women's studies in some of the major, freely available digital collections on the web.

"Local" Collections

Center for Research Libraries
CRL holds hundreds of documents relevant to women and gender studies, including many feminist magazines and major microfilmed manuscript collections. Check out this issues of their newsletter FOCUS for more ideas.

University of Minnesota Special Collections
Search the holdings of all special collection through this finding aid.  Collections of note include: the Social Welfare History archives and the Tretter Collection in GLBT studies.

Other Resources

• Women's Studies Librarian Office (UW)
  Highlights lots of good collections, online and in print.  We will not have access to everything on this web site, as some of the items are only accessible through the UW library system. But, you can get good ideas for the kinds of sources you may be interested in pursuing.
• WSS Links
  Web directory of various subjects related to wgst from the Women's Studies Section of the Association of Collection and Research Libraries. 
• Center for the Study of Women  (UCLA)
  Check out the research, publication, and resources. 

Keeping Track of your Research

There are several and varied options for keeping track of your research. Many people find text documents or handwritten notes meet their needs. Below are some other options for managing your research. Find something that works for you and fits into how you work.

• EndNote or EndNote Web
• Zotero
• Online Bookmarks (like delicious and StumbleUpon)

Citing Your Sources

Chicago Manual of Style
Online and in Reference (Ready Ref: Z253 .U69 2003)