Department of Anthropology College of Arts & Sciences The University of Alabama
There are many ways to organize a search for bibliography relevant to a term paper, thesis, or other writing project in cultural anthropology. What follows is simply one suggestion for the sequence of steps that might be taken to initiate quickly and efficiently such a bibliographic search in the libraries of the University of Alabama. Of course, it is hoped that this guide to library research will prove to be useful to students and others outside of our institution.
It makes sense to begin with our library's electronic catalogs because they can very quickly reveal the easy-to-obtain sources relevant to your search. Having done this initial work on your own, take what you have found to a Reference Librarian and/or your professors for additional help. Then turn to specially prepared sources, such as already existing bibliographies and encyclopedia articles. After this initial work you may then begin to use the more time consuming indexes and abstracts. Other important options include Online Research and browsing through the Internet.
University of Alabama Libraries Catalog When using the UA electronic catalog, be sure to avail yourself of Kudzu (an option on the catalog menu) which permits simultaneous searches of 13 university libraries in addition to our own. Once you have found items not in our own collection you can easily order them through Inter Library Loan. (NOTE: you can do so only after clicking to the main entry of the relevant item).
In addition to the electronic catalog for books, monographs, serials, Reserve Book Room holdings, and other items found in the libraries of UA, there are a number of important sources of bibliographic information:
Human Resources
Consult with your professors and with Reference Librarians. Write or email to experts in the areas of your interest for bibliographic advice. Don't be shy. Don't reinvent the wheel. Most academic anthropologists have email addresses and many can be found in The Worldwide Email Directory of Anthropologists. Other sites useful for tracking down the email addresses of anthropologists are American Universities and College and Universities Homepages. Use common sense (and uncommon courtesy) when requesting information from total strangers.Published Bibliographies
Someone may have already done most of your work for you. Check the bibliographies of
encyclopedia articles. Ask a reference librarian about published bibliographies in your
area of interest. It is also worthwhile to check out Anthropological Bibliographies , a web site of bibliographies maintained by SUNY-Buffalo.
You might wish to consult relevant review articles in Annual Review of Anthropology and Reviews in Anthropology. Be sure to check out Annual Reviews Online. In addition to tables of contents for articles appearing in Annual Review of Anthropology, you can also access review essays from related disciplines.
Indexes and Abstracts
Work your way through the following bibliographic sources. They are listed
roughly in the order of their usefulness.
More Online Research
The Reference Librarian can do fairly sophisticated computer searches for you
which can be most useful. Unfortunately it can also be expensive and you have to pay the
piper. Therefore, it makes sense to take advantage of the many online bibliographic
searching tools available to you for free.
One excellent commercial service which allows you to browse article titles from over 17,000 serials for free is ingenta. Before using ingenta for the first time you might browse through this site for an explanation about how it works and for a description of the other services it offers. Another useful general source for the periodical literature is the online catalog of The British Library.
If you are mainly interested in searching for relevant web sites, it is difficult to do better than Google and Dogpile.
To quickly discover the basic titles in the anthropological periodicals literature, check out Oxford Union List of Periodicals of Interest to Social Anthropologists (compiled by David Zeitlyn; 2nd edition edited by Mike Morris). Another site that might prove very useful is the guide to the web sites of anthropology periodicals maintained by Seeking Sites Afar. Check out the UA periodicals holdings for anthropology; many entries include web buttons, as well as indicating our runs of these journals.
A particularly comprehensive site for searching for books and monographs is Amazon Books. This impressive commercial service allows you to browse for free through its data base including millions of books in print.
Among many other resources, the Internet and the World Wide Web gives you access to the electronic catalogs of over 1100 Libraries located throughout the world. Visit Libweb for a quick guide to the world's electronic library catalogs.
Particularly useful is the electronic catalog of the Library of Congress. It can be accessed on this page or very easily through the tenHoor network. "Shop" at the Library of Congress because there are over 6 million items stored in this catalog.
For other links to bibliographic sites see Writing Tools for Anthropology Students.
Interlibrary Loan
Once you have assembled your bibliography, first check
to see if the University of Alabama Libraries has the items you wish to
consult. After having determined that a book or article is not available locally, you may
then request it electronically through the Illiad Interlibrary
Loan request system.
Note that by using Kudzu, an option available on the opening menu of the Library Catalog, you not only get to search the electronic catalogs of 14 southeastern universities simultaneously, but you can also order items not found in our libraries with the greatest of ease. Check it out.
since 10-19-01
