WMS 2000: Intro to Women's Studies Class Guide

Introduction

The library has many resources that can help with your assignments for this and other classes. For a more complete list of resources, see the Women & Gender Studies and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies subject guides. Ask a Librarian can answer quick questions by email. You can stop by or call the Central Reference desk at 387-5178 or contact Maira Bundza, maira.bundza@wmich.edu, at 387-5207.

Finding Books

Use WestCat, WMU Libraries' online catalog, to locate books, videos, films, sound recordings, slides and journals owned by WMU Libraries.

If you know the title or author of the book, use the Basic Search, otherwise use Advanced Search to find books on your topic.

  • Tip: Truncation symbol in keyword searching in WestCat is the question mark: ?
  • Write down the location and call number.
  • Check the maps, if you are in Waldo library, to find the correct floor and location of your book.

If WMU Libraries do not have the book, you can borrow it from another library through Interlibrary Loan. You must register first.


Finding Journal Articles

To find an article, you first need to search an index. You can find a few general purpose indexes under Find - Articles or go to the article indexes suggested for Women & Gender Studies under Databases by Subject. This list will include all of the indexes below:

Social Sciences Abstracts Indexes over 600 periodicals in anthropology, economics, ethnic studies, feminist studies, geography, human services, international relations, law and criminology, police science, political science, population studies, psychology, public administration, public health, social work, sociology, urban studies, and related social science subjects. Coverage: indexing from 1983 and abstracts from 1994. Updated weekly.
Details

ProQuest Research Library Indexes popular magazines, scholarly journals, newspapers and trade publications in a wide range of subject areas, including business, education, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Full-text available for over 2,500 journals. Coverage from 1971.

Contemporary Women's Issues Full-text access to information on women around the world from a variety of journals and other publications gathered from nonprofit groups as well as governmental agencies. Coverage is from 1990 to the present and updated every two weeks.

America: History and Life Indexes and abstracts 2,100 journals, book and media reviews, and dissertations about the history and culture of the US and Canada. Searches by subject, author, title, time period, or document type. Coverage from 1964 to the present. Updated monthly. Use this for historical topics in women's studies.

CQ Researcher Explores a current news issue in-depth each week. Articles typically include charts, graphs and sidebars, a pro-con feature, a chronology, lengthy bibliography, and a list of contacts. Coverage from October 1991 to present. Good for an overview of an issue.

GenderWatch An historical and current perspective on the evolution of women's and gender issues. Full-text articles from over 200 scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, regional publications, as well as books, and reports. Coverage from 1970.

InfoTrac General OneFile Indexes news and periodical articles on a wide variety of topics. Millions of articles are full-text. Coverage: 1980-present.

Sociological Abstracts
Indexes an international selection of publications in sociology and related disciplines from over 1,800 journals, serials, books, conference papers, and dissertations. Indexing and abstracting from 1952, and cited references with links from 2001. Updated monthly.

Finding Journals in the Library


Journal Finder Find electronic and print journals available at WMU. Search for a journal title, look for a specific article if you have a citation, or browse through the A - Z list of online journals, magazines and newspapers at WMU.

Finding journals in WestCat, the library catalog Sometimes you will not be able to find something in Journal Finder, so check the library catalog:

  • Enter the title of the journal (source) in the Basic Search box. Omit "a, an, the".
  • Select Journal Title from the pull down box and then click the Search button.
  • You may go straight to the record for the journal or you may get a titles list. Select the title under Complete Title that matches. You may need to choose between print, microform or electronic versions.
  • To find if the library has the issue that you need, scroll down to Library Has and check to see that your volume is included.
  • Write down the call number and location. In Waldo, the most recent issues are in Current Periodicals on the Lower Level. For the rest use Waldo maps to find the location of your journal and make a copy of the article.

Biographical Information


Biographies Plus Illustrated Contains more than 145,000 biographies and more than 36,000 photographs. Includes full text articles from Current Biography and other biographical sources. Many of the biographies have links to other sources and citations to articles.

American National Biography Authoritative biographical essays on more than 17,400 deceased Americans from all eras and walks of life published by Oxford University Press. Some of these entries are for literary figures. Use this only for BIOGRAPHICAL information. These are NOT journal articles.

Women's Studies: Biographical Sources A list of databases, encyclopedias and other sources for biographical information on women from the Women's Studies Subject Guide compiled by WMU librarians.

Citing Sources


The standard citation style used for research papers in the Department of English is the MLA (Modern Languages Association) style. Below is a link to various styles.

Writing Style Guides Contains links to many practical examples for formatting citations in APA, Chicago, MLA, Turabian, and other writing styles. Examples include citations to both online or print materials. Call numbers for printed manuals are also given. Ask your instructor which writing style is required for your class assignment(s).

RefWorks
This citation management software allows you to import citations directly from electronic indexes and create and manage your own bibliographies. Use with word processing software to cite and format references easily in a variety of writing styles. You will have to set up an individualized account the first time you use RefWorks. An excellent tutorial is available in RefWorks under Help. Tutorial

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Ask A Librarian

Maira Bundza, E-mail: maira.bundza@wmich.edu
Phone: 269-387-5207
Last updated: September 2007