ANTH 5400: Ethnographic Research Methods Guide

Guides to Research


Fieldwork in the Library: A Guide to Research in Anthropology and Related Area Studies
Z 5111 .W47 1994 (Ref)
Coverage from "What Every Anthropologist Needs to Know" through sources in all formats of the sub-disciplines. Good annotations. Includes area studies. Details

Introduction to Library Research in Anthropology
Z 5111 .W44 1998 (Ref)
Covers basic research in all subfields of anthropology and sources for basic and advanced research. Details

Finding Books


WestCat.
The WMU Libraries' online catalog.Use WestCat to locate books,videos, films, sound recordings, and slides in the library. Also useWestCat to locate the journals owned by WMU Libraries, whether in print or online.

  • Search Tips:Use the Advanced Search when beginning to research a topic
  • The truncation symbol for keyword searching is the question mark ?
  • When looking for a journal, use the "Journal Title" search in the Basic
    Search Mode and type in the name of the journal you are looking for.

WorldCat Comprehensive catalog of books and other materials in libraries around the world. Contains millions of records in hundreds of languages. Nonbook materials include (among other publication formats) the titles of journals and magazines, manuscripts, maps, electronic resources, websites, computer programs, music scores, films, slides, sound recordings, conference proceedings, and videotapes. Items located through WorldCat must be requested through Interlibrary Loan unless they are also listed in the WMU Libraries catalog.

Hollis - Harvard's catalog We have a CD at the library that is an index to that part of their catalog that is the anthropology collection--from 1866-1997. Although you will need to use Hollis for 1997-present the CD, Anthropology Bibliography on Disc, is very user-friendly. It indexes all anthropology books, monograph series, journals, manuscripts, and maps in Harvard's collection for that time period. The CD is located in the Reference Desk area, Waldo Library First Floor.

NetLibrary A collection of over 25,000 electronic books that are searchable and readable online. To create a personal list of books, make notes or in other ways customize NetLibrary for your own use, create a Free Account.
For best results, search the Library Catalog for all books whether print or electronic. Please note that not all NetLibrary titles are accessible on Macs. Some work only with Internet Explorer, available in Waldo Library at select Scholar Workstations.

University of Michigan Library Catalog

How to Find Articles

When looking for articles, begin by using an article index. Depending upon your research topic, you may need to use article indexes in addition to those listed below, e.g., ABI/Inform (work ethic), Social Work Abstracts (teen parents), etc. All of the following journal indexes are available on the Libraries' home page, in the middle column, in the A to Z List of Article Indexes and Databases. If you already have a citation to an article in a particular journal, use the "Journal Title" search in WestCat's Basic Search mode to see if the library subscribes to the journal.

Anthropology Plus Provides extensive worldwide indexing of journal articles, reports, commentaries, and edited works in the fields of social, cultural, physical, biological and linguistic anthropology, ethnology, archaeology, folklore, material culture and interdisciplinary studies.
Previously Anthropological Literature and Anthropological Index Online.
This subscription is limited to five simultaneous users. Please logout when finished.

Arts and Humanities Search (FirstSearch) Indexes articles from over 1,300 arts and humanities journals and selectively covers relevant articles from over 5,800 social science and science journals. Coverage is from 1980 to the present. Updated weekly. See also the Arts and Humanities Citation Index.

BIOSIS Previews Comprehensive index with abstracts to periodical articles, reviews, and meetings in all the biological sciences disciplines. Coverage: 1969-present. Updated weekly.
This subscription is limited to three simultaneous users. Please logout when finished.

  • RefWorks Info: For Import Filter, choose "ISI (Institute for Scientific Information)". For Database, choose "BIOSIS".

Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) Indexes virtually all doctoral dissertations and many masters theses produced in the U.S. since 1860 and many from foreign schools as well. Abstracts available from 1980. Full text for most dissertations available from 1997. Some authors choose to not make their dissertations available. Print and microfilm copies are offered for a fee, but check out Interlibrary Loan before paying for a copy.

  • RefWorks Info: Dissertations and Theses (Proquest) will export marked citations directly into your RefWorks account. (You will be prompted to login.)

Humanities Abstracts Indexes more than 465 major humanities journals in art, history, literature, philosophy, religion, music, and related areas. Coverage from 1984, abstracts from 1994 to the present.

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

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.

eHRAF World Cultures The electronic Human Relations Area Files is a full-text cross-cultural database that contains over 350,000 pages of information on all aspects of cultural and social life written by social scientists, travelers and missionaries. Information is organized into cultures and ethnic groups and the sources are subject-indexed at the paragraph level. Updated annually. Coverage: 1866 to the present.

Interlibrary Loan

The University Libraries is happy to assist you borrow materials from other libraries if we do not own them. Before using WMU's Interlibrary Loan service, you must first register as a First Time Users. (The link to Interlibrary Loan is under "Get It " on the Libraries' home page.)

If you request an article, it will usually be emailed to you directly. If you request books or dissertations, you will receive a notice in the mail when the material is in and ready for you.

Gateway Web Sites

To help navigate through the vast number of resources on the Web, you could begin by using the Anthropology Subject Guide to Resources, which lists Anthropology gateway sites. Other quality gateways that are more general in nature are SOSIG ( Social Science Information Gateway), InfoMine, Librarians’ Index to the Internet and Academic Info .

Web Search Engines

  • Use nouns, unique words when possible.
  • Use quotes around phrases. Example: "world health organization"
  • For additional tips on searching and rankings, see UC
    Berkeley’s Guide.

Citing Your Sources

Online style guides are linked from the Subject Resources page.

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Ask A Librarian

Dianna Sachs
dianna.sachs@wmich.edu
269-387-5182
Last updated: August 2006