 |
Class Guide » Sociology 3040: Non-Western WorldNote to StudentsThe following guide was created to help you find your way to the library information needed to complete your research assignment. If you would like further help, please contact me, Patricia F. Vander Meer, 269 387-5191 and I will be happy to assist you. Staff are also available during extended hours at the Central Reference Desk in Waldo Library (e-mail: Ask a Reference Question, phone: 269 387-5178).BooksUse WestCat, WMU's online catalog, to look up books by title, author, or topic. When looking for subjects, use the Guided Keyword search mode. You may enter words and phrases in the search boxes provided, and WestCat will automatically construct the search for you. Remember to truncate using the question mark (?) to search for different variations of a word. For example pre-colonial? retrieves pre-colonial or pre-colonialism. Sample Strategies: 1) To identify books on the topic of the pre-colonial period for a specific country, enter the term pre-colonial? in the first search box and the name of your country in the second box. If you retrieve no results, try broadening your country to the region of Middle East or Central Asia or Africa instead. NOTE: You should repeat your search using the keyword precolonial? because this concept sometimes appears as a single word as well as a hyphenated word. 2) To identify books on the topic of the history of a social institution and a country, enter keyword(s) for the social institution, such as education in the first search box, the name of your country in the second box, and history in the third box. If you retrieve no results, try repeating your search with just the first two terms only, deleting history from the search strategy. You might also try to broaden your search by substituting the terms society or social instead of a specific social institution. When entering two similar terms in a box, remember to change the pull down menu to the right of the box so it reads ANY OF THESE. To search for books not held in the WMU Libraries use catalogs of other libraries. Books can be ordered through Interlibrary Loan. Country StudyThe Country Studies series presents a description and analysis of the historical setting and the social, economic, political, and national security and institutions of countries throughout the world and examines the interrelationships of those systems and the ways they are shaped by cultural factors. EncyclopediasAll countries:
United States:
Africa, in general:
Latin America, in general:
Middle East, in general:
Historical DictionariesNOTE: Scarecrow Press has published a series of historical dictionaries on numerous countries, including Middle Eastern and African countries. Each dictionary provides a brief overview of the history of the region from prehistoric times to the present, supplementing the narrative with a chronology of important dates. The alphabetically arranged entries cover important people, events, political parties, languages, society, education, economy and culture.Many of these are available in hard copy in Waldo library. A portion of them are available in electronic book format. For hard copy or electronic book editions of these titles, conduct a Guided Keyword search in WestCat. Enter the phrase historical dictionary in the first search box, and the name of the country you wish to research in the second box, and click on the Search button. Examples of historical dictionaries: Historical Dictionary of Brazil. F2504 .L46 (Ref) Historical Dictionary of Pre-Colonial Africa. DT17 .C65 2001 (Ref) Journal Article IndexesHistorical Abstracts Indexes and abstracts over 2,100 journals, books, and dissertations in world history, excluding the US and Canada, from 1450 to the present. Searches by subject, author, title, time period, or document type. Coverage: 1967-present. Updated monthly. 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. 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 1963, and cited references with links from 2001. Updated monthly. Newspaper Article IndexesLexisNexis Academic Indexes thousands of domestic and foreign newspapers, as well as journals, and other publications in News, Business company reports and articles, Legal Research, Medical and Reference. The legal research category includes law reviews, law news, federal and state laws and cases. Mostly full text. Coverage dates vary. Special Interest Web SitesAfrican Studies Internet Resources. Sponsored by Columbia University Libraries. Latin American Network Information Center. The Latin American Network Information Center is affiliated with the Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Its mission is to facilitate access to Internet-based information to, from, or on Latin America. Middle East Studies Internet Resources. Sponsored by Columbia University Libraries. Worldwide Governments on the WWW Provides links to governmental Web pages by country and includes links to information about the country from encyclopedias and other sources. Ask A LibrarianPatricia F. VanderMeer, E-mail: pat.vandermeer@wmich.edu |
Western Michigan University Libraries | 1903 W. Michigan Ave., Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5353 | Copyright © 2008
|