Stewart Library - Weber State University


Research Guide: Food & Culture

Finding Books

Using Catalogs:   Use the WSU online catalog to find location and availability of books and other media in Stewart Library.    

  • Useful keywords: food / culture / food habits / dining / cookery / food history / specific names of cultures or countries (for example: China food, cookery chinese, cookery near east) / vegetarian / microwave / and so on. Use these terms to do a keyword in general or title search. 
  • LC Subject Headings: food habits / cookery / dinners and dining / food supply / nutrition--united states--cross-cultural studies / food--social aspects / cookery chinese / cookery, near east / indians of north america--food / recipes--utah / vegetarian cookery / aztecs--food / and so on. Use these terms to do an alphabetical browse of subject search. 

Interlibrary Loan:   If we do not own a particular book or article you need, we will borrow it for you from another library through Interlibrary Loan.


Reference Resources

Reference resources include encyclopedias, dictionaries and other materials you use to "refer" to. Use these resources for background information on a topic.   There are a number of useful Reference books, such as:

  • Encyclopedia of World Cultures REF GN 307.E53
  • Encyclopedia of Food and Culture REF GT 2850.E53 2003 This is a great source for information about food in countries around the world. Also available full text online, requires WSU ID for off-campus access
  • The Cambridge World History of Food  - REF TX 353 .C255 2000
  • Larousse Gastronomique - REF TX 349 .M613
  • Encyclopedia of North American Eating & Drinking Traditions, Customs & Rituals -  REF GT2853 .U5 G39 1996
  • Cultures of Color in America : A Guide to Family, Religion and Health  REF E 184.A1L33
  • Edible Plants & Animals:  Unusual Foods from Aardvark to Zamia  -  REF TX 743 .L58
  • The New Oxford Book of Food Plants  -  REF SB 175 .V38 1997
  • The Visual Food Encyclopedia - REF TX 348 .E48 1996
  • Culture Grams:World Edition - REF Index Table 5A (Check out older editions at:  GT 150 .C852 2nd Floor S)
  • Countries & their Cultures- REF Index Table 5A
  • xreferplus:  Food - Includes the International Dictionary of Food & Cooking - Online, requires WSU ID for off-campus access.
  • Oxford Reference Online:  Food  -  Online, requires WSU ID for off-campus access.

 


Finding Articles

Article Databases

To find articles on your topic you need to use article databases, also known as periodical indexes. Each database usually covers a group of subject related journals. Search by subject or keyword in these indexes. Some indexes are available from off campus via the off-campus access service.  A few important databases to consider for this topic include:

  • EbscoHost
    Over two dozen databases with full text articles from thousands of magazines and scholarly journals. Three will probably be most useful:  
    Academic Search Premier -- a good place to get both popular and scholarly information on a wide variety of topics, both health and culture related. 
    Health databases -- a good place to find health information, including diet & nutrition. Not as good on the cultural aspects.
    Business Source Premier -- a good place to look for more business related aspects -- for example, the effects of advertising.
  • Sociological Abstracts
    This database covers all aspects of culture, sociology, anthropology, and so on. No full text articles available on the computer, some have abstracts (or summaries). 
  • MEDLINE Highly technical, extremely comprehensive medical database. Limited full text; most references have abstracts.
  • CINAHL
    Comprehensive and fairly technical nursing and allied health database, Some full text articles on the computer, but mostly abstracts.
  • Ethnic NewsWatch
    Full text Articles in English & Spanish from a variety of U.S. newspapers, magazines and journals published by ethnic and minority groups. 

Newspapers

Deseret News, Salt Lake Tribune and the Ogden Standard are all on the Web.   Many other newspapers are available on online, although most papers don't provide indexes to back issues, only current day.   For a list of WSU newspaper databases, see the Newspapers page. 

Browsing Current Perodicals

Current magazines and journals can be browsed in the Current Periodicals Area on the Main level. Bound volumes of older issues are found on the second floor in the General Collection stacks.  

Electronic Journals

The library subscribes to many electronic journals in various disciplines.  For a complete listing see our Ejournals Database.


Web Resources

Here are some WWW sites to get you started. Many of these will take you to other links, so explore!

General Sites 

Multicultural Nutrition 


Recipes and Other Food Information

 


Research Tips



Updated October 4, 2007 . Please send comments to Evan Christensen
Weber State University, Stewart Library. Copyright © 2008 All Rights Reserved.