Stewart Library owns or has access to a large number
of resources to help in your research.
Getting Started: if you're not sure of a topic or
need some background information, reference books can be very helpful.
Some good ones to start with are:
| Dictionary of Feminist Theory |
Ref HQ1115.H86 1995 |
| A Glossary of Feminist Theory |
Ref HQ 1190 .A53 1997 |
| Contemporary Literary Criticism |
Ref PN 813 .C6 |
| Dictionary of Literary Biography |
Ref PS 221
.D5 |
| Significant Contemporary American Feminists |
Ref HQ 1412 .S56 1999 |
| American Women's History |
Ref HQ 1115 .W4 1994 |
| Women in World History - a Biographical
Encyclopedia |
Ref HQ 1115 .W6 1999 |
| Women in the Third World |
Ref HQ 1870 .W6548 |
| United States Government Documents on
Women |
Ref HQ 1410 .H85 1993 |
You can find many other reference books on Women's Studies by browsing
the call number area: HQ 1000 to HQ 2000.
A good place to find information on
current issues is the CQ Researcher. The newest one
is kept behind the Reference Desk. It's also available on
the web: CQ
Researcher.
Finding Books:
Use the WSU online catalog to find what
books and other materials, such as videos, the Library owns.
The catalog will provide the location and availability of the resource,
We also have a subscription to Netlibrary,
which provides access to electronic books.
Good keywords to use include: feminist, feminist theory,
feminist literary theory, women, sex differences, feminism, feminism
and literature, women and literature
Finding Articles:
The best way to find articles is to use one of the Library's article
databases. These databases provide references to articles
in journals. In some cases, the actual article is available
on the computer. Most of these databases are available off
campus through Stewart Library's remote
access system.
Useful databases for Women's Studies include:
- Contemporary
Women's Issues Contemporary women's issues on health and human
rights, some full-text. 1992 - present, updates every two weeks.
- GenderWatch
Newspaper, magazine, and journal articles addressing the impact
of gender in society. 1990-Present (with selected articles
from the 1970's and 1980's) Full-text.
- JSTOR
Full text, scholarly articles in the field of Feminist and Women's
Studies
- MLA
Bibliography Comprehensive index to articles on literature,
literary criticism and language.
- Literature
Resource Center A complete literature reference database
designed for both the undergraduate and graduate student as well
as the sophisticated casual user.
- America:
History and Life Indexes scholarly literature on the
history and culture of the United States and Canada. 1964-Present.
- Academic
Search Premier is a general database that allows you to search
important journals in many fields, including Women's Studies.
It has many full-text articles.
If you are doing research on women's issues in a specific field,
it can be helpful to look in a database specific to that field.
For example: to research women executives look in a
business database, to research women and domestic violence
look in a criminal justice database. Ask a librarian to help
determine which database is best for your topic.
Browsing Current Periodicals:
You can also browse through journals and magazines. This
can be helpful when you're looking for a topic. Current issues
are on the 1st floor south, older volumes on the 2nd floor.
Titles in the field include:
| Hypatia |
available online only |
| Feminist Studies |
HQ 1.F329 |
| Journal of Gender Studies |
HQ 1.J869 |
| Differences |
HQ 1.D569 |
| Signs |
HQ 1.S578 |
You can browse the HQ 1 area to see what other titles are available.
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.
There's a lot of good information out on the web.
Unfortunately, some it's not so good, so be sure to evaluate, evaluate,
evaluate! Some interesting places to start looking are:
- Clearly identify your information need
- Identify key words and search terms
to match your topic
- Develop search statements using advanced search techniques
- Boolean logic, adjacency searching and truncation
- Use the Online
catalog to find books, videos and other materials
- Use an appropriate article database
to find journal articles, ask a librarian for help if you're not
sure what's best
- Use Interlibrary loan
to get materials that are not in Stewart Library
- Use search
engines to find Web information
- Carefully
evaluate the information you find for usefulness and quality
- Revise your search terms and strategy to expand or narrow your
results, be creative, look in other areas
- Use appropriate style to document and cite research
- Ask for HELP
at Reference, via phone
or email
