Wellesley College Library
Class Resources
for History 281/381:
Dream of the Red Chamber: An Introduction to Chinese Society, ca 1650-1830
These are only some of the sources which may be useful to you in completing your research. Please contact Megan Adams for additional help. I would be happy to meet with you individually. You may also use our Ask Us email reference service for help with quick facts etc. If you have chosen an "art" or "music" topic please feel free tocontact Brooke Henderson (the Art Librarian) or Pamela Bristah (the Music Librarian)
BACKGROUND INFORMATION AND FINDING TERMS
The first thing you will want to do is to refine your search terms. Do some background reading, and think about what terms you will be looking for in your research, jot down terms you see in background reading, and in records you uncover during your research process. This will give you an idea of how other people may have described and classified the information for which you are searching.
FINDING BOOKS
Once you have an idea of the search terms you would like to use, go to the Wellesley College Library Catalog. The catalog is a database with all the titles of books and journals we have on the shelves. You cannot look for individual journal articles here. If you are on a data-gathering mission, keyword searches are often the best way to start. The default is phrase searching, so if you have separate terms, put AND or OR between them. Another great place to look for books not necessarily at Wellesley is WorldCat . WorldCat allows you to search library catalogs worldwide for books, videos and journal titles. There is also a link so you can place an interlibrary loan.
If you have specific items in mind, look them up using an author or title search. Keep in mind that subject searches are very exact. If you don't know the exact subject heading you want to use, start with a keyword search. Once you have found interesting materials, note the subject headings. These may be useful to you when you search for more materials. Remember that you can limit your searches, mark records, and export them to your email.
Once you pull up a detailed record for something, make sure you note its location, call number, holdings (for periodicals), as well as any relevant subject headings.
Once you have looked for background information and books in the Library, you may want to move on to articles and essays that are listed in separate databases and indexes. To see if the library owns a particular journal, do a title search in the library catalog.
FINDING ARTICLES IN JOURNALS & NEWS SOURCES
ATLA - ATLA is the FirstSearch database that covers religion.
Historical Abstracts- HA is an index to articles in history journals published since 1954. Covers non-American historical topics since 1450.
JSTOR- JSTOR is a full-text database of articles in selected scholarly journals published before the last 5 years or so-meaning, there are no recent articles in this database. However, JSTOR does have many important journals from the journal's beginning issue.
MLA Bibliography - MLA is the FirstSearch database that covers literature.
Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature-Reader's Guide is an index to popular magazines dating back to1890. (Clapp Ref AI3.R48)
Reader's Guide Full Text (indexing from 1983, full text from 1994)and Reader's Guide Retrospective(1890-1982, indexing only)- These two databases are also available through WilsonWeb.
Social Sciences Index-Social Sciences Index continues three other titles (International Index to Periodicals, International Index: A Guide to Periodical Literature in the Social Sciences and Humanities and Social Sciences & Humanities Index) and indexes journal articles in the social sciences and humanities dating back to 1907. (Clapp Ref AI3.S6)
WilsonWeb-
WilsonWeb has several different databases covering various subject areas. For
this class try using Humanities Full Text, Social Sciences Full Text or OmniFile
Full Text Mega Edition.
CAMPUS WIDE INFORMATION SYSTEM AND THE WORLD WIDE WEB
Interlibrary Loan and the Virtual Catalog
Internet Resources for History
Research Survival Kit - Information to help you get started on a research project.