WRIT 125:
Islam, Muslims, and the Middle East in Western Media, Literature and the Arts
Fall 2009 · Professor Wilfrid Rollman

Contents:

Find background information
Find books
Find scholarly journal articles
Find images
Key websites
Evaluating what you find

• Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World
• Encyclopedia of Islam
• Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures
• The Oxford Dictionary of Islam
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World (Clapp reference DS35.53 .O95 1995)

Use the Wellesley library catalog to find books, videos, and journals (not individual articles). Try the new Encore interface, or use our "classic" catalog search.

• if our copy of a book is checked out, click on the NExpress button to request a book quickly (2-4 days)
• Search WorldCat to find material we don’t own, click on and request through ILL (interlibrary loan)
• In a hurry? Get a BLC card and borrow the book directly from a nearby library

Find DVDs and videos

To find DVDs and videos, go to the Advanced Search page in the catalog, and limit your search by Material Type (select Video from the drop-down menu).

You can also use the menu on the left-hand sidebar when you search in Encore to select the videos from your search results.

tips:

• to find the full text of an article, click on the title for the full record, then look for the Find It! @ Wellesley button to link to the full text (online if we have it, or in print, or to the Interlibrary loan request if we don't own the journal)
  
  
• do your searching early and place interlibrary loan requests NOW for books and articles we don't have -- then, when you're ready to start reading and writing, you'll have a great selection of materials. If you wait, your choices will be very limited.

the most useful databases

• The College subscribes to many databases which contain journal article citations, and in some cases, full text. Depending on your topic, you may need to search in several of these databases. Try these first:

  • Academic Search Complete
  • LexisNexis Academic
  • JSTOR all topics, up to 3 to 5 years ago
  • Project Muse academic journals in the humanities and social sciences, from the last 5 years
  • Press Display - Archived issues of over 200 newspapers from over 55 countries in their original format from the past 45 days.

  See more databases on the Databases A-Z page.

other useful sources

• Google Scholar (click on the "Find FullText@Wellesley" links to access full text of articles or request them via ILL)
• Muqarnas: an annual on the visual culture of the Islamic world (electronic journal)
• National Geographic (full text online through 2006). Find current print issues in the Brackett Reading Room, and older issues here: Clapp Library G1 .N27

• Check the Art Research Guide for sources that will help you find art images online
• Digital Images Collections Wiki - created by Wellesley College's Visual Resources Dept.
• Academic Search Complete: Image Collection Includes thousands of current and historic photographs. Click on "Images" in the blue menu bar at the top (hover over "More")

• Al-Ahram Weekly - Use the drop-down menu on the lower-right-hand corner of the index page to access back issues and archival content.
• Arabic Media Internet Network - News, opinions, and cartoons (Click here to access the site contents in Arabic)
• Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University
• Bibliography of works in visual cultural studies - this extensive bibliography includes some works on reprsentations of Islam and the Middle East

Criteria to keep in mind when choosing and using soures:

• Accuracy - Does the author cite her/his sources and are they legitimate?
• Authority - Who wrote the source? Is s/he credible?
• Objectivity - Does the author have a bias - political, religious, commercial or otherwise?
• Currency - Is this information new or based on outdated sources? Can you tell how current it is?

Wellesley College Library · Information Services · Alana Kumbier · last modified: September 18, 2009