WRITING 125-12: MOTHERS & DAUGHTERS IN ASIAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE
Once you have an author or topic to research, there are several steps you should take to gather the information you will need for your paper.
Always start by using the Wellesley College Online Catalog. You can get to get to the Catalog via the college's Home Page, scroll down to Computing/Library, then to Library, & Library Catalog. Click on Library Catalog.
Under the Research Resources column, click on Databases A-Z, Research Guides by Subject/by Course. There are two helpful sections under the Tips & Tools subheading on the right side of the page. Both Starting Your Research & Citing Sources will provide invaluable assistance once you have begun work on a major paper. For print version citation information, go to the main desk in the Reference Room. Copies of Chicago Manual of Style (15th ed.), MLA Handbook, (6th ed.), and Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, 5th ed.) are some of the print versions kept there for the convenience of students working on papers in the library who would prefer to use print citation guides.
Other sites of interest would be our new Reference Books Online section and the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) page. [Just a cautionary note about using the WWW --- Literary comments from articles with no designated author, or an author with no stated credentials, should be suspect. Because it is on the Web does not mean the information is accurate!]
FindIt! @ Wellesley (click on the title for more information) is one of our newest features and helps retrieve more full-text articles than ever before. It will also link the user to NExpress, Virtual Catalog, or ILL if our libraries do not have access to the title. NExpress, comprised of a small local consortium of schools, usually provides the fastest service.
To locate books in our collection: Use the Wellesley College Online Catalog. Some searching tips: To find books written on your subject, do a keyword search. (e.g. shamans). Once these titles come up, further book records can be examined by clicking on the subject headings for any of the books listed. If you have chosen a specific author, do a keyword search with the author's name and the word criticism (e.g. Maxine Hong Kingston criticism).
As you work on your paper and look for resources, you will find there are basically four options available to you ---
Our libraries own a print copy.
Our libraries have the journal title on microfilm.
The article you need is in full text in one of our databases (See the Databases A to Z list).
Our libraries do not have access to the book or journal title. Request via ILL, Virtual Catalog, or Nexpress.
For Background Reading:
Classical Moment: Views from Seven Literatures - Clapp Lib PN85 .C499 1999
Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature - Clapp Lib PL2658.E1 C64 2007
Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature - Clapp Lib PL782.E1 C55 2005
Columbia Companion to Modern East Asian Literature - Clapp Ref PL493 .C55 2003
Columbia Guide to Asian American Literature Since 1945 - Clapp Ref PS153.A84 C65 2006
Encyclopedia of Asian History - Clapp Ref DS31 .E53 1998
Encyclopedia of Modern Asia - Clapp Ref DS4 .L48 2002
Essays on Literature & Society in Southeast Asia: Political & Sociological Perspectives - Clapp Lib PL3508.O5 .E87 1981
Feminism & Psychoanalytic Theory - Sci Lib HQ1206 .C53 1989
Handbook of Asian American Psychology - Sci Ref E184 .A75 H36 2007
Identity in Asian Literature - Clapp Lib PJ314.I3 I34 1996
Electronic Databases:
To find books not at Wellesley College: Use WorldCat, a database of the contents of library catalogs worldwide that can be searched to find books, journal titles & other materials not owned by Wellesley. [1000 BCE to present]
Additional Databases to Try:
Academic Search Premier - The world's largest scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text database. Dates of coverage vary by title.
ATLAReligion contains abstracts dealing with religious & theological literature.
Historical Abstracts - Though this database will not bring up full-text articles. It will give the user scholarly journal articles in English, French, and a number of other foreign languages. Requests for an article could always be done via ILL.
Infotrac OneFile - Good starting point for scholarly and popular articles in every discipline, 1980 to present.
JSTOR - A collection of humanities, social sciences, & natural science journals from the earliest issues but NOT the latest 5 years. A full-text source. Remember to follow these printing instructions once an article has been chosen for your further study. Click on "Set Preferences" & click on "Printing." If preferences are not set, choose "PDF Economy (requires Adobe Arobat)." Click "Set Printing Preferences," "Return to your JSTOR session," "Print," "OK," & you will receive message that your article is being downloaded. Once it appears on the screen again, click on the printer icon, check the pages desired on the box that appears, & click "OK."
LexisNexis Academic News - Domestic and international news, in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish, 1980's to present
MLA International Bibliography contains articles dealing with literature, linguistics, film, and folklore.
New York Times - Use this historic database of the newspaper with exact replicas dating from 1851-2001.
PAISInternational deals with information on global public policy and social issues.
Project Muse - Good scholarly articlescovering many disciplines, but they do not go back more than the most recent 5 years.
Sociological Abstracts - Articles on all aspects of sociology and other social science articles, 1963 to present
Free Internet Databases:
Asia Source provides links to bibliographies from various universitites and individuals. Topics in arts and culture, policy and government, as well as social issues are covered.
Asia-Studies Full-text Online - A premier database for the study of the modern Asia Pacific.
East and Southeast Asia: An Annotated Directory of Internet Resources on the politics, society, history, & culture of East & Southeast Asia and Asian-Americans in North America.
East Asian Studies Research Guide is considered a starting point for student researchers in the filed of East Asian studies. It was developed by the Faculty of arts & Sciences at Harvard University.
Portal to Asian Internet Resources (PAIR) directs users to Asian area content in the humanities and social sciences.
If you have further questions on this material or would like to have a one-on-one session, please feel free to contact me.