|
The purpose of this guide is to familiarize you with
research sources in the library and on
the internet for your
class discussions, collaborative presentation and seminar
paper.
Getting Started
Think about what you know about
the text that interests you and meets the requirements for
your assignment. Look for terms
and
personal names
in your notes and readings. You will be working with a specific title
for each paper or presentation,
but there is a large body of literature and research to explore, so
you need to be able to focus. It is strongly advised to do some beginning research on the topic
to be sure appropriate and sufficient resources are
available before committing much time or effort to a
particular aspect of this topic.
You should be using scholarly essays to inform your
writing!
Click here to
find out more about what determines that a source is
scholarly. Keep in mind that the discussion you find in the
scholarly literature can have a number of opposing
interpretations and stances. This is called the 'scholarly
conversation' and you need to become familiar with all sides
of this conversation.
Keep in mind that children's literature may also be
called 'kids books', 'juvenile literature' and many other
variations. Genre labels can be more focused, but where a
work fits into the genres can be a subjective assignment and
many works actually fit into a number of genre categories. Try different terms as the computer's
search will only match exactly what you have
typed and not offer alternative jargon.
Journal Articles
Literature journals include some of the latest research in
the field and can be very helpful in your project. They
are a good source for finding very
detailed information on your topic. To
find articles, you need to start with a research
database and
preferably one that indexes scholarly sources as they are
based on careful research and peer-reviewed prior to
publishing. NOTE: most databases do not
cover material published prior to the early 1980's, so you
may need to use print resources. Some databases do not offer
full text of the articles. Use the
 button
to check our other resources for full text.
Interlibrary Loan is available for documents that we
don't own (see above for how to submit a
request).
Scholarly material takes longer to complete the
publishing cycle than popular press and newspapers, but
provides more thoughtful analysis. Children's literature is
a specialized genre and except in the case of
highly-publicized titles (Harry Potter) you will not
be likely to uncover discussion of specific titles in the
generalist resources. You might find the occasional mention
of the broader topic of children's literature, but that will
likely not be applicable to your needs as it will be too
broad.
Most Useful
Project MUSE
Full text. Scholarly article collection
supplementing the holdings on many titles in JSTOR by
offering more currently published materials.
JSTOR
Full-text.
Contains complete full-text back files (EXCEPT for the
latest five years) of core scholarly journals in such areas
as sociology, history, economics, political science,
mathematics, African-American studies, Asian studies and
others. This collection offers articles published since the
late 1800's.
MLA
(AKA Bibliography of the Modern Language Association.)
Includes abstracts of articles from critical literary and
language journals. See the Library Helps link for a page on
locating materials using this specialized resource which
is essential to literature research.
ERIC
A national database of education literature, including
reports and journal articles. While this resource takes
an education focus on juvenile literature, there are
critical annotations as well. All articles marked as
"ED" in the accession number are unpublished documents
in our ERIC microfiche collection. Use the
button on EJ articles to locate full text as these are
published articles.
Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA)
Provides abstracts of articles from about 2,000 journals
(published worldwide), coverage of recent books, book
review citations and dissertation listings.
Also Useful
Academic
Search Premier (via EbscoHost)
Full-text.
A multi-disciplinary database
offering full text for nearly 1,850 scholarly journals,
including more than 1,250 peer-reviewed titles. Use
peer-reviewed limiter to focus on more scholarly materials.
Twayne's Authors Series
This series provides literary criticism for approximately
600 authors, including critical introductions to the lives
and works of writers, the history and influence of literary
movements, or the development of literary genres.
Oxford English Dictionary
A guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over
half a million words, both present and past. It includes
etymological analysis, listings of variant spellings, and
shows pronunciation using the International Phonetic
Alphabet
Check the
CSUSM Literature Subject Guide for other suggestions
Specific Journals on Children's Literature
Databases provided that have full text--you can limit
your search to a specific journal in the advanced search
function in any database.
Books
Any well researched project uses books to support your
thinking and writing. To find them, either do:
- KEYWORD searches using terms from your class readings and
notes,
- TITLE searches for
specific works,
- AUTHOR searches for those who have been identified
as authorities on the topic, or
- SUBJECT searches on children's literature, using as
an example the author
J. M. Barrie and his best known work Peter Pan and
Wendy. (Subject headings can be tricky, so feel free to
ask for help.) Some possible subject searches:
Keep in mind
that these are very focused subject headings. Useful
material can also be held in broader works, such as
books on British children's fiction and general fiction
analyses. Also, authors of children's literature are
frequently NOT included in works on general authors due
to the specialized focus of their writing, but it
doesn't hurt to check.
Reference Books (in library use)
These are works like
encyclopedias, directories, and collections of reviews
that do not circulate from the library. They may be quick
overviews or in-depth studies and are frequently useful
for short facts or overviews, birthdates, statistics and
bibliographies of sources. Some useful sources are:
-
Dictionary of Literary Biography*
(Reference area, this
set is broken up by author type such as
'American Writers for
Children Before 1900' or 'Holocaust
Novelists' or in the case of a prolific or well-known
writer, there may be an entire volume dedicated to
them.) Barrie is found in the
British Children's
Writers, 1880-1914 (volume 141) at
REF PR990 .B75 1994.
*NOTE!!! Gale, the publisher for
this series and other sets, has placed a free
comprehensive index to all their sets on the web.
See this
page
for author, title or custom search. Once you know
the series title and volume number, you can check our
catalog for the location. Keep in mind, CSUSM does not
own all the series indexed in this resource, but we do have the major
sets.
-
Writers for Young
Adults (REF
PS490 .W75 1997) offers
2-3 page articles on a broad selection of writers with
short bibliographies to related materials.
-
Fifteen Centuries of
Children's Literature: An Annotated Chronology of
British and American Works in Historical Context (REF
Z1037.A1 B582)
-
The Storyteller's
Sourcebook: A Subject, Title, and Motif Index to
Folklore Collections for Children (Reference
GR74.6 .M3 1982)
Circulating Books (check out and take
home)
Find books on your topic by
using KEYWORD or subject searches. Some books are now
available in full text through the catalog. When you see a
WWW connection offered, click on that link to read the
book online (access is in 2 hour increments.)
Finding Books
 CSUSM Library Catalog
Do a KEYWORD search on the topic by typing the word
or phrase in the search box. Since keywords can
have multiple definitions and therefore, uses, once you
locate a useful title, examine the SUBJECTS for precise
'labels' to identify your topic. While looking at each
item, note authors who are writing on your topic and the
call number for browsing the stacks. Check to see that
they have bibliographies (listing of the research
sources used) to substantiate the book's claims. A
scholarly publisher is helpful also! |
Example of Catalog Screen
 |
A specialized collection of materials in both
Spanish and English. This collection includes
children and young adult books and magazines as well
as materials about these texts. All material is
searchable through the CSUSM catalog. Due to the
research focus of this collection, some materials
must be used in the Center and other material is
available for check-out. |
 San Diego Circuit
This shows materials you may borrow from other San Diego
County universities. Either search from the CSUSM
catalog by clicking on OTHER CATALOGS in the beginning
search screen, or you can extend your CSUSM catalog
search to Circuit by clicking on the CIRCUIT button
towards the top of the screen. If you are already
looking at a specific item in the catalog, Circuit will
only search for that item, so be sure to work from the
keyword search results list to get broader results. You may request the item
online to be delivered to CSUSM for you. (brief
tutorial above) |
 Melvyl Catalog of
holdings for the entire University of California library
system. |
Searching the Internet
There are ways to search the
internet quickly and effectively. Use Advanced or Expert Search whenever possible to focus your results and eliminate sites
you can't use like those in languages you cannot read.
Finding the better sites
- Limit your searches to high quality domains: .edu
(university servers), or .org (museums and
associations).
- Use appropriate language to accurately describe your topic.
- Spell names or phrases accurately--be aware of
alternate spellings used in earlier time periods.
- Look for bibliographies or references to the works
used for the site's contents.
- Know your topic!
- Carefully evaluate what you find for bias,
conflicting, or incomplete information.
Following is a list of
some of the better sources on the internet:
Citing Your Sources
As you write your paper, you'll need to cite passages and
ideas from the sources you've found. In order to cite
your resources properly, you need to follow the style
guide used by for this class, the MLA Handbook.
 |
MLA handbook for writers
of research papers. 6th ed. New York :
Modern Language Association of America, 2003.
|
Need More?
Judith Downie,
Humanities Librarian
(760) 750-4374 OR come by my office (KEL
3424), I am available if my door is open (most of the
time) OR make an appointment by phone or
email.
CSUSM Writing Center
The staff of the writing center
are there to help you.
|
,
175K) 