History 4013:
Research Strategies
Literature Review
Frederic Murray
Assistant Professor
MLIS, University of British Columbia
BA, Political Science, University of Iowa
Instructional Services Librarian
Al Harris Library
frederic.murray@swosu.edu
American Southwest & Borderlands
Cabeza de Vaca: 1528 - 1537
SEE THE FILM
American Southwest & Borderlands
19th & 20th Century Histories
Slotkin
Reff
Outline of session
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What is a literature review?
Why review the literature?
Plan your search/Keywords/Boolean
Citations/Identifying//Reading/Tracking
Choosing appropriate Sources/Databases
Google Tricks
Sample searches
A good literature review…
Major Concerns
• Topic Selection
• Narrowing the search
• Using the library effectively
What is a literature review?
“… a systematic…method for identifying,
evaluating and interpreting the …work
produced by researchers, scholars and
practitioners.”
FINK, A., 1998. Conducting literature research reviews: from paper to the
internet. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage., p.3.
Why review the literature?
“…without it you will not acquire an
understanding of your topic, of what
has already been done on it, how it
has been researched, and what the
key issues are.”
HART, E., 1998. Doing a literature review: releasing the social science
research imagination, by E. Hart and M. Bond. London: Sage., p.1.
Define what you want to know
“I am looking for literature and sources
that focus on Spanish exploration
and settlement. ”
Use this statement to choose
keywords and key phrases
Define key words and phrases
Spanish
or Mexican
Exploration
or Conquest
Settlement
or Colonization
Accurate Search
Requires
Accurate Language
Identifying Keywords
• Identify the significant terms and
concepts that describe your topic from
your thesis statement or research
question.
• These terms will become the key for
searching catalogs, databases and
search engines for information about
your subject.
Boolean
• AND = Narrow
• OR = Expand
• NOT = Exclude
Class Exercise
• Keyword Building Exercise
Topic: Spanish Exploration & Settlements
• Thesaurus.com
Spanish Exploration & Settlements
Missions
Texas
Jesuits
Southwest
Explorers
Mexico
Conquest
Exploration
Trade
Books
• Al Harris Catalog
• Open World Cat
• Ebrary
Open World Cat
• Meta search engine for online catalogs
of libraries all over the world. Search
for any book using a geographic
location for the closest sources.
• Over 9000 libraries combined.
• If you find it in WorldCat, and it's not
in our library, we can get it through
ILL.
• CREATE A USER ACCOUNT
Ebrary: eBooks
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24/7
Full Text Searching*
Highlight Markup
Note Taking
Changeable Font Size
Multiplicity of Use
• CREATE A BOOKSHELF
Choose Appropriate Databases
• Google is not (usually) the answer
• Start with Library Resources for your
Subject First
• Search a range of databases
• Think about the range of sources:
books, journal articles, statistics,
websites, conference reports…
Journals
• Southwestern Historical Quarterly
– Found in Project Muse (2006 to Current)
• Hispanic American Historical Review
– Found in Project Muse
• The Southwestern Historical Quarterly
– Found in JSTOR (1912-2007)
• Journal of the Southwest
– Found in JSTOR
Databases: Social Sciences
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JSTOR
Project Muse
America: History and Life with Full Text
Historical Abstracts with Full Text
And Many More…..
JSTOR
• Includes archives of over one
thousand leading academic journals
across the humanities, social sciences,
and sciences.
• Search by discipline: History
Project Muse
• Peer-reviewed journals
• Wide variety of humanities and social
science subjects
• Complete journal content, including
charts, graphs, and images
EBSCO Databases
• America: History
and Life with Full
Text
• Historical
Abstracts with
Full Text
We think of citation patterns as the
flow of information," says Carl
Bergstrom, a biologist at the University
of Washington. "That's what a citation
is — the trace that an idea flowed
from one place to another."
Handout:
Identifying types of citations
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Book
Journal or Magazine
Conference Reports
Newspaper Article
Website
Handout:
Reading citations
A citation is a short, multi-part description of a specific information source. It provides
the information that is needed to find a particular source. Journal citations contain such
basic information as:
Snowballing
• Building on the works of others
• A scholarly article will always have
References/Bibliography
• A bibliography is always ripe for the
picking…
Tracking Citations
Tracking Citations
Damp, Jonathan E., Stephen A. Hall
and Susan J. Smith 2002 Early
Irrigation on the Colorado Plateau near
Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico. American
Antiquity 67: 665-676
Tracking Citations
Damp, Jonathan E., Stephen A. Hall
and Susan J. Smith 2002 Early
Irrigation on the Colorado Plateau near
Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico. American
Antiquity 67: 665-676
The Citation Video
Class Exercise
• Is it a book or a journal?
• Check the appropriate source
– Open WorldCat/Ebrary/Al Harris Catalog
– Periodicals List
• If the citation is an article, do we have
access through the databases?
How does Google Search work?
Google Search
• PageRank (algorithm)
– 500 million variables
– 2 Billion Terms
• Bias?
• Popularity is a Proxy for Importance
Personalized Search
• Google’s algorithm will suggest “what
is best for you” – based on past
searches.
• It’s as if we looked up the same topic
in an encyclopedia and each found
different entries.
Personalized Search
• Find information that is most likely to
reinforce your own worldview
• We begin to lose dissenting
opinion/conflicting points of view
• Yet search seems neutral, objective,
unbiased.
Personalized Search & the Internet
• When ideology drives the dissemination of
information, knowledge is compromised.
• Inadvertently we indoctrinate ourselves
with our own ideas.
• Google is likely to direct you to material
with which you already agree.
SO WHAT?
What are the repercussions for research
carried out in an environment where
Search itself is being compromised?
Google: Improve Your Searches
Site Specific Command
What it does: searches only specific domains
What to type: Zuni Indians site:edu
Zuni Indians site:gov
Google Scholar
• Google Scholar provides a simple way
to search for scholarly literature.
Search across many disciplines and
sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses,
books, abstracts and articles, from
academic publishers, professional
societies, preprint repositories,
universities and other scholarly
organizations.
Google Scholar
• Works best for Citations
• Restrictions to Content
– Fee-based
– Often your Library already owns material
– We’re working on improving access
Southwest History:
Internet Resources
• Parallel Histories: Spain, United States
and the American Frontier
• U.S.-Mexico Border Issues: A Selected
Bibliography from the Smithsonian
Institution Libraries' Collections
• Exploring Hispanic History and Culture
Review
• Keywords/Boolean
• Books:
– Open WorldCat/Ebrary/Catalog
• Databases:
– JSTOR/Project Muse/American History
EBSCO
• Google Site Search/Scholar
Class Exercise
• Divided into teams of four
• Find 2 articles & 2 books on Spanish
Settlement and Exploration in the North
American Southwest
• Use JSTOR/Ebrary/Open WorldCat
• Jot down Titles & Sources
A good literature review…
• Goes beyond simply listing relevant
literature
• Is a critical essay
• Assesses the range of literature available
• Is a critical summary of the literature
• Examines the background against which
your own research is set
• Forms a significant section of your
dissertation
A good literature review…
• Offers opinions and personal response to
the different writings
• Relates different writings to each other,
compares and contrasts
• Does not take the literature at face value
• Shows an awareness of the theories and
values that underpin the research
• Uses particular language: authors assert,
argue, state, conclude, contend
Questions?
• Contact me:
– Frederic Murray
• 774-7113
• frederic.murray@swosu.edu
Thanks!