My Research: Humanities
Module 2
Sharon Rankin
Sean Swanick
Helena Reddington
The research mindset…
“It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between
two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses
that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to
new ideas. Obviously those two modes of thought are in some
tension. But if you are able to exercise only one of these modes,
whichever one it is, you’re in deep trouble.”
--Carl Sagan
“The Burden of Skepticism.” Skeptical Inquirer, vol. 12, Fall 1987.
Skepticism
in action…
Learning outcomes
After today’s workshop, you will be able to:
 Develop an effective search strategy for a research
topic
 Find relevant material for your topic using the
library catalogue
 Search general academic databases for article
literature
 Locate information beyond McGill
The Research Process
It can seem long and circuitous…
Clara M. Chu, “Literary Critics at Work and Their Information Needs: A ResearchPhases Model,” Library & Information Science Research 21, no. 2 (1999): 263.
The Research Process
Long and circuitous = normal…
DON’T PANIC!
Christine D. Brown, “Straddling the Humanities and Social Sciences: The Research
Process of Music Scholars,” Library & Information Science Research 24, no. 1 (2002):
88.
Case study: The New Woman, 1890-1920
Cybill Shepard in the movie of Henry James’s 1878 novella Daisy Miller
Case study: The New Woman, 1890-1920
By 1890 a new, more modern culture was emerging in the
United States....As women pushed the boundaries of the
private sphere to participate more fully in wage earning,
education, the professions, or community service, the
concept of “true womanhood” was pushed aside in favor
of the “New Woman.”
Lucille A. Adkins, "Women's Movement, United States, 20th Century," in The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest,
edited by Immanuel Ness. Blackwell Reference Online. Accessed February 12, 2013,
http://www.blackwellreference.com/subscriber/tocnode.html?id=g9781405184649_yr2011_chunk_g97814051846491608.
Sample research question
How did the idea of the “New Woman”
impact depictions of domesticity
in American literature?
How questions influence search results
High =
lots of
articles
Broad
Questions
Retrieval
(# of search
results)
Narrow
Questions
Low =
very few
articles
Low = mostly
irrelevant articles
Relevancy
High = directly
relevant articles
Break it down: pull out key concepts
How did the idea of the “New Woman”
impact depictions of domesticity
in American literature?
Generate synonyms and related terms
Strategies:
•
•
•
•
Brainstorming
Reading articles and books
Mining bibliographies
Using subject headings in the library catalogue
Generating keywords
“New Woman”
“domesticity”
“American literature”
feminism
First Wave feminism
women’s suffrage
Suffragists
Progressivism
women’s rights
marriage
family
gender
femininity
sexuality
“True Womanhood”
American novels
American poetry
Henry James
Willa Cather
Edith Wharton
Kate Chopin
Mina Loy
American literature -- 19th
century -- History and
criticism.
American literature -- 20th
century -- History and
criticism.
Your turn
Combine terms
Boolean operators
Boolean Operators
“New Woman”
“domesticity”
“American literature”
feminism
First Wave feminism
women’s suffrage
Suffragists
Progressivism
women’s rights
marriage
family
gender
femininity
sexuality
“True Womanhood”
American novels
American poetry
AND
AND
Henry James
Willa Cather
Edith Wharton
Kate Chopin
Mina Loy
American literature -- 19th
century -- History and
criticism.
American literature -- 20th
century -- History and
criticism.
“New Woman”
domesticity
Boolean Operators
“New Woman”
OR
feminism
First Wave feminism
women’s suffrage
Suffragists
Progressivism
women’s rights
“domesticity”
OR
marriage
family
gender
femininity
sexuality
“True Womanhood”
“American literature”
OR
American novels
American poetry
Henry James
Willa Cather
Edith Wharton
Kate Chopin
Mina Loy
American literature -- 19th
century -- History and
criticism.
American literature -- 20th
century -- History and
criticism.
domesticity
marriage
American
literature
Poetry
Truncation
*
! ?#
Use to retrieve variant endings or plurals
Suffrag*
Suffrage
Suffragist
Suffragists
Suffragette
Suffragettes
NOTE: The symbols used will vary from one database to another.
Wildcard
*
! ?#
Use to replace character(s) within a word
wom?n
woman
women
NOTE: The symbols used will vary from one database to another.
More advanced search techniques
 Quotation marks
 Use for phrase searching
 Example:
“New Woman” “First Wave Feminism”
 Parentheses
 Device that allows you to control the order of your search
 Example: (“New Woman” OR suffrag*) AND (domesticity
marriage)
OR
Putting it all together
(“New Woman” OR “First Wave Feminism” OR “women’s suffrag*”)
AND
(domestic* OR marriage OR family OR gender OR sexuality)
AND
(“American literature” OR “American poetry” OR “Kate Chopin” OR
“Willa Cather” OR “Mina Loy”)
Putting it all together
McGill WorldCat
vs.
Classic Catalogue
One Catalogue, two ways to search
McGill
WorldCat
Classic
Catalogue
Advanced Search – Classic Catalogue
Advanced search in WorldCat
Your turn
Library catalogue exercise
General academic databases
Off-campus access
 http://www.mcgill.ca/library/services/connect
 EZProxy – automatically! when you start from the library pages
(such as WorldCat Local, e-journals search or A-Z list, subject
guides, etc.) or Google Scholar.
 VPN - Install it on your computer. Also a whole range of other
University activities and services, such as buying and
downloading software
Off-campus access
Do any databases require a separate login & password?
http://www.mcgill.ca/library/services/connect/passwords/databases
Off-campus access
EndNote Web
 In order to sign up for an EndNote Web account from offcampus, you need to first identify (authenticate) yourself as a
McGill library user. You can do this using a special link to
EndNote Web:
http://proxy.library.mcgill.ca/login?url=http://www.myendnoteweb.com
 After creating an account, you should sign in using this link if you
want to access McGill’s article subscriptions through links you’ve
saved in EndNote Web.
Your turn
Exercise
 Using Boolean logic, run some searches in your subject area
using one of the general academic databases.
 Save at least one relevant article to your EndNote library.
Maximizing Google Scholar
 Use the Google tips handout to have more control over your
searches.
 Set up Library Links in Settings.
 If using citation management software, set up for direct export
in Settings.
 Take advantage of the Alert option.
Your turn
Exercise
 Run some searches in Google Scholar.
 Use at least 2 of the Google search tips from the handout.
 If you are happy with the search results, set up an alert.
Searching in Google Scholar
What will you get in your results?
 Academic journal articles
 Book chapters from Google Books
 Theses and dissertations
Theses and Dissertations
eScholarship
ProQuest Dissertations
and Theses
35,000 full text McGill theses
• Allows searching by faculty
advisor
McGill theses from 1934 to
present day
• Full text 1997• Selected full text before 1997
Also contains: journal articles,
conference papers, technical
reports, book chapters written
by McGill faculty and students
Also contains: theses written
by students from North
American and European
universities
Use for: McGill-specific search
requirements
Use for: Broader scope of
current research
For more details: http://www.mcgill.ca/library/find/theses
Specialized Resources
1. Conduct a keyword search in ProQuest Dissertations and
Theses to find a thesis related to your research.
 Check the bibliography to see if any articles could be
useful for your research
2. Search eScholarship to find a thesis supervised by your
current supervisor, or by a professor in your department.
Access beyond McGill
 Borrow in person from other libraries
 BCI
http://www.mcgill.ca/library/services/otherloans/CREPUQ
 Interlibrary loan
 COLOMBO
http://www.mcgill.ca/library/services/otherloans/interlibrary
BCI (formerly CREPUQ)card: what is it?
 Allows you to borrow books from other universities in Quebec
and Canada.
 Obtain a BCI card at any Library Services Desk on campus.
Interlibrary loan: what is it?
 Use when McGill and other local universities do not have an
item.
 Administered through COLUMBO; instructions here.
Review
 What do you need to borrow books from Concordia?
BCI card
 Which will retrieve more results?
1)
“new woman” OR feminism
2)
“new woman” AND feminism
ANSWER: 1
 Name a multidisciplinary, general academic database database we used today.
Academic Search Complete, Web of Science, Google Scholar are all good examples.
 Name a source for locating theses and dissertations.
Proquest Dissertations and Theses Full-Text, eScholarship@McGill, Google Scholar
Next time…
 Liaison librarians
 http://www.mcgill.ca/library/contact/askus/liaison
 Subject guides
 http://www.mcgill.ca/library/find/subjects
 Subject-specific databases
Share your feedback
Complete the brief Module 2 survey online:
bit.ly/myresearch-module2