Images: (Clockwise from left to right) Hachiman in Buddhist robes, Statue of the legalist Shang Yang, Statue of Confucious in Manilla, A Baksu holding a gut, A Taoist Temple in Taiwan (All images sourced from Wikimedia commons)
Think Strategically about Your Research
If you need help with anything, don't hesitate to contact me: kjgillum@colby.edu |
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Use Reference Sources to look for...
Examples:
Use scholarly journals to learn what arguments are being made in the area of your research and to help hone your own argument.
Scholarly journals...
To identify a scholarly journal article, look for...
Colby has many e-books in the catalog. Here are a few tips for making the best use of any titles that bear on your topic.
Don't neglect reference books, shelved around the new reading room that looks toward the chapel. In the DS call number section you will find books like those below:
Historical Dictionary of Revolutionary China, 1839-1976 REF DS740.2 .H57 1992 Articles 2-3 pages long on important people, events, concepts, such as a Hundred Flowers, the Long March, Peng Te-Huai. In English.
Japan (in the series, Asia in Focus) REF DS821 .E5127 2009 The focus of this book is culture, but economics and politics are covered, too. Lists of citations throughout and at the back of the volume are up to date through the early years of this century. The 40-page Facts and Figures section beginning on p.347 gives an idea of the sorts of statistics that are easily available.
Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Korea REF DS904.8 .N34 2004 Look up events, concepts, people, and especially organizations and government departments. The extensive bibliography is divided by topic and includes periodicals, newspapers, and websites.
The first segment of each of these call numbers will help you find good places to browse in the main stacks, too.
Tips for Using Historical Abstracts & MLA Bibliography:
Constructing Citations:
EXAMPLE of Chicago Style on a Works Cited page for an article retrieved from a database:
DuBois, Thomas. "Asia and the Old Wolrd Order." History Today 63,no.3 (2013): 12-19. Accessed February 16, 2014.
thus the formula is:
Author. "Title of Article." Title of Journal volume #. issue # (year): page numbers. Date of access [month day, year]. [Stable URL or DOI.]
MORE EXAMPLES and explanations at Purdue's OWL site: and at Hacker: History
and on this Colby Library guide page
Annotated Bibliographies:
To request books from Bates, Bowdoin, or Colby Storage.
Click where the arrow points; then fill in the form that appears with your name and the barcode number on the back of your Colby ID.
Expand your search to include articles by using OneSearch
Extend your search to libraries worldwide with WorldCat
How To : Requesting Books Through CBBcat
For Help Using the Library Website
AS YOU BEGIN YOUR RESEARCH - 1. Read the instructions and question your text carefully. What types of sources do you need? 2. After you do an initial keyword search in a catalog or database, examine the Subject lines for helpful vocabulary. These lines are hot-linked to all other records in the system that have that same subject. 3. Remember searching tricks: confuci* = Confucius, Confucian, Confucianism ; "Asian values" searches that exact phrase ; "economic miracle" AND Asia searches for records with both these terms. Adding NOT southeast eliminates articles on southeast Asia from your results. 4. Too many or too few results? Add more search terms, experiment with different words that have similar meanings, or broaden out your search. A general book on Confucius / Confucianism will probably have a section on women in Confucian thought and the history of scholarship on this topic. Use the index! 5. Notes and bibliographies! Remember to look for and use these. They will guide you in discovering the work done to date on any topic. |
Search databases for newspaper, magazine & journal articles:
Use subject headings for finding books at Colby. Examples:
More leads to sources:
For Images:
For Cinema:
For more Primary Sources:
For Information about Music: