Welcome!
The purpose of this guide is to help orient you to the Harvard libraries and introduce you to some of its vast resources. You will find information about library services here and links to resource relevant to your Expos 20 class. If you have questions, regarding this guide, conducting research or using the libraries, please let me know and I will be happy to help.
Kathleen Sheehan
Research Librarian
Library Liaison to the Departments of Government and Sociology
ksheehan@fas.harvard.edu
A Few Research Tips
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Ask yourself, who would be studying your topic. This will help you to determine where to search for sources. Many journal indexes are focused on a particular discipline while others are multidisciplinary.
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Take a look in a subject encyclopedia in your topic area. These sources provide background information, tell you who the major figures are, and lead you to other sources on the topic. In HOLLIS search for the word encyclopedias with the subject your interested in, e.g., human rights or globalization.
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When you find a good source, check the works the author has cited. One good source can lead to several others.
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Don't be satisfied with just the first few articles or books you find. They may turn out to be very helpful but dig around a bit more to make sure you're getting a full picture.
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Read article abstracts. Most scholarly articles have an abstract, often prepared by the author, summing up the major points of the article.
For additional research tips, see Tools of the Trade: A Library Starter Kit for Harvard Freshmen.
Getting Perspective
When you're beginning a project, you may need to gather background information. One way to do this is by using reference books. This is a selected list of subject encyclopedias, dictionaries and handbooks that can provide definitions of relevant terms and give an overview of important concepts. These resources are often very useful in helping you refine your topic.
Cinema Studies: the Key Concepts, by Susan Hayward, 3rd ed. London ; New York : Routledge, 2006.
Widener: WID-LC PN1993.45 . H36 2006
Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology, edited by Irving B. Weiner, W. Edward Craighead, 4th ed. Hoboken, N.J. : Wiley, c2010.
Widener: RR 4953.25.5
Encyclopedia of Anthropology, edited by H. James Birx. Thousand Oaks Calif. : Sage c.2006.
Widener: RR 4773.1
Lamont: Ref GN11 .E63 2006
Film Index International is based on SIFT (Summary of Information on Film and Television), a database collated by the British Film Institute. It covers films from 170 countries with information on about 100,000 films and biographical details of 40,000 personalities, with references to periodical articles.
International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (IESBS), editors, Neil J. Smelser and Paul B. Baltes. Amsterdam : New York : Elsevier, 2001.
Aims to capture the "state of the art" of the social and behavioral sciences. Includes related biological fields, such as evolutionary science, genetics, cognitive neuroscience and psychiatry. Includes Anthropology, Economics, Education, History, Law, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology.
Widener: RR 4703.5
Finding Books
Finding Books at Harvard
There are two versions of the Harvard Library catalog available. For information about the differences between the two, see HOLLIS or HOLLIS Classic... which one to choose?
- If you're looking for books on a topic, use the default search in HOLLIS, which is a keyword search:
- love and romance
Note the facets on the right hand side of the screen. These will allow you to refine your searches by year, language, subject, etc.
- love and romance
- Your Keyword searches can lead you to "Subjects", which enable more precise searching. You can use HOLLIS Classic to browse "Subjects" in the Catalog.
Finding Books Beyond Harvard
- For books not currently available at Harvard, you can request them through Borrow Direct. If one of the libraries in this network has the item, you should receive it within 4 days. If it’s not available through Borrow Direct, you can submit an Interlibrary Loan request to borrow it from a broader network of libraries, which takes an average of 2 weeks.
- If you find an item in another library that you think the Harvard libraries should own, you can submit a Collections Purchase Request.
Finding Magazine, Newspaper and Journal Articles
As part of your research, you will likely want to find journal articles on your subject area. The most efficient way to search the journal literature is by using journal indexes. In the Find E-Resources section of the Harvard libraries website, you will find hundreds of journal indexes and other electronic resources to which the libraries subscribe. These indexes enable you to search hundreds to thousands of journals at once. Below is a selected list of journal indexes relevant to your Expos course. Some cover a broad range of subjects while others are much more narrowly focused.
Academic Search Premier is one of the broadest journal databases to which the Harvard libraries subscribe both in subjects covered and the types of publications included.
MLA International Bibliography provides access to scholarly research in literature, language, linguistics, and folklore in over 3,000 journals and series. It also covers relevant monographs, working papers, proceedings, and other formats.
Film & Television Literature Index is a comprehensive, international bibliographic and full-text database covering the entire spectrum of television and film.
PsycInfo indexes the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines (psychiatry, education, linguistics, neurosciences, etc.) It indexes over 1800 journals annually, as well as books, book chapters, dissertations, reports, etc. Produced by the American Psychological Association.
Sociological Abstracts is a core resource for researchers, professionals, and students in sociology and related disciplines. It includes citations and abstracts from over 1800 journals, relevant dissertations, selected books and book chapters, and association papers.
Citing Sources
As you do your research, it's good practice to create the bibliography of the works you consulted as you go along -- it will save time later, as the paper comes due, and more importantly, it will help prevent you from inadvertently committing plagiarism. These web pages can help you decide when to cite and how to cite sources in various formats (electronic, print, etc.):
- Citing Sources: From Duke University Libraries, this site tells you how to cite most formats you're likely to use in your research (articles, books, e-journals, web sites, primary sources, online newspapers, etc.).
- Chicago Manual of Style Online: Use this to create your bibliography and to cite references in footnotes, as well.
- Harvard Guide to Using Sources: From the Expository Writing Program in collaboration with Harvard librarians. Provides instructions and advice on how to cite sources properly.
- Citation Tools at Harvard: RefWorks and EndNote are programs that allow you to collect and manage citations, and then to format them into footnotes and bibliographies for your research assignments.
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