[FAS] SAS 183: The Vernacular in South Asia: Language, Culture and Politics

What to do when your access to print materials is extremely limited

Look in multiple places

• HOLLIS's Everything is NOT everything
  • Some items may lack a "View Online" button and yet still be available to you via another platform
  • Use the "book" and "online" filters in HOLLIS to check if there's a separate listing for the ebook version (usually they appear close together)
• Look for temporarily expanded access: many publishers and vendors have increased your Harvard Key can access and/or removed paywalls altogether
  • Add databases from Google to your list of go-to resources, but use with caution and care, because the Internet is positively stuffed with non-scholarly resources on matters Celtic!
  • Use general web search to look for free access to specific titles (Google, Duckduckgo, etc.)
  • Check one of the community sourced-lists of subscription or licensed content being made temporarily available for free or on significantly reduced/discounted terms. These include books, articles, e-media, video, and more.
    Please be judicious in your use of these sources, as there is copious material of a non-scholarly nature published about the Celts. Look for works published by university presses, and double-check with your professor or TF.
    • COVID-19 Open-Access Resources at Harvard
    • Vendor COVID-19 Related Donations and Pro Bono Access a.k.a. Vendor Love in the Time of COVID-19
    • Wheaton College guide to COVID-19 Offers and Resources
• If a scholarly book you're seeking is among the first published works of its author, it's possible that it may have existed in dissertation form, first. Consider checking ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, which offers many dissertations in full text format (but be sure to check with your professor before relying on research available in dissertations).
• Don't forget your public library! It may offer resources not available through Harvard (e.g. Kindle-format ebooks)
  • Harvard students are eligible for an ecard to the Boston Public Library
  • Check your local public library's website (or just Google: [town name] [state] public library ebooks)
  • Look for statewide options for your state (e.g. TexShare) and nearby university libraries.
• Ask me for suggestions and ideas!

Can't access something? Learn *about* it

• Book reviews:
  • In HOLLIS, put the book title (subtitle optional) in quotes to search it as an exact phrase: "Celtic art" or "Celtic art: from its beginnings to the Book of Kellls". The "reviews" filter sometimes helps.
  • Additional book reviews might be available via Academic Search Premiere.
• Mentions: performing a cited reference search is a good way to find these. Start with Google Books and Google Scholar.
• Look for information in encyclopedias, bibliographies, and companions, such as Oxford Reference, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Cambridge Histories Online, or Oxford Bibliographies Online

Don't forget to browse!

Most experts recommend browsing (walking the library shelves, flipping through an entire volume) as the best method to gain a sense of the "landscape" and to find overlooked or unexpected material

• Starts with/browse option in HOLLIS - call number is especially helpful. (See the HOLLIS User Guide for tips.)
• Most platforms offer ways to explore serendipitously. Look for:
  • "collections"
  • "browse"
  • "publications"
  • "about"
• When you find good content, look at the top of the web page and on side menus for links back to the larger container so you can explore that---the specific issue an article appeared in, the journal, the book or book series, the themed collection, etc.

Need primary sources? Try these:

• digitalcollections.harvard.edu - items digitized from Harvard's collections
• dp.la and europeana.eu - major digital collection aggregators
• Harvard-licensed databases of archives OR manuscripts
• Harvard-licensed databases of magazine OR newspapers
• Harvard-licensed databases of diaries OR letters OR correspondence OR maps, etc.

• Google Books

  A full-text database of books, part of which comes from scans Google made of out-of-copyright library materials, and part of which are supplied directly to Google by publishers. Great for previewing a book you're interested in, for finding just-published books, for exploring a topic when you don't know the library subject headings, etc.
• Google Scholar

  Make sure to install the Harvard Library Bookmark and/or add Harvard to your "library links" under Google Scholar's Settings so that you can access articles that Harvard has licensed for you. Google Scholar is an algorithmically harvested database of articles and other material that is *probably* scholarly. Mostly full-text.