HIST 300: Search Strategy

Susan Wheeler, Reference LibrarianLangsdale Library

swheeler@ubalt.edu410-837-4299

Plan for Today• Search Strategy• Historical Research• Getting Articles• Activity: Learn a Database• Wrap-up• 5-minute Evaluation (for library)

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Search Strategy

Research Question:

Has integration resulted in a better education for black children?

What are your main concepts (=keywords)?

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CHOOSE SYNONYMS

• Finding other words may help when an initial search fails to find enough

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MY SYNONYMSintegration education black children

Desegregation Learning Colored child

Segregation Teaching Negro youth

Busing Afro-American

student

African-American

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Boolean Operators

• AND: joins concepts/ideas together (both/all)

• OR: combines synonyms or related terms (either/any)

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Search Statement

Integration AND Education

Integration AND Education AND Child*

Desegregation AND Black* AND Student

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Combining Keywords

•Nesting: combine like terms in parentheses; used to combine synonyms

•Truncation (*): special symbol used to represent missing letters; used in place of retyping an entire word

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Combining Keywords

(Integration OR Desegregation) AND (Education OR Learn*) AND (Black* OR Negro OR African-American)

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Historical Research

Research Topic:

Write a biographical essay about Linda Brown Thompson and her place in American History.

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Historical Research

What we know:• AmericanWhat we need to know:• Where in America?• Known for what?• When in history?

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Historical Research

Where to start?• Textbook• Encyclopedia• Wikipedia• Search engine• Database

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Historical ResearchLinda Brown Thompson• Born 1943 • Grew up in Topeka, Kansas• Brown v. Board of Education (1954)

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Historical Research

Not finding what you want?

Get creative!

+

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Historical ResearchKeywords• Names

– Linda Brown Thompson– Oliver Brown (father)– Cheryl Brown Henderson (sister)

• Places– Topeka– Kansas– United States

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Historical ResearchKeywords• Events

– Brown v. Board of Education (1954)– Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

• Topics– Segregation/desegregation– Civil Rights Movement– Jim Crow or “black code”– Racism

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Finding Journal Articles

Subject-Specific Databases:• America: History and Life• Humanities International Complete• JSTOR (full text access for part of

the database)

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Finding Journal Articles

General Databases:• Academic Search Premier• Historical Newspapers• Lexis-Nexis Academic

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Getting to the Full Text

Do we own it?

• Find It button• Journal Finder

If we don’t own it, use ILL

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Questions?

In-Class Exercise: Learning a Database

Wrap-Up• If your topic is too broad, add

another concept (AND)• If your topic is too narrow, add

synonyms and related terms (OR)• When doing historical research, be

creative (related people, topics, places, etc.)

• Different databases = different results (try more than one)

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Thank You!

Reference Help:

Phone: 410-837-4274E-mail: langref@ubalt.eduIM: ublangsdale

HIST 300 Course Page:

http://langsdale.ubalt.edu/howto/course_websites/fa09/hist300_nix.htm

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Photo CreditsYoung Linda Brown:

http://www.policyalmanac.org/culture/archive/7174761-140.jpg (accessed 9/10/08)

Cheryl Brown Henderson & Linda Brown Thompson: http://www.canisius.edu/images/userImages/chuckp/Page_5311/browns_300.jpe (accessed 9/10/08)

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