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Searching for Raskol’nikov:

Literary Criticism in JSTOR

Celia Emmelhainz

Colby College

High School Tutorial

December 2014

Getting to Articles

www.colby.edu/libraries

Look for Databases – Popular -- JSTOR

Searching for “Raskolnikov”

Does the excerpt look useful?

Maybe I need to get more specific…

Pro Tip: Change Your Search!

Are the results not useful?

Try a different search!

Pro Tip: Academic Disciplines

JSTOR lets you select journal discipline,

(e.g. biology, economics, Middle East)

This doesn’t evaluate each article; it judges

the journal as a whole. Use to narrow results

Focusing your Search:

The Mighty ****

Search with a “*” where letters might vary

Adding in a Topic

What to do if it’s hard to find

the right article:

Is the article about… Dostoevskii’s writing?

…About the characters? …About crime?

What to do if it’s hard to find

the right article:

Look at the date: is this a new or an old article?

Look at the journal title: is it about literature

(relevant) or about poetry (less relevant)?

Look at pages: is it a long article (p.979-996) or a

short one (p.381-382)?

Pro tip: Citation Chaining!

When you find a good article, look at its

references to find other books and articles.

Image from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/philipj/6551806127/

+ Questions?

Let’s try it out!