R427: The Bible and Slavery
| Help! How do I start on my research paper? A good way to get started on finding sources for your research paper is to look for the sources mentioned in the footnotes and bibliography of the readings listed on your syllabus. Use IUCAT to look up books and the "Find Articles" search page to find journal articles. Can't tell which is which? Use this simple rule: a title in italics or underlined is the title of a book, journal or magazine. You can look this title up in IUCAT. A title in "quotation marks" in the title of an article or of a chapter in a book--you should be able to guess which one based on the title you'll see after it in italics or underlined. If it's an article in a journal, use the "Find Articles" search page to find it. If it's a chapter in a book, look up the book in IUCAT. The search continues: finding secondary sources IUCAT is a good place to find both primary and secondary sources. When you look up books from your syllabus or from footnotes, look for the subject headings in the IUCAT record. Click on these to run new searches for books on similar topics. You can also use the Advanced Search to combine subject headings and your own keywords. You'll also want to look for articles in scholarly journals. Try these resources: Academic Search (EBSCO) - covers all academic subjects. Limit your search to "scholarly (peer reviewed) journals" to find academic publications. (If your paper is about a contemporary issue, you can also use Academic Search to find contemporary media coverage--in this case, don't limit to scholarly/peer reviewed.) ATLA Religion Database - covers Religious Studies. Hint: try slavery in the bible as a search term. You can also search by specific scripture citations--look for the scriptures link in the top toolbar.) America: History & Life - covers History (but not ancient history--see below). Annee philologique - covers Classical Studies, including ancient history. Use this if your paper is on the ancient Roman topic. Ethnic NewsWatch - covers news as well as scholarly research about ethnic groups in America, including African Americans. Old Testament Abstracts and New Testament Abstracts - covers research on the Bible. How do I find primary sources? Again, looking for the sources cited in your readings can be a great starting point. Use IUCAT to find them. If you can't find them in IUCAT, try WorldCat, which is a giant combined online catalog of all the libraries in the US (most items you find in WorldCat can be sent here for your use, but you need to allow 1-2 weeks to get them.) Use the Advanced Search in IUCAT to limit your search to books published in the time period you're studying. (This won't work for the ancient Rome topic but it should work well for the nineteenth-century slavery debate topic.) Try these resources for primary sources from the 19th and 20th centuries: Magazines and journals American Periodicals Series Online - digitized collection of American magazines and journals. International Index to Black Periodicals - online index to African American publications. JSTOR - digitized collection of scholarly journals going back to the 1690s! Use date limits to find materials from your period. Periodicals Index Online - online index to scholarly journals going back to the 1700s. Use date limits. Readers Guide Retrospective 1890-1982 - online index to popular American publications. Newspapers African-American Newspapers: The 19th Century - digitized collection of African American newspapers. 19th Century Historical United States Newspapers and Early American Newspapers - digitized collections of American newspapers. New York Times - digitized back file of the New York Times (the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post are also available through this link). Full-text of works by African Americans African-American Poetry - fulltext collection of poetry 18th-19th-century poetry by African Americans. Black Thought and Culture - digitized collection of selected non-fiction writings by African Americans from colonial times to present. Interviews with former slaves Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 Look for other resources on the Libraries' Resources by Subject web pages. What if I need more help? Feel free to contact the Libraries, either through Ask a Librarian, or by emailing me directly, Celestina Savonius-Wroth, cewroth@indiana.edu. |
