ARCH 330: The Prehistory of Latin America
Instructor: Dr. Ross Jamieson, Fall 2005
This guide has been designed as a starting point for the research that you will need to do to complete your course assignments.
If you need help, please contact Lindsay Tripp, Liaison Librarian at 778.782.7322 or ltripp@sfu.ca or Ask a librarian.
Table of Contents
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3.a. Structuring your search
3.b. Books and reports
3.c. Journal, magazine, and newspaper articles4) Sources: Popular vs. Scholarly
5) Cite Right!
1) Course Documents
- Archaeology 330 course syllabus
- A Brief Guide to Annotated Bibliographies
- Library tutorial PowerPoint
Back to Table of Contents.
2) Where to start:
Knowing where to start is often the most challenging part of doing any type of course work but can be broken down into easily digestible steps:
- Choose the topic/option which interests you most: Sounds simple but it's tempting to gravitate toward the assignment which looks easiest. Don't do this!
- If you're completely new to the topic at hand, do some preliminary reading. See if there are any encyclopedias relevant to your course. Review your course readings and have a look at the bibliographies cited in the articles or text books
- Grab a coffee, soda, glass of water/beverage of your choice and think about your topic. Write down some issues/terms/events related to your topic that interest you. Discuss it with your instructor, your classmates or your friends.
- Identify the gaps—identify what you already know about your topic (and where to find information to flesh this out) and what you don't know about your topic. And, think about where you can find information to fill in these gaps.
- Know that help is available but don't wait until the last minute to ask for it.
3) Research Process:
Now that you've chosen your assignment and jotted down some ideas, the hard part is out of the way. You've given yourself a destination, now you just need a map to get you there.
3.a. Structuring your search
Looking for information is a process. After you've identified terms relevant to your area of research, the next step is to use them either individually or in combination with each other until you locate information relevant to your research. There are two tools at hand which will help you. These are 'Boolean Operators' and 'Truncation'.
Too many or too few results? Go Boolean. Boolean is library speak for using AND, OR, NOT for linking search terms together. Use them to narrow or broaden your search.
AND: use to narrow your search when you must find one or more terms in combination with each other: "inka and agriculture and development" would require that each of these words be present somewhere in the document or record in order to result in a successful search
OR: use to widen your search—especially when you're using related terms: "agriculture or cultivation or pastoralism" would retrieve documents with ANY of these words.NOT: use sparingly (if at all) as it will exclude any words you add after it.
Combining Terms: You can combine your Boolean searches to get better results. Remember to group like operators together within parentheses: "(inka or andean highland) and agriculture and development" will retrieve documents with either of the first two words and both the following two words.
Need more? Try a little truncation. Truncation is a shortcut, expressed by a symbol, to help you search for variations and multiple endings for your search terms. Common truncation symbols are: $, ?, ! but the most popular is the *.
For example, econ* will retrieve economic, economics, economical, economy, economies, etc.Modify your search terms as you search the databases and become aware of new terms to describe your topic.
After you've found some worthwhile results, look at them and scan them for Subject Headings or Descriptors. Subject headings and descriptors are terms that have been assigned to each article. They are extremely useful for locating books or articles on the same subject. The SFU Library Catalogue and most, but not all, electronic databases use these. Using subject headings in your search can lead to more accurate results but it's almost always easier to start with keyword searching first.
Be careful of spelling - most databases use American spelling - but you should try both versions (e.g. labour, labor).
Be prepared to find information that is not completely on topic, but may still be useful and relevant.
3.b. Books and reports
The SFU Library will be your main source for books and reports, but you may also want to check other libraries (especially UBC or Vancouver Public Library) depending on your topic.Tips:
- Books tend to cover a subject thoroughly and are usually easy to obtain.
- Use the Library Catalogue to find books and reports owned by SFU.
For works on a topic, search first by KEYWORD. Here are some sample keyword searches:- inka and agriculture
- prehistor* and "latin america" and (agricultur* or pastoral* or cultivat*)
- s:indians of south america and agricultur* [this search looks for versions of the word "agriculture" in the authorized subject heading field "indians of south america]
- Look at the authorized or standard SUBJECT HEADINGS used in the records. Is there one that describes what you are looking for? If so, click on it to find other books on your topic.
- Use the bibliography or end/footnotes(referenced articles and books) as guides for further reading.
- The SFU Library Catalogue Search Guide will give you a step-by-step guide to searching for books here at SFU. You could also try the online tutorial: Using the SFU Library Catalogue.
3.c. Journal, magazine, and newspaper articles
Searching for articles on your topic isn't much different than searching for books—you just have more options available. And, as with searching for books in our catalogue, search these indexes first by KEYWORD, then by SUBJECT. The following databases are relevant to Archaeology but you may also want to look at the databases under Anthropology or Biological Sciences or Geography
Web of Science
A combined search of all of the Web of Science Citation indexes.
Google Scholar
Search specifically for scholarly literature.
Human Relations Area Files: Archaeology
Full-text data on archaeological traditions from around the world. Text is subject-indexed for quick information retrieval.
Anthropology Plus
Anthropology Plus unites Harvard University's Anthropological Literature database and the Anthropological Index Online from the Royal Anthropological Institute. The resource indexes material relating to anthropology and archaeology.
AnthroSource
Full-text access to journals produced by the American Anthropological Association
Bibliography of Native North Americans
Index for all aspects of Native North American culture, history, and life.
Biological and Agricultural Index Plus
Covers core literature in biology and agriculture.
GEOBASE
Human and physical geography.
Human Relations Area Files: World Cultures (formerly Collection of Ethnography)
Source documents on cultures of the world.
JSTOR
Searchable, archival collection of core scholarly arts, humanities and social sciences journals.
Art Full Text (indexing 1984 to current; full text 1997 to current)
All aspects and periods of art.
ARTstor
A repository of over one million digital images and related data.
British & Irish Archaeological Bibliography
Database of nearly 200,000 references relevant to British and Irish archaeology provided by the Council for British Archaeology
GeoRef
Geology and Geophysics
Oxford Reference Online
Online versions of 100 reference books from Oxford University Press.
PrimateLit
Bibliographic access to the scientific literature on nonhuman primates for the research and educational communities.
Zoological Record plus Zoological Record Archive
All aspects of animal research.
Back to Table of Contents
4) Popular vs. Scholarly Sources
When you start researching your ARCH 330 assignments, you should recognize the difference between popular and scholarly publishing. The following points will give you a brief overview of what to look out for. If in doubt, ask.
Popular sources
- Goals are to entertain and inform, and also to sell advertising space and/or copies of the publication by choosing interesting or controversial subjects.
- Authors are usually professional writers not subject experts and content may be opinion or anecdotal rather than factual
- Articles are not peer-reviewed and rarely have bibliographies
- Popular journals usually have colourful covers or interfaces and contain many pictures and advertisements
- Examples: Archaeology, Discover or Time
Scholarly sources
- Goals are scholarly communication and to provide a platform where scholars and researchers share their findings with one another and the public.
- Articles general describe new research and include background information, methodology, research results and significance
- Articles almost always have references in the form of bibliographies or footnotes
- Often require specialized knowledge or vocabulary to be understood
- Scholarly journals usually have plain covers or interfaces and normally contain more charts and graphs than photographs
- Scholarly journals often have the word "journal" in the title and are often are published by a scholarly association and usually contain few or no advertisements
- Articles submitted to scholarly journals are peer-reviewed. An editorial board asks experts to examine articles for the excellence, novelty and significance of the research and request that the article be revised before publication or reject the submission entirely
- Examples: Journal of Organizational Behavior, International journal of comparative sociology, Sociological Quarterly
Use the checklists itemized above to evaluate your findings before citing them in your assignments. For the ARCH 330 assignments you should use only scholarly monographs and journals. The SFU Library collection includes research monographs as well as biographies, memoirs and travelogues. We also subscribe to the standard academic journals and the major trade magazines and journals. Be sure to critically evaluate your research sources before including them in your bibliographies.
Once you have a firm grasp on how these two genres differ, you will be ready to begin your research.
5) Cite Right!
Throughout the research process and for your research, it's very important to keep track of your sources. Many of the electronic databases you'll be using also offer you the option to e-mail, download or print your citations. This is a great way to keep track of the information you're considering.Most style guides requires you to note the following: title of article, book or document, journal title (if article), author or editor, publisher (if book), date of publication, place of publication (if book), volume and issue number (if journal), pagination (if article or document). For information on how to cite most documents, have a look at the Library's Guide to Bibliographies and Footnotes. If you come across something not covered here, refer to the style guide itself. The Library keeps reference copies of the APA Style Guide, the MLA Style Guide and the Chicago Manual of Style at the Information Commons Desk on the 3rd floor.
Learning how to properly credit others when you use their ideas is a difficult, but important part of research. Start with the SFU Library's interactive tutorial "Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism" to test yourself and to learn more about plagiarism. Also read the SFU Library Guide on Plagiarism for further discussion of this critical topic and for links to other plagiarism guides.
6) Getting Help
If you need help in finding information for your assignment, it's not far away and here's how to get it:
If you've just started your assignments and need help and you're in the library, try asking at the Information Commons Desk on the 3rd floor of the library. If you're at home and connected to a computer, you can contact SFU's reference librarians via email/chat/telephone through our Ask Us services. Complex questions will be referred to me and I'll generally be able to get back to you within one working day.
If your questions are more in-depth, e-mail me at cgraebne@sfu.ca and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Be sure to include details regarding your assignment and what you've done so far in trying to find information.
Not sure who to ask? It doesn't matter. Start with the contacts listed above and we will do the rest.
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| arch330web.ppt | 224 KB |
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