ETHN 40: Introduction to Asian American Studies (Lai)

You need to be able to describe "the issue" you are researching in simple words and phrases you can turn into a search statement for a library database.  No matter how narrowly focused, geographically, your individual research project may be, it will involve an issue that is broader and that can be put into search words. It is these issues along with the idea Asian-Americans, or a particular subset of Asian-Americans, that will comprise or structure your search in various library databases.

In virtually every database, you will be using search boxes connected by a Boolean AND, looking something like this:

Think of these boxes as placeholders for IDEAS. In each box you describe a different IDEA. For example, if I were going to look for discussion of suicide among Asian American teenagers, I would need to use all 3 boxes because I have 3 ideas. You can always adjust the number of boxes, and you don't have to use all three.

There are two nitpicky things you need to think about when you are entering terms in those boxes:

1. You need to truncate words/phrases logically. The word suicide, for example, would be entered like this:  suicid* in order to pick up singular, plural as well as other variants, like suicidal.
2. Phrases must be enclosed in quotation marks, and should be truncated as well:  "asian american*"

Another important complication to consider, if one of your ideas could be represented by more than one word or phrase, you need to use the Boolean OR within a search box. The idea of teenagers, for example, could be represented by the word adolescent.

So, with those complications in mind, the search topic I just mentioned would go into those search boxes like this:

Ethnic Studies is such an interdisciplinary field that you need to really think about the specific topic you are researching carefully to decide the best database to use. Think in terms of who you want to hear from on your topic. Maybe you want to hear from more than one group, get different perspectives. Read the descriptions below carefully.

Read the descriptions here carefully. If the database link within the text here doesn't work, you can go to the list of databases on the library homepage.

For current issues type information and to search the ethnic PRESS (mostly magazines and newspapers whose audience is people in a specific ethnic group in a specific region), Ethnic Newswatch is the way to go!

If you are just beginning to explore your topic, a good database to explore in is Omnifile.

If your research has a historical angle or cultural life of America angle, you should be sure to explore America: History & Life.

Many, many aspects of ethnic studies research is interdisciplinary and overlapping various social sciences, e.g. sociology, psychology, anthropology, so a great database is Proquest Social Science Premium Collection.

And, if your topic has to do with women in particular, you need to search Women's Studies International, or gender issues more generally, then try GenderWatch.

If you researching an author or literature, then you will need to tackle the MLA Bibliography.

Does your research have anything to do with Art? Then you will need Art Index and maybe Artbibliographies Modern.

 How about anything to do with business or entrepreneurship? Then you definitely want to use Business Source Complete.

All of these databases contain some fulltext. So, look around carefully for a link to the PDF right there in the database you are searching. If you don't see that, then look for one of these:

and click on it! A variety of options can present themselves at that point. There are basically four ways that could appear to get you to the fulltext. The exact phrasing of the message may vary slightly.

ONE will take you directly to the fulltext of that article in another database. Usually this is labeled Go Directly to the Article and is followed by links to try.

ANOTHER will take you to the journal in another database. You will still have to find the article you need. The easiest way to do that is to block-copy the first line of the article title and paste it into the search box on the journal's page. This option is labeled Go to the Journal to Search/Browse for the Article.

A THIRD will take you a another database that you will have to search. You should try just pasting in the title of the article. But, this option can be tricky. You might want to get assistance from a librarian! It will be labeled Go to the Database to Search for the Article.

The FOURTH option is always present. If any of the other options open to you fails, look for Interlibrary Loan. You'll have to login with your SCU credentials and set up an account the first time, but a request form will automatically be generated, and you'll just have to click SUBMIT to put in a request. You will then get an email telling you that your article has arrived and a link to login to get it! You can then just download the PDF.