Women, Gender, and Violence: Library Skills and SourcesJennifer Thiessen, Librarian, Women’s and Gender Studies, January 2013

• Finding books, including background info

• Finding articles• choosing a database, searching

effectively, Google Scholar• Finding more (bibliographies)• Evaluating/writing/citing

Getting started

Find a research topic (Need help? Look at course readings, browse an encyclopedia, see what’s in the news)

Find keywords in your topic

Generate search terms Look for subject headings/descriptors, use synonyms,

read abstracts, use your own knowledge of the topic, etc.

Choose database/s and other search tools

Search

Evaluate

Why books? Broader in scope

Great for getting an overview; finding background info (i.e. what research has been done on sports and domestic violence?)

Can lead you to more detailed resources Use reference lists/bibliographies at the end

of chapters/book to find more

Getting to the databases

Library website> research> databases> Women’s Studies

Search tips

Use quotation marks for phrase searching “female circumcision” “sex worker”

Think of synonyms Violence, abuse, assault

Use truncation Prostit* will find prostitute, prostitutes, prostitution

Limit search to peer-reviewed articles

Search example

Search tips… Look for subject headings to focus your search

E.g. in search for domestic violence:

Why use Google Scholar? Another “database” Find works that cite

a particular article/book

Watch: Get Better Results with Google Scholar

What about Google?

Set up Library Links in Scholar Settings

Why?

Finding more from bibliographies…

Search for JOURNAL TITLE in Library Catalogue (best way)

Or try part of the citation in SuperSearch or Google Scholar

Anderson, M.A., Gillig, P.M., Sitaker, M., McCloskey, K., Malloy, K., Grigsby, N., 2003.‘‘Why Doesn’t She Just Leave?’’ A descriptive study of victim reported

impediments to her safety. Journal of family violence 18 (3), 151–155.

Is what you find any good?

Evaluating what you find: Is it current? (does that matter?) Is it accurate? Is the methodology clear? Is it peer-reviewed? For websites: who authored it? when? Is it credible? Can you use some of it anyway? I.e. Wikipedia: use it

to find other sources

More at http://bit.ly/Brock3v99

Writing and Citing Many databases offer quick citation tools

More citation help: http://researchguides.library.brocku.ca/styleguides

Help? Visit the research guide: http://bit.ly/brock3v99Contact Jennifer at jthiessen@brocku.ca