IDS 100 Race, Class, and Gender

Introduction
Library Basics
Database Basics
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4

Introduction

Greetings to all summer 2006 students in IDS 100 “Race, Class, and Gender.” This guide has been prepared to help connect you with the people and resources of the TCNJ library. Please don’t be too concerned if some aspects of this guide seem a bit baffling. A TCNJ librarian will be visiting each section of IDS 100 during the period July 5-6, or you can stop by the reference desk. This guide provides some general guidance as well as a week-by-week list of possible resources and sample searches. We hope to see you this summer, in our new library.

Library Basics

The Library home page can be found here: http://www.tcnj.edu/~library/index.php From this page you will be able to find links to all of the resources discussed below.

The Library catalog can be found here: http://libcat.tcnj.edu/. As a sample, you could select "Basic Search," and in the "Search in" area you can select "Keyword – Boolean search." If you type in "race AND class AND gender" (without the quotes), you should get a list of at least 150 books in our library.

Here is the directory of subject librarians http://www.tcnj.edu/~library/about/people/librarians.html

You can also e-mail us a question using the "Ask A Librarian feature" http://www.tcnj.edu/~library/ask.html

Database Basics

During the term you will want to find scholarly articles for your research and writing topics. The library has over one hundred electronic databases, some of which are quite specialized, and it's easy to get lost. However, we can give you some basics to get you started. You should know that we have three types of databases:

1. A bibliographic database such as Sociological Abstracts contains only information such as author, title, journal name, abstract and index terms. These databases will not contain the full text of articles. The library will not necessarily have electronic access to every article returned by your search. Once you get a list of search results, hit the "Search for Full Text" link to determine if the library has access to an article, either electronically or in print.
2. A full-text database such as JSTOR will have the full text of every article returned by your search. However, the searching capabilities of these databases are not as powerful and sophisticated as bibliographic databases.
3. A hybrid database such as EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete combines aspects of bibliographic and full-text databases. Many, but not all, of the search results will have direct links to the full text of articles. If there is not a direct link to the full text, always try the "Search for Full Text" link to see if we provide access through another source.

If you are just getting started with a topic, EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete may be your best bet. This is a nice general-purpose database that contains both popular audience periodicals (such as Time and Newsweek) and scholarly journals (such as Journal of American History). For example, if you do a basic search on "college AND race AND class" (without the quotes) you should get over 400 results. If you hit the "Refine Search" tab you can select the box for "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals." This will reduce your result list to around 300 items. You would probably want to refine your search further to reduce the number of results.

Week 1

If you go into EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete and run a search on "racial formations" you should get at least eleven hits. If you want to find library books about the Dred Scott decision, go to the catalog basic search feature, select "Keyword – Boolean search" and type "Dred Scott" (this time WITH the quotes because it is a phrase. Go figure). You should get at least ten hits.

Are you ready for something a bit more sophisticated? During May and June, 2005 the New York Times ran an excellent eleven-part series entitled “Class Matters.” NYT is accessed through the Lexis/Nexis database, or you can access New York Times directly. You should use the search terms “series and class matters,” (without the quotes) select full text (rather than the default option “Headline, Lead Paragraph(s), Terms”) and limit the date range to “Previous six months.” This search should return at least 27 documents. These results will include all eleven articles in the series as well as associated editorials and letters to the editor. For a limited time NYT will maintain the entire series, along with additional features such as interactive graphics, surveys, and suggestions for further reading on their website: http://nytimes.com/class.

Week 2

Here is the library's list of recommended databases for Women's and Gender Studies

The 1872 U.S. Supreme Court case referred to in your text as "Bradwell v. Illinois" is officially Bradwell v. State. The easiest way to get to the text of the case is to use the LexisNexis Academic database. Under Search Forms select Legal Research, then select Get a Case, select the citation option and type the citation: 83 U.S. 130. If you want to find law review articles that discuss this case, return to the LexisNexis Legal Research page, select law reviews, and type the citation 83 U.S. 130 in the keyword box. If you select the all available dates option you should get over 300 articles that cite this case.

Week 3

You might want to look at the Library's LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual) Subject Guide.

If you want quick background on the 1986 U.S. Supreme Court decision Bowers v Hardwick [478 U.S. 186 (1986)] you can use EBSCOhost Academic Search Complete and do a basic keyword search on "Bowers and Hardwick." You should get over 50 hits.

Week 4

If you want to see sociological research on sweatshop labor, try Sociological Abstracts and do a basic search on “sweatshops.” You should get at least 70 hits, at least 50 of which are in peer-reviewed scholarly journals.

 

Guide prepared by:
Terrence W. Epperson, Ph.D.
Social Sciences Librarian
The College of New Jersey
epperson@tcnj.edu