AIS 320

Cultural Diversity

Oct. 9th, 2007
Dr. Lauderdale

1) Where do you always start?

With your instructor! If you have any questions about the assignment, get them cleared up BEFORE you spend time doing the research.

At the Reference Desk! 2nd Floor North or 460-7025 or http://www.southalabama.edu/univlib/referenc.htm
Let the Reference librarians help you develop an appropriate research strategy for your particular project.

Try this Assignment Calculator from the Univ. of Minnesota for help planning your time and executing the paper writing process.

Record all your research in a systematic way. Research Log form as a pdf.  Research Log form in Word.

2) Start with a good foundation.

Subject encyclopedias, reference books and textbooks will give you a broad overview which you can use to orient yourself to the topic.

3) Where do you find Books?

a. SOUTHcat Catalog -what we own; open to anyone on the 'net

b. NetLibrary -8000+ electronic books [subscription]

c. Reference Books Reference Area, 2nd floor North: encyclopedias, reference books

d. E-Reference --subscription-based and free reference sources

e. WorldCat from FirstSearch: --huge database of books from most U.S. and many world libraries

WorldCat.org--web version of the database above

h. Books in Print from E-Reference -- what's in print and forthcoming; publisher's list

i. Other Library Catalogs on the Web -- find out if an item is in a specific library

j InfoPass --at SHC or U of Mobile?

k.InterLibrary Loan -- order books or articles from other libraries; free if in Alabama.

4) Where do you find Journal and Magazine Articles?

m. Expanded Academic ASAP [Under Gale/InfoTrac] some full-text

n. Academic Search Premier [Under Ebsco] some full-text

o. JSTOR All full-text; all PDF, slightly (3-5 years) older

p. See list of databases--alphabetical or by subject.

q. Dissertation Abstracts/Digital Dissertations -- abstracts and often a few full-text pages of dissertations and theses written in every academic field. Search with very broad subject headings. Theses and dissertations written at USA can be read full-text online.

5) Where do you go to find Newspaper Articles?

Mobile Register 1992 - present. [Data from 10/01 to 1/10/03 is currently unavailable] full-text
LexisNexis--full-text major newspapers and regional ones
Ethnic NewsWatch scroll down page to "E" --full-text--full text to smaller ethnic newspapers
Newspaper Source [Under Gale/InfoTrac] --full-text

6) Where do you go when you have the information about an article, but need to find the journal issue with the article in it?

Our Journal List--USA Subscribed, Full-Text, Electronic Journals and Print Holdings

7). What happens if we don't have the book or article you need?

InterLibrary Loan aka ILL. Click on ILL on the Library Homepage. Fill out the appropriate form and the library will find the book or article for you. If it is in a library in Alabama, you will not be charged.

8) Smart "Public" Internet Searching

a. Use well-regarded and recommended Internet sites.

b. Use an "advanced" search engine like Google Advanced Search and limit to "more trustworthy" domains.

c. Evaluate what you find through a search engine extremely carefully. Criteria for Evaluating webpages

9) How do you cite?

Bedford St. Martins: Research and Documentation Online by Diana Hacker http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/

Landmark's Citation Machine--a free service, so you'd better check the citations created very carefully

8) Academic Integrity

plagiarism for students

Some words used when referring to cultural diversity:

ethnicity
multiculturalism
pluralism
cross cultural studies
diversity
intercultural communication
equal opportunity
social justice
affirmative action
Individual Ethnicities for example: Blacks, African Americans, American indians, native Americans, Arab American, hispanic, chicano, oriental, asian american, chinese, iraqis, muslims, caucasians, whites, pacific islanders,
(sexual differences, gender identity, feminism, Title IX)

 

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6/03/2009