LibGuides: CSER 3919: Modes of Inquiry: Getting Started

About this Guide

Welcome! On this page, you will find a selective guide for doing research in race and ethnicity at Barnard College / Columbia University:

Resources to find background information on your topic (see boxes below)
Places to find books in print and online
Databases for locating scholarly and peer reviewed journal articles
Sources and strategies for finding archival materials and other primary sources
Databases and other places to locate historical and current newspapers, magazines, and other media coverage
Resources for citing your sources and writing in American Studies
Guidelines for getting required course texts for free via the Library

For further research support and questions, you can book appointment with me on my calendar page: https://jennafreedman.youcanbook.me/

Image: Four people sitting around campfire on Alcatraz Island during Native American Indian occupation, 1969; Los Angeles Times Photograph Collection; UCLA digital collections.

General Reference Resources for American Studies

CLIO Articles
Searches a large database of mostly full-text journals, encyclopedia and newspaper articles; this database also includes e-books and government documents. Newspaper articles are excluded from the initial search results. To include them, click the 'x' next to "Not Content Type: Newspaper Articles" above the search results.
Oxford Reference Library
International in scope and spanning all time periods of human history, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History includes 900 original articles by noted scholars from more than thirty-five countries. Articles range from 500-word entries on inventors, theoreticians, and industry leaders to overarching, 8,000-word essays on markets, industries, and labor. With coverage ranging from accounting and advertising to zoning and zoos, this landmark works stands at the busy intersection of history and the social sciences.
Oxford African American Studies Center
Comprehensive collection of scholarship focused on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture, coupled with precise search and browse capabilities. Features over 7,500 articles from Oxford's reference works, approximately 100 primary sources with specially written commentaries, over 1,000 images, over 100 maps, over 200 charts and tables, timelines to guide researchers through the history of African Americans and over 6,000 biographies.
Gale Virtual Reference Library
Gale Virtual Reference Library is a database of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research.

Wikipedia
As the world's largest encyclopedia, Wikipedia is a great first step in the research process. While you cannot cite Wikipedia as a source in your research it is a great place to find other sources for your work. And, because Wikipedia is updated constantly, you will often find more current information than what is offered in traditional encyclopedias.