Research Guide for Asian American Studies 4 (Honors)
Spring 2006
Research Topics:
Interracial Love, mail-order brides, gender and sexuality
Women and film Japanese internment camps Asian /Asian American identity
Orientalism men / stereotypes cultural capital / film industry
From the Library's home page, select RESEARCH then ARTICLE INDEXES &
DATABASES to access the following databases.
Humanities
- America: History and Life
- Film Literature Index
- Historical Abstracts
- Literature Online Master Index
- MLA International Bibiliography
Social Sciences
- Anthropology Literature
- PsycINFO
- Social Sciences Database (via CSA)
- Web of Science
Literature
- LION
- MLA International Bibliography
Multi-discipline (Gender, Ethnic, and Area)
- Alternative Press Index
- Bibliography of Asian Studies
- Biography Resource Center
- Expanded Academic
- Gender Watch
- JSTOR
- Left Index
- Project Muse
Primary and Archival Sources
What are Primary and Secondary Sources?
- Accunet/AP photo archive
- Asian American Drama
- Ethnic Newswatch
- Lexis Nexis (News section)
- Los Angeles Times
- New York Times
- Newsbank
- More Primary Sources...
Search Strategies
Research requires using various sources in various formats i.e. print, electronic, digitized, etc.
When available use the advance search function. This gives you all the search options available in the database.
You will need to think about the terms you will use, how to combine them, and more importantly, the time period.
- Use OR to combine terms when either one will do: media OR film OR cinema
- Use AND to force the results to have both terms: asian AND wom* AND media
- Most databases let you truncate by using a symbol to get other letters: wom* gets you woman , women...
- The truncation symbol can be a *, ?, ! or other symbols depending on the database
- Be careful that you don't truncate too soon: ta* would also get you tagalog, tabernacle and all other words starting with "ta"
Evaluating sources
Finding the materials in the library
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To find articles, first you must use an article index database. Then you will need to write down the citation in order to
find the article itself by using the UCSB online catalog. In some cases the entire article is available online that you can
print, email or save on a disk. To access these databases from off campus, you must go through the
proxy server. From the Library's home page, select RESEARCH then ARTICLE INDEXES & DATABASES to find the following databases that contain your assigned periodicals
A citation has the following information: journal title, author, article title, publication date, volume and page numbers. The journal title is what you will need to locate the journal in Pegasus, the library's online catalog.
The Pegasus record will indicate in which formats these titles are available i.e. microfilm, print copy or electronic text. You will need the Call Number and location of the journal to find it in the library.
For example:
- Search Type: "Journal Title Begins with ..." New York Times Microfilm area: AN 34.N 6
- Search Type: "Journal Title Begins with..." Los Angeles Times Microfilm area: AN 5. L7
- Search Type: "Journal Title Begins with..." Newsweek Main Library: AP 1. N48
Ask for Help!
Don't forget to ASK FOR HELP when you need it. You can find a reference librarian at the Main Reference Desk during the week, weekends and even on holidays. For reference help please call (805) 893.3133. Gary Colmenar: colmenar@library.ucsb.edu.