Tips for RS12 Discussion Section Assignment
Spring 2007

For RS12 the students are required to identify and present websites relevant to the weeks' topics. These topics are:

• Resurrection at the End of Time
• Life from Death
• Body and Soul
• Preparing for Death: Tibetan Book of the Dead
• Disposing of the Dead: Burial, Cremation, Exposure
• Housing the Dead: Megaliths, Pyramids, Mausoleums
• New Bodies for the Dead
• Itineraries of the Three Souls: Chinese Death Rites
• Geography of the Hopi Underworld
• Purgatory "Between" Heaven and Hell
• The Hungry Dead: Buddhist Petas
• The Unhappy Dead: Ghosts in Indian Traditions
• Communing with the Dead: Meso-American Traditions
• Death, Ancestors, and Kingship in Africa
• Dogs and Death

Step One: Getting background information
Before you just jump to Google you need to know what you're looking for.

Reference books

The Reference section of Davidson Library has a few sources that might help you think of some more specific keywords for your web searches. These books will help you define and describe your topic. Here are a few useful reference books and their call numbers:

• Encyclopedia of Death and Dying / edited by Glennys Howarth and Oliver Leaman
  Reference HQ1073 .E543 2001
• Death and the Afterlife: a Cultural Encyclopediea / Richard Taylor
  Reference GT3150 .T25 2000
• A Companion to Philosophy of Religion / edited by Philip L. Quinn and Charles Taliaferro
  Reference BL51 .C634 1997
• Encyclopedia of Afterlife Beliefs and Phenomena / James R. Lewis
  Reference BF1311 .F8 L48 1994
• South Asian Folklore: an Encyclopedia: Afganistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka / Margaret A. Mills, et al
  Reference GR302 .S68 2003
• Satanism Today: an Encyclopedia of Religion, Folklore and Popular Culture / James R. Lewis
  Reference BF1548 .L49 2001
• The Mythical Zoo: an Encyclopedia of Animals in World Myth, Legend, and Literature / Boria Sax
  Reference GR705 .S344 2001
• The Mythical West: an Encyclopedia of Legend, Lore and Popular Culture / Richard W. Slatta
  Reference GR109 . S53 2001
• Nectar and Ambrosia: an Encyclopedia of Food in World Mythology / Tamra Andrews
  Reference GR498 .A53 2000
• Dictionary of Chicano Folklore / Rafaela G. Castro
  Ethnic Gender Studies Reference GR111 .M49 C37 2000
• Medieval Folklore: an Encyclopedia of Myths, Legends, Tales, Beliefs and Customs / Carl Lindahl, et al
  Reference GR35 .M43 2000
• Encyclopedia of Contemporary Latin American and Caribbean Cultures / edited by Daniel Balderston, et al
  Reference F1406 .E515 2000
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures: the Civilizations of Mexico and Central America / edited by David Carrasco
  Reference F1218.6 .O95 2001
• The Indian Encyclopedia: Biographical, Historical, Religious, Administrative, Ethnological, Commercial and Scientific / edited by Subodh Kapoor
  Reference DS405 .I66 2002
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt / Donald B. Redford, editor
  Reference DT58 .O94 2001
• Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt / edited by Kathryn A. Bard
  Reference DT58 .E53 1999
• Encyclopedia of Buddhism / Robert E. Buswell, Jr., editor
  Reference BQ128 .E62 2004
• The Encyclopedia of North American Indians / edited by D. L. Birchfield
  Ethnic Gender Studies Reference E76.2 .E53 1997
• The Encyclopedia of African and African-American Religions / edited by Stephen D. Glazier
  Reference BL2462.5 .E53 2001

Pegasus
Use the library catalog, Pegasus, to find books on your topic. These books will give you the background information necessary to help you evaluate the websites for your presentation.

In the Pegasus Advanced Search screen you can create a complicated search:

Here you want the exact phrase Day of the Dead and any of the following words corn OR maize OR food. Using OR broadens your search. We also limited it to sources in English. You can do the same sort of search in Google by using the Advanced Search screen there.

You can also look for articles on your topic. To select a database, from the Library's home page click on Research. Then select Help by Subject. This page divides up our many databases by subject so you can pick the one that fits your topic.

Step Two: Creating your search
Use terms you got from class lectures, readings and one or more of the above books to create your search. Go to the Advanced Search screen of Google so you can create more complex searches.

In Google's Advanced Search screen you can create a complicated search like this:

In this search you are telling Google that you want websites with the exact phrase Day of the Dead and any one of the following words: corn, maize or food. Here you don't have to type OR because you're using the box that says "at least one of the words." This is just one example of how you can use the Advanced Search feature of Google. You can also limit it by language if you want.

Remember to use other limits as appropriate (such as limiting by language or using the "SafeSearch" option).

Step Three: Evaluating what you get
Once you do your Google search, what do you do with the results? How do you pick the ones to use for your class presentation? Here are a couple of good online guides for evaluating websites: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: or, Why It's a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources and Checklist for Evaluating Web Resources. Quality is much more important than quantity for this assignment. This is also where those reference books and the books you found in Pegasus come in handy. You can use these books as well as your lecture notes and class readings to help you evaluate the websites you find.

You can also talk with a librarian about your searches as you begin working on your class project.