You are required to write a 5 page research paper about an aspect of Buddhism. Details of this assignment can be found on your syllabus. This webpage is to help you with the research aspect of the assignment.

SELECTING YOUR TOPIC

Below are the titles and call numbers of a few books in the Reference section that might be useful for you. Even if you have an idea for your topic, you can still use these to help define and describe your topic.

• Encyclopedia of Buddhism
  Main Reference BQ128 .E62 2004
• A concise encyclopedia of Buddhism
  Main Reference BQ128 .P69 2000
• Companion encyclopedia of Asian philosophy
  Main Reference B121 .C66 1997
• An encyclopedia of Buddhist deities, demigods, godlings, saints, and demons with special focus on iconographic attributes
  Main Reference BQ130 .B88 1994
• Modern Japan: an encyclopedia of history, culture and nationalism
  Main Reference DS805 .M63 1998
• Japan: an illustrated encyclopedia
  Main Reference DS805 .J263 1993
• Encyclopedia of religion and nature
  TBA
• Beat culture: lifestyles, icons and impact
  Main Reference PS228 .B6 B368 2005
• The beat generation: a Gale critical companion
  Main Reference PS228 .B6 Z68 2003

SEARCH STRATEGIES

• Use OR to combine terms when either one will do: ecology or nature
• Use AND to force the results to have both terms: buddhism and nature
• In some article databases, combine OR and AND by separating the sets with parenthesis: zen and (ecology or nature or environment*)
  • To combine OR and AND in Pegasus, go to the Advanced Search screen.
  • Use OR in the search boxes and connect the boxes with AND
• Most databases let you truncate by using a symbol to get other letters: environment* gets you environment, environmental, environmentalists...
  • The truncation symbol can be a *, ?, ! or other symbols depending on the database
  • Be careful that you don't truncate too soon: envi* would also get you envious, enviable and all other words starting with "envi"

FINDING SOURCES

• Go to the Advanced Search screen
  • Keyword: ecolog* or nature or environment* AND Keyword: zen
  • Keyword: women or feminis* AND Keyword: zen
  • Limit by language
• Use "request" feature to get items that are IN PROCESS
• Use Melvyl to request items that are in SRLF

Use Melvyl to find books at other UC campuses

• Search like Pegasus
• Note that while Pegasus defaults to keyword, Melvyl defaults to title searches
• Request items to have them sent to UCSB
• Allow about a week to get the items
• Use this if the book you want at UCSB is checked out

ARTICLES
To find articles, first you must use an article index and then you have to find the actual article itself. 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.

Each of you will start with Expanded Academic ASAP. Then depending on your topic, you will want to select a discipline-specific database. Suggestions are made below

Expanded Academic ASAP

• Use Keyword Search to find articles on your topic
  • (ecology or environment* or nature) and zen
• LIMIT to refereed publications (this gives you scholarly journals)
• Results are either full-text articles, abstracts, or citations
  • If the result is an ABSTRACT or a CITATION, use UC e-links to check if UCSB has the journal

Discipline specific databases

If your paper is an historical study

• America: History & Life
  • Covers the history of the US and Canada
  • Good for Zen in the US
• Historical Abstracts
  • Covers the world NOT including the US and Canada
  • Good for Zen and Japanese nationalism

If your paper is a sociological study

• Sociological Abstracts

If you are interested in the teachings of Zen

• ATLA Religion

If you are interested in gender studies

• GenderWatch
  • Also contains information on Queer issues and zen

EVALUATING WHAT YOU FIND

Ask for help!