Writing 50: Los Angeles

To begin researching your topic and finding supporting materials in the UCSB Libraries use the following outline and use the The UCSB Libraries Web
 

1: Background Information

Check books -- especially subject encyclopedias and reference books --for concise, easily-accessible background information. These will also help you discover keywords associated with your topic.

Cultural inheritance/L. A.: a directory of less visible archives and collections in the Los Angeles region.	Arts Library Reference CD 3118 .L6 .C85 1999
Encyclopedia of California, 1999.	Main Reference F 859 .E52 1999
Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture	Main Ref E169.12 E49 2001
Hollywood and the foreign touch : a dictionary of foreign filmmakers and their films from America, 1910-1995.	Main Reference PN1998.2 .W38 1996
Indian country, L.A.: maintaining ethnic community in complex society.	Native American Studies E 78.C15 .W48 1999
L. A. exiles: a guide to Los Angeles writing, 1932-1998.	Main LibraryPS572.L6 L26 1999
L. A. exposed: strange myths and curious legends in the city of Angels.	Main Reference F 869 .L85 .Y68 2002
L. A. noir : a post-Chandler portrait of Los Angeles in the words of the fictionalized private eyes, cops, shamuses and detectives who've prowled its mean streets.	Special Collections PS648.D4 L233 1999
Literature and race in Los Angeles	Main Library PS 285.L7 M87 2001
Los Angeles; a guide to the city and its environs(1941).	Main Library F 869 .L8 .W7
Los Angeles A to Z: An encyclopedia of the city and county.	Main Reference F 869 .L84 .P58 1997
Los Angeles and its environs in the 20th century.	Main Reference F 869 .L857 .R83 1996
Policing women : the sexual politics of law enforcement and the LAPD.	Main Library HV8023 .A66 1998
Prismatic metropolis: inequality in Los Angeles.	Main Library HN 79.C22 L677 2000
Río L.A. : tales from the Los Angeles River.	Main Library F 868.L8 M75 2001
Venice west : the beat generation in Southern California.	Main Library PS 228 .B6 .M39 1991
Writing Los Angeles : a literary anthology.	Main Library PS 572.L6 W74 2002

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Here's a chart describing the main differences between scholarly and popular journals.

Use an index to find articles in newspapers, scholarly journals, and magazines. The complete list of indexes and databases is here. Below are a few that might be particularly useful for this assignment.

Expanded Academic ASAP 1980 - present

• Citations and some full text to both scholarly and popular articles.
• Type your keywords (e.g. los angeles culture*) in the search box.
• Some of the articles will be available in full text directly from this database. Just click the article title for access.
• If the article is not available in full text here, click to find the location of the journal on the library shelf (assuming we subscribe to the journal). In some instances, the full text version of the article will be available through another database. This will be evident in the .
• If you can't find the full article online, note the call number of the journal and go to the library shelves.
• Email, print or download options are at the very top of the page.

Social Sciences Databases via CSA dates vary

• Allows simultaneous searching of several social science databases, including PsycInfo, ERIC (education), Communication Abstracts, Public Affairs Information Service/PAIS International, and Sociological Abstracts.
• Type your keywords such as (culture or history) OR (migrants or immigrants) OR (migrant labor) in the first row of boxes, then type keywords for a new concept in the second row. (los and angeles)
• Check the list of "descriptors" in the right margin. This is a useful way to learn the subject terms associated with your topic: go ahead and click any of these to explore.
• No full-text, so use .
• Mark your records first and then click to save, email, or download. Use Create QuikBib to create bibliographic citations in the preferred bibliographic style, i. e., Chicago Manual of Style.

America: History and Life

MLA International Bibliography

Social Sciences Citation Index(Web of Science)

LexisNexis Academic dates vary

• Full text of thousands of U.S. and foreign newpapers; and numerous magazines and journals.
• Use the Guided News Search tab.
• Choose General News in step 1, then Magazines and journals in step 2. In step 3 enter keywords, e.g. "los and angeles and history".
• Email link is in the upper right corner.

Art Full Text

Business Source Premier

Chicano Database

Counting California Access to economic and social science data from federal, state, and local agencies.

Natural Sciences Data Bases via CSA

Newspapers Lots of links here, including one to LexisNexis outlined above. Access World News (Newsbank) has full text access to about 300 newspapers, including 47 from California.

Online Archive of California Access to primary source materials including manuscripts, photographs, and works of art held in California libraries and museums.

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Use Pegasus to find books and other materials at the UCSB Libraries. A good way to begin is by using the default keyword search. This will look for your words in the author, subject, and titles of books, and will also scan the tables of contents of most catalog records. Critical, scholarly articles often appear in the form of book chapters, so this keyword searching is a useful tool. Use Advanced Search to search Subjects such as Los Angeles. The * symbol will pick up alternate endings to a word: environment* will find library records that contain the words environmental, environments, environmentally, and so forth.

Examples of keywords:

• los and angeles and environment*
• los and angeles and culture*
• los and angeles and history
• biological and los and angeles

Examples of subject headings:

• los angeles
• hollywood
• santa monica

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The Internet can be a great source for information, but be careful: not every website is accurate, credible, or reliable. Can you tell if the website is authoritative and accurate? How do you know? Can you figure out who wrote it, whether it's been updated recently, or whether that even matters? Pay attention to domain names -- a website name ending in .edu or .gov may well be more authoritative than a .com or .org, but not necessarily. Use a website evaluation checklist, and remember to credit anything you use from a website just as you would from a book or article.

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• Chicago Manual of Style.
  Main Reference Index Table Z 253 .U69 2003
• MLA handbook for writers of research papers.
  Main Reference Index Table LB 2369 .G53 2003
• Wordsmith: a guide to paragraphs and short essays.
  Main Library PE 1439 .A74 2000
• Writers reference.
  Main Reference Index Table PE 1408 .H2778 2003

In addition to the above two bibliographic style guides, here is a citation machine to help you format your citations and bibliography in standard MLA or APA style.

Prepared May 2007

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