Drama 1701: Introduction to Drama
The in-class library session was intended to introduce you to some
of the the library resources that you'll need to use to complete your
research essay. This guide supplements
the information presented during the library session.
More specifically, this guide is designed to help you:
- construct an effective search strategy
- know the difference between keyword and subject searching
- select and use appropriate journal indexes and electronic databases
- distinguish scholarly journals from non-scholarly magazines
- cite material using MLA Style format
- identify and locate other library and research guides
This guide is comprised of the following sections:
1. Searching for Secondary Sources (books and articles)
For your research essay, you are asked to find and use 7 secondary sources. What is a secondary source?
Primary and secondary sources can be difficult to define -- how an item is used and treated by a scholar may determine whether it is a primary or secondary source (an early 20th century textbook, for instance).
In literary studies, things are generally straight-forward: the literary work (in this case, a play) is the primary source; analysis and criticism of that literary work (such as an introductory overview of the works of Shakespeare) are secondary sources.
The secondary sources you are most likely to find and use for your essays will be books and articles published in scholarly journals. The Library Catalogue will help you find books; to search for articles, you'll need to use a journal index. More on this in the sections below.
A brief note about print vs. online sources:
Many newspapers, magazines and scholarly journals that were once held in print in libraries are now accessible electronically via full-text library databases. Books, too, are often accessible electronically via library catalogues as e-books -- the Mt.A Libraries now have access to over 20,000 ebooks.
This situation can sometimes make it difficult to distinguish a print source from an online source. Is a journal article accessed through a library database (JSTOR, for instance) a print or online source? If an article was originally published in print but is now accessible electronically, does that make it a print or online source?
At issue is not so much the format of a particular source of information (print vs. online) but the editorial process leading to publication. An article in a scholarly journal, for example, is generally written by an expert on the subject it discusses and often goes through a peer review process that requires the article to be evaluated by other scholars or experts prior to publication. Today, however, there is an increasing number of scholarly journals available online only -- that is, journals that do not produce a print version. The print vs. online question can thus, in part, be undertood as a failure of language or terminology to accurately reflect and catch up to the times in which we live.
When evaluating information or when trying to decide if the information you have found is appropriate for the project you are working on, format (print vs. online) is generally less important than a critical consideration of the source of that information. The Library guides in the Finding and Evaluating Information section of the Research and Citation Guides page will help as you critically evaluate the sources of information uncovered by your research.
For more information about primary and secondary sources, see the Primary and Secondary Resources: A Research Guide
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2. Searching for Books
Use the Library Catalogue to search for books, A-V materials (including films on DVD) and government publications.
You can also use the catalogue to search for magazines and journals, but not the articles within those magazines and journals. So, you could use the catalogue to find out that we have Macleans Magazine, but not to search the contents of the latest issue.
To search for articles, you'll need to use a Journal Index (more on that below).
For more details, see:
We also have a card catalogue : the online library catalogue contains records for alll library materials acquired since 1980 as well as many older works that have been re-catalogued. Please check the card catalogue for works published before 1980 that do not appear in the online catalogue. The card catalogue is now located next to the Reference Desk.
Subject and Keyword Searching:
When searching the library catalogue for books *about* an author and his/her works (secondary sources), you may search by Keyword or by Subject.
What's the difference?
Subject searches use Library of Congress SUBJECT HEADINGS. These are standardized headings assigned to a book after it is published to describe what the book is about. A single book may have just one or, more likely, several different Subject Headings.
Useful Subject Headings when searching for information about an author and/or his or her works include:
- Name of author (Last name, first name)
- Name of author (Last name, first name) -- Criticism and interpretation.
- Name of author (Last name, first name). Title of a specific work.
For example:
- Miller, Arthur, 1915-2005.
- Miller, Arthur, 1915-2005 -- Criticism and interpretation.
- Miller, Arthur, 1915-2005 Death of a Salesman.
Note: in some cases (as in the examples above), the author's date of birth (and date of death) is also part of the subject heading. You're not expected to know when an author was born and died -- simply typing in an author's last and first name and clicking on Subject is usually enough to identify the revelant subject headings in the catalogue.
KEYWORD searches work very differently. A keyword search allows you to search for a word, words or a phrase anywhere in the library catalogue record (for example, words from the author, title or subject fields, etc.).
Unlike subject searches, keyword searches allow you to combine words and phrases using AND, OR, NOT (these are referred to as "boolean operators").
Examples: Any of these three keyword searches would find the title below:
victorian literature AND narrative (all words in title)
women AND narrative AND 19th century (words in title & subject fields)
langland AND gender AND rhetoric (words in author, title and subject fields)
title: Telling tales : gender and narrative form in Victorian literature and culture
author: Langland, Elizabeth
subject headings:
English fiction--19th century--History and criticism.
Sex role in literature.
Women and literature--Great Britain History--19th century.
Working class women in literature.
Narration Rhetoric |
Note that a search for "women and victorian and novels" would not find the above titles since the word "novels" does not appear in the record. Catalogues and databases do not interpret your searches -- they simply retrieve results based on the exact words you specify.
Search Tip:
It's always a good idea when searching for information on a topic to use multiple search strategies and to account for variations in language, terminology, spelling, etc.
The following guide offers tips on how to prepare an effective search strategy:
And this guide explains how to use boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT):
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3. Searching for Articles
Journal Indexes or Databases are used to search for articles, reviews, etc., in newspapers, magazines & scholarly journals. Certain indexes and databases also include essays and chapters published in multi-authored works.
The Mt.A Libraries subscribe and have access to several dozen electronic indexes and databases. Many of these are full-text databases that provide electronic access to the full article; others are just indexes that will help you identify articles relevant to your topic.
The Library's Journal Indexes and Databases are listed by Title and are also grouped together by Subject.
The indexes and databases most useful for finding articles about a play are listed on the Indexes and Databases: Drama page.
First listed on that page is the MLA (Modern Language Association) International Bibliography (aka: the MLA Database). This is the primary research tool in the fields of literature and drama. It's usually the first place to look for articles about a literary work.
Reminder: Not all electronic Journal Indexes provide the full-text of the indexed articles. The MLA Database, for instance, is not a full-text database, but will help you identify and find items available electronically via other, full-text library databases (such as JSTOR, Project Muse) or available in print in the library.
To find out if the library has access to an article, use the Library Catalogue to search for the journal/magazine/newspaper in which the article is published. The Catalogue will direct you to the appropriate full-text database or provide the call number if the journal is available in print in the library.
The Journal Finder will also help you find out if the library has electronic access to a journal. Access: On-campus | Off-campus
For more details, see: How do I search for articles?
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4. Distinguishing Scholarly from Non-scholarly Journals
Many of the Journal Indexes and Full-text Databases accessible via the Mount Allison Libraries include a variety of publication types, including scholarly peer-reviewed journals, trade journals, popular magazines and newspapers. Distinguishing these types of publications can be challenging -- especially in an electronic environment in which many visual cues have been stripped away or are not immediately obvious (the glossy cover, presence of adverstising, author credentials...).
The following two guides provide definitions and examples of scholarly and non-scholarly types of publications.
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5. How to Cite the Materials you Find
The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers provides the guidelines for the proper formatting of literary research papers.
Brief MLA Citations Guides (covering the basic guidelines only) are available on the Research and Citation Guides page.
Multiple copies of the MLA Handbook are available in the Library's Reference Collection at LB 2369 .G53 2003.
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6. Avoiding Plagiarism
What is plagiarism and how can you avoid it?
The following guide and section of the academic calendar provide information all students need to know:
Avoiding Plagiarism Guide
Academic Calendar, section 6.13: Academic Offences
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7. More Library Guides
The following guides may also prove helpful as you research and write your paper:
Evaluating Web Sources
Guide to Using the Internet for Academic Research
The Literature Review: A Few Tips On Conducting It
These and other library guides are accessible from the Research & Citation Guides page of the Library website.
Questions? You may contact a librarian at the Research Help Desk by phone
at 364-2564 or by e-mail at infodesk@mta.ca
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