Stories, Story-Tellers, and Audiences:

a brief guide to resources

Using the Catalog to locate materials

INNOPAC is the libraries' catalog. It lists books, newspapers, journals, audio-visual materials, databases, internet resources, maps, and recordings which are available through the Grinnell College Libraries.

For information about how to search the catalog effectively seehttp://cat.lib.grinnell.edu/search/X#

Keyword and subject searching

Keyword searching allows you to select your own terms to describe your topic. Subject heading (controlled vocabulary) searching relies on assigned terms chosen by experts to describe your topic. Keyword and subject heading searches do not generate the same results and both are useful and often necessary to find the best information for your topic.

For more information about using keywords and subject headings, see http://www.lib.grinnell.edu/research/InstructionGuides/subjectkeywords.html

Keywords to try

When you find a title which looks promising, examine all information and look for the subject headings used and/or notes that indicate the book contains bibliographies, maps, or other useful materials. Bibliographies are a particularly good way to find out about primary source materials.Any book which focuses on a particular topic will have a Library of Congress subject heading (LCSH). Subject headings make it easy to locate materials which focus on a particular topic. This "controlled vocabulary" is particularly useful for locating materials on broad, general concepts, such as French history or Italy in the medieval period.

Following are some subject headings which may be useful for locating books in our collection:

• France--History--16th Century
• Women--Europe--History
• Social Classes-Europe--History
• Italy--History--14th Century
• Italy--Intellectual life
• Social history --Medieval, 500-1500
• France--Social life and customs
• Marriage--France--History
  

Tips: 1. When a subject heading is assigned to a book, it is assigned at the most specific level. For example ,a study of marriage in 16th century France may be found under the heading Marriage--France--History, but not under the more general heading France--History. It is important to look under as many potentially useful headings as possible.

2. Pay attention to the options of selecting other books with the same subject headings and general call numbers which will help you locate additional materials when you have found one source which is useful.

3. Bibliographies are essential resources for locating research materials. The subdivision --Bibliography will help identify those resources.

4. To locate primary sources materials, such as diaries, legal documents, or letters, use the subdivision -Sources. For example, Italy-History-Sources.

5. Keep your mind open to new ideas and new sources of information at all times.

Boolean Searching

In order to perform searches well, you need to know how to do a Boolean Search. For a review of Boolean Searching, see http://www.lib.grinnell.edu/research/InstructionGuides/booleanmodule.html

Indexes to Journal Articles and Scholarly Resources

Humanities Abstracts covers major English-language journals in religion, philosophy and literature.

Social Sciences Abstracts covers general English-language journals in history, political science economics, sociology and psychology.

Historical Abstracts is the scholarly index for history excluding North America. Journal articles, books, and dissertations in all areas of history (political, cultural, intellectual, etc.) are included.

JSTOR is a collection of full-text articles from major journals published in the social sciences, humanities, arts, and some sciences. The most current issues of journals are not included.

MLA Bibliography includes scholarly resources in language and literature.

World Cat is an international cataloging database of books, periodicals, manuscripts, web sties and other materials held by public, academic, government, and private libraries around the word. It currently includes over 52,000,000 items.

Series which include primary documents

Records of Civilizations: Sources and Studies This series includes a variety of material from many countries. Because each volume is cataloged individually, call numbers vary. Browse this series by using the keyword search on Innopac.

Reference Sources

Dictionary of the Middle Ages (Ref. D 114 .D5 1982)

Cambridge Medieval History (D 117 .C3)

New Dictionary of the History of Ideas (Ref. CB 9 .N49)

Atlas of Medieval Europe (Ref. CB 351 .M293 1983)

Historical Dictionary of the reformation and Counter-Reformation (Ref.BR 302.8 .H55 2000)

Renaissance and Reformation, 1500-1620L a biographical dictionary (Ref. CT 749 .R46 2001)

Encyclopedia of the Renaissance and the Reformation (Ref. CB 359 .B47 2004)

Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation (Ref. BR 302.8 .O93 1996)

Companion to the Reformation World (BR 309 .C62 2004)

Hutchinson Encyclopedia of the Renaissance (Ref. CB 361 .H88x 1999)

Historical Dictionary of France (Ref. DC 35 .R39 1998)

The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation (Ref. BR 302.8 .O93 1996)

Cultural Atlas of the Renaissance (Ref. N6370 .C84x 1993)

New Cambridge Modern History (D 208 .N4)

Encyclopedia of the Renaissance (Ref. CB 362 .E52 1999)

Web Resources and Images

Labyrinth, from Georgetown Univesity, is devoted to the study of medieval culture.

Modern History Sourcebook and Internet Medieval Sourcebook from Fordham University make available primary and other resource material on a variety of historical topics.

ArtStor
http://www.artstor.org/info/
This is a growing collection of images from a number of sources, including Grinnell College.

Sunsite
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Collections/
This is from Berkeley and lists a number of good image collections on the web.

Google Images
http://www.google.com/
This is the Google search engine for images.

Interlibrary Loan
You may request materials through Interlibrary Loan simply by completing the form available from the main menu of the catalog. You will be asked to enter your name and ID number; then you may request materials. Be sure all information is correct and complete. Plan ahead, since it may take two weeks to receive material.

If you have any questions, please contact me at rod@grinnell.edu, or consult any of the other Reference Librarians.

Created by: Catherine Rod on November 2, 2001

Last updated: October 27, 2005