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Environmental Studies 245

Modern Architecture and Its Critics Selected Sources

Professor: Jill Pearlman
Librarian: Ginny Hopcroft
Fall 2003

Research Strategy
Library Catalog
Reference Books
Indexes and Databases
Web Sites

The purpose of this guide is to help students do effective scholarly research on this topic. The library's reference librarians will be glad to assist with specific questions. You may also consult Ginny Hopcroft by phone x3298 or via email at ghopcrof@bowdoin.edu

Research Strategy

Consult the Basic Library Research Page

Additional research tips:

1. Use both subject and keyword searching in any electronic database or index, including the library catalog.

2. When you find a relevant citation, always check the descriptors or subject headings for additional search terms.

3. Read bibliographies and footnotes of books and articles.

4. Evaluate web sites carefully for accuracy, timeliness and authority.

5. Begin research EARLY. Interlibrary loans always take at least a few days; for obtaining specialized items, such as microfilm of old newspapers, several weeks may be necessary.

Library Catalog

The electronic library catalog is the primary access point for the collections of the Bowdoin College Libraries in all formats-books, audio recordings, videos, microforms, and online sources. Specialized indexes and finding aids are available for the uncatalogued portions of Special Collections and Government Documents.

You can begin your research in the Bowdoin Library Catalog with either a subject search or a keyword search (under heading "word"). In subject searching the best search results are obtained by use of the standardized controlled vocabulary found in the Library of Congress Subject Headings books. After either kind of search, take advantage of searching any additional subject headings you see listed in the bibliographic record.

Subject Heading Examples:

Architecture
City Planning
Buildings
Architecture-United States-20th Century

Reference Books

Art and Architecture Thesaurus
Main Ref Z695.1.A7 A76 1990

American Architects from the Civil War to the First World War
Main Ref Z5944.U5 W63

Encyclopedia of American architecture
Main Ref NA705 .P3 1995

A Field Guide to American Architecture
Main Ref NA705 .R53 1980b

Contemporary Architects
Main Ref NA680 .C625 1987

Indexes and Databases

Some of these databases are strictly bibliographic, i.e. they provide citation only. Others contain the full text of the journal articles, for all or some of their indexed publications. To discover whether Bowdoin Library either holds the journal in print or provides access to the full text, please select the "Find Journals" search screen on the Library Gateway and enter the name of the journal in the search form.

Academic Search Premier
Indexes/Databases

Academic Search Premier indexes over 1800 peer reviewed journals in the social sciences, humanities and science, as well as general interest magazines and several important American newspapers. Date coverage varies between periodicals; most only back to 1990; about 60% of the articles are in full text.

LexisNexis Academic
Indexes/Databases

Academic Universe is a full text web database of news and legal information, providing access to both current news and up to 20 years of retrospective news, both domestic and international. Under the News heading you can search separate files for the most current news, World news, U.S. news, etc. Under U.S. news you can find many regional newspapers not otherwise available.

Arts and Humanities Index
Indexes/Databases

Arts and Humanities indexes the contents of scholarly periodicals and books in the arts and humanities, published from 1980 to the present. The scope is international.

America History and Life
Indexes/Databases

This is the foremost bibliographic index for the scholarly literature of history. It indexes articles, books and dissertations published throughout the world from the 1960's to the present. The content scope of America History and Life is Canada and the U.S.

Avery Index
Indexes/Databases

This index provides access to the contents of architecture periodicals. Articles are selected from architecture journals world-wide, and many periodicals indexed in Avery Index are not indexed elsewhere. Coverage is most comprehensive for 1977 forward, but indexing for selected journals goes back as far as 1741.

Government Documents Monthly Catalog
Indexes/Databases
Government Index

The Smithsonian Institution, Congress, and the Dept of the Interior are some of the federal agencies which have published reports on architecture and buildings, particularly the buildings of Washington, D.C. Since Bowdoin's collection of U.S. government documents is not fully cataloged, this online index is used to locate government publications. Produced by the Government Printing Office, the online Monthly Catalog indexes government documents back to 1976. For earlier indexing, please consult the print version of the Monthly Catalog, beginning in 1892 and located in the Government Documents Collection. When you locate a relevant document in this index, please make note of the "Sudocs" number in order to locate the document in Bowdoin's collection.

Periodical Contents Index
Indexes/Databases

This source provides online indexing to nearly 2400 periodicals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, published from 1770 to 1990. The index presently has 9 million entries and continues to add more. It provides bibliographic access to many of the Library's 19th and early 20th century journals.

Reader's Guide
Indexes/Databases
Main Per Index

The Reader's Guide is an easy-to-use author/subject index to a broad range of U.S. general interest magazines and journals. A special value of the Reader's Guide for this class is its historical coverage. It begins coverage in 1895 and continues through the present, providing indexing for many of the early twentieth century journals held in the Library's collections.

Web Sites

A Digital Archive of American Architecture
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/architec.html
Links to web sites of information about American architects, both current and historical.

Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record, 1933-present.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/hhhtml/hhhome.html
Digitized photographs and drawings from the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress.

Blueprints (the quarterly journal from the National Building Museum)
http://www.nbm.org/blueprints/blueprints.htm
An archive of all issues with photos and full text, back to 1981. Current issue not available.

Net Resources (from the Society of Architectural Historians)
http://www.sah.org/netresources.html
A list of general architecture information resources online, with image sites, architects and general sources.

Catalogs of libraries with extensive architecture collections:
Search these catalogs to locate books to borrow through interlibrary loan.

Columbia
Harvard
Library of Congress
University of Chicago
Yale