Sociology 205 Research Guide

Sociology 205: Urban Sociology
Suggested Sources for Research
Fall, 2006

Start with the Library Gateway http://library.bowdoin.edu/.

Finding Books:

Search the Library Catalog by SUBJECT in ENTIRE COLLECTION. The most direct subject heading is the name of your city, plus state abbreviation (e.g. PORTLAND ME or ATLANTA GA; sometimes the state abbreviation is different from the postal code, e.g. HOUSTON TEX). Among the resulting list of subject headings, you will see the subdivision HISTORY. Another subdivision, DESCRIPTION AND TRAVEL, may lead to early travel guides with images in words and illustrations of your city at a particular time period.

To expand your search to other libraries that provide quick delivery to Bowdoin, try

• NExpress: contains the holdings of Bowdoin, Bates, Colby, Williams, Wellesley, and Northeastern
• MaineCat: includes the holdings of large and small libraries in Maine, including the University of Maine campuses, Portland Public Library, and Bowdoin, Bates, and Colby.

You can duplicate any search by selecting the Repeat in MaineCat or Repeat in NExpress buttons; or go directly to these catalogs under BORROW MATERIALS/ILL. You may request online any book that Bowdoin doesn’t own, or that is checked out from our library, and it will be delivered and held at the Circulation Desk in two-three days.

Finding Articles and Other Materials:

There are two “Course Guides” in History that are very relevant to your assignment. These list Indexes and Databases and Encyclopedias relating to American cities.
Under Research Help select Research by Subject, then History, then Show Previous Semesters. The History 226 guide is especially applicable.

• 226: The City as American History
• 244: City, Anti-City, and Utopia: Building Urban America

In addition to the encyclopedias listed on these guides, an excellent source for the history of American cities is

• Dictionary of American History, 3rd ed. 10 vols.
Main Ref E 174 D52 2003


INDEXES AND DATABASES

See those listed on the Course Guides; note especially the following:

For history topics:

 America History and Life (indexes scholarly journals and other publications dealing with American history)
 Periodicals Index Online (indexes periodicals going back to earliest issues, including 19th and early 20th century)

For Sociology topics:

 Sociological Abstracts (indexes scholarly journals and other publications related to sociology)

For interdisciplinary topics and current events:

 Academic Search Premier (includes scholarly journals and popular magazines, with a lot of full-text articles)
 ProQuest Newspapers (full text of more than 500 U.S. and international news sources, including hundreds of city papers. Click on the “Publications” tab for a list. Most papers are covered from the 1990’s to the present.)
 Lexis/Nexis Academic (full text of hundreds of U.S. and international news sources. For most direct searching of local papers, select news category “U.S. News” and select a news source by Region or State; or you can limit to a specific publication in the “Source List.” Expand the date range if you want more than the current six months!)

Does Bowdoin Own the Journal?

Some databases which do not have full text of all articles (e.g. America History and Life or Academic Search Premier) will have a link that says Check Availability @ Bowdoin.
This will tell you if the citation you are viewing is in a journal that Bowdoin has in electronic or print form.

Another way to find out what journals are available is to go to the Library Gateway and search in the Find Journals tab.

If Bowdoin does not own a journal, or doesn’t have the date you need, you may use Interlibrary Loan to request an article.

Finding Wonderful Web Sites:

For current events, issues, legislation, etc., try your city’s “official” web site. When using ANY web sites, be sure to evaluate their validity: see Checklist for Evaluating Web Resources for hints on how to tell the good from the bad.
Leanne Pander 10/2006
x3260 lpander@bowdoin.edu