Asian American Historical Sociology: Hawai'i, Past and Present
Library Resources for Sociology/Asian American Studies 224

::Ask-A-Librarian | Hours and Locations | Reserves| Finding Articles | Databases | Finding Books | Websites | Census Data and Statistics | Citing Sources | More Help::

Welcome! This site has been created to assist you in finding and using library resources for your research on Asian Americans in Hawaii. Our library, one of the largest university libraries in the U.S., can be a bit overwhelming at first, but it is truly a treasure trove for scholars. All of the UIUC Library's resources are available to you as you do your research, so explore, have fun, and don't hesitate to ask questions!

ASK-A-LIBRARIAN FOR HELP WITH YOUR RESEARCH

FINDING YOUR WAY AROUND

We have over 40 departmental libraries on our campus. The libraries you will likely find to be the most useful for this class are the Education and Social Science Library, the History Library, the Main Stacks, and the Undergraduate Library. The first three are located in the Main Library building. You might also hear it referred to as the "Graduate Library," but don't let that misnomer stop you from coming in here and taking advantage of the resources we can provide. It's your library, too!

LIBRARY HOURS

Education and Social Science Library, 100 Main Library, Fall Semester 2005:

RESERVES

The reserve readings for this (and other) classes are available online via Course Reserves.

FINDING ARTICLES

Journal articles are one of the primary means of communicating research and ideas in academia. They can be an important component of your research paper and give you some insight into ongoing debates and conversations about your topic.

Finding articles is a two-step process:

• First, find the citation to the articles you want. You can use readings lists from class, consult a bibliography or the works cited in a relevant book or article, or you can search for the topic you are interested in by using one of the article databases listed below. If you get stuck, ask your professor or Ask-A-Librarian for help getting started.
• Next, find the actual text of the articles you want. Some of our journals are online, but most still live on the shelves. If the article is not available electronically, you will need to use the Online Library Catalog to look up the source of the citation you have retrieved from the article database.

WHICH DATABASES WILL WORK BEST FOR THIS CLASS?

• America History and Life and Historical Abstracts - Indexes journal articles on the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Published since 1964, the database comprises almost 400,000 bibliographic entries.
• Bibliography of Asian Studies - Clunky search interface, but provides access to materials (course catalogs, asian studies newsletters, etc.) not found elsewhere.
• Ethnic NewsWatch - The place to look for publications written by community leaders and activists from different ethnic groups in the U.S. Try brwosing the topics related to Hawaii...
• Expanded Academic (InfoTrac) - A good general purpose database providing access to the scholarly literature.
• Sociological Abstracts - The preeminent database for citations to scholarly journals in sociology. Indexes and abstracts over 2,600 journals and other serial publications, plus conference papers, books, and dissertations. Covers 1963-present, updated monthly.
• Online Research Resources - Links to other databases to search and other resources to help locate articles of interest. Use the subject headings on the bottom of the page to browse for resources in your area of interest

FINDING BOOKS

• Online Library Catalog - Look here to find books, magazines or journals containing articles that you need, DVDs, and many other resources. In addition to the 10 million volumes we have on this campus, you can connect to 43 other libraries in Illinois and request books be sent to you.
  
  When you find something you want in the catalog, write down the following:

  Location - in which library the item is kept (or libraries, if we have multiple copies)
  Call Number - this number is essential for finding the item on the shelf
  Status - is it available for you to check out?

  Hint: Catalogs are used for two purposes: (1) If you know exactly what you are looking for - an exact title or author - you can use the catalog to locate your material (this works for book titles and journal titles); (2) You can also use catalogs to discover material that might be helpful to you by doing subject and keyword searching.
• WorldCat and Interlibrary Loan - The places to verify citations for books and request books and articles you cannot find elsewhere.

LIBRARY CATALOG HINTS FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT:

• Search Online Catalog using one of the following SUBJECT HEADINGS:
  
  
  • Hawaii Bibliography
  • Hawaii--Emigration and immigration
  • Hawaii History
  • Hawaii Social conditions
  • Hawaii Social life and customs
  • Hawaii Social policy
  • Hawaii--Ethnic relations
  • Ethnic groups--Hawaii
  
  Or, do a Guided keyword search on “Hawaii” as a subject word and whatever your interested in as “any word” (e.g. Hawaii and education, Hawaii and sugar, etc.)
  
  
  • Hawaii and Labor
  • Hawaii and Ethnic
  • Hawaii and Women
  
  Hint: Try combining the subject searches above with other keywords to focus the search, e.g. "hairstyles" or "music" or "Vietnam" or "social conditions"

WHERE ELSE CAN YOU GO FOR INFORMATION?

Primary Sources:

• Finding Primary Source Material at UIUC

Newspapers:

• Chicago Tribune - Provides full text access for the backfiles of the Chicago Tribune, 1847-1985.
• New York Times - Provides full text access for the backfiles of the New York Times, 1851-2001.

Websites:

The Smithsonian Institution's website on American Social and Cultural History provides a variety of primary source information. See the section on Asian Pacific American History and Culture.

Library of Congress's American Memory digital collections are a rich collection of primary source material relating to U.S, history and culture. This site provides access to over 7 million digital items, including photographs, newspapers, sound recordings, field notes, manuscripts, cartoons, letters, legal documents, and more. Try searching the "Social Sciences" collection.

Hawaii Reference Desk - Produced by the Hawaii Legislative Bureau, this site is a gateway to facts, figures, and a wealth of infromation on the current social and political situation in Hawaii. Includes links to local newspapers & magazines.

The quality of information available on the web varies tremendously. Evaluating Internet Sites 101 gives some valuable pointers on evaluating web-based information. Actually, these tips can be applied to print as well as online sources.

CENSUS DATA AND STATISTICS:

• FedStats
• Statistical Abstract

CITING SOURCES IN YOUR BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Style and Writing Guides - How to format citations, write papers, and do research in the the social sciences.
• Refworks - A great tool for writing papers, Refworks helps you export bibliographic records from databases, change the citation styles as needed and import the citation directly into a Word document so you can create bibliographies on the fly. For help using this utility, see Refworks Help.

MORE TIPS ON USING THE LIBRARY

• Basic Library Usage - A great source on how to use the UIUC Libraries.
• Research Process - A step-by-step guide to research that takes you through the entire process, from choosing your topic to citing sources.
• Learn to Use the Library - Want to learn more about using the Library? This site is your gateway to workshops, online tutorials, and other learning opportunities.
• Guide to Sources in Sociology - A guide to sociology-related sources in the Education and Social Science Library.