EVDS 1600

Library Research Methods

Today we will look at:

Search strategies
Finding historical context of a design
Finding stylistic contextual info
Citing: Images, articles, books, and more

UM Libraries Homepage

umanitoba.ca/libraries

Search Tip #1

Put a phrase "in quotation marks" to find results with that phrase.

E.g.: "gothic revival" - finds documents with this phrase

Searching for gothic revival without quotation marks finds all documents with gothic and all documents with revival.

Gothic architecture = medieval, mid-12th to 15th centuries

Gothic revival architecture = 18th & 19th centuries, renewed interest in Gothic style

CBS News. "Meet the man behind a third of what's on Wikipedia". January 26, 2019.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/meet-the-man-behind-a-third-of-whats-on-wikipedia/

PollEv.com/ellent118

Start collecting keywords

What do you know about the subject so far?

Name of the work: Schwartz (Martin) House
Architect's name: Pierre Koenig
Period: 1994-2003; "20th century"
Location: Santa Monica,

California, USA

Style: ??

postmodern?
"gothic revival"?
bauhaus?

Pierre Koenig. 1994-2003. Job 6491: Schwartz (Martin) House (Santa Monica, Calif.). https://library-artstor-org.uml.idm.oclc.org/asset/AGETTYIG_10313543777.

Step 1: Expand your background info

Reference sources: Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, etc...

Many reference sources are available online via the UM Library Search. The Library Search includes:

All physical resources within the Libraries
Some (not all) of the databases we subscribe to

The Library Search is a very broad search engine - might get a lot of unrelated results.

UM Library Search

umanitoba.ca/libraries

Search Tip #2

Try to find all the different ways of expressing the concept you're searching for. This can be done by:

putting OR between synonyms (Canada OR Canadian)
adding an asterisk (*) to the root of a word:

E.g.: Canad* - finds Canada, Canadian, Canadians...

"new urbanis*" - finds "new urbanism", "new urbanist"...

(note: don't use this for short root words - art* = art, arts, artist, artificial, arthritis, Arthur... 292 million results in Library Search)

Search Tip #3

Use NOT (all caps) before words or phrases you want to exclude from the search

E.g.: gothic NOT revival - no results for "gothic revival" will come up.

Miami dolphins NOT football

Types of academic resources...

Reference resources - encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc
- For general overview & background info
Books - found via UM Library Search
- Some general, some more specific in topic
Journal Articles - found in UM Library Search AND databases
- Usually on a specific topic
- often peer-reviewed

Library Resources

1. UM Library Search

All physical resources within the Libraries
Some (not all) of the databases we subscribe to
Very broad search engine - might get a lot of unrelated results.

2. Databases

Mainly journal articles
May be more narrow in terms of subject
Can expand your search beyond UM Libraries

bit.ly/UMLevds

Citing Your Sources

Why do we cite?

Giving credit where credit is due
Help the reader find the sources you used
- They can check: Did you interpret the work accurately? Or was the quote taken out of context?
Makes your writing more credible - it's backed by research done by experts in the field
Shows you have researched the subject

Chicago citation style

Full style manual available online! Get full access via the UM Library Search
- 17th edition is the most recent
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) has a great list of examples of how to cite using Chicago style
Turabian Manual for Writers - Chicago style with more explanations & examples

Chicago style has two systems:

Notes & Bibliography System: sources are cited in numbered footnotes or endnotes
Author-Date System: sources are cited in the text, with author's last name & publication year (Smith 2008)