wsdb 291
library research workshop
Winter 2024
Google: women's studies concordia library
your subject librarian: susie.breier@concordia.ca (she/her)
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ZOOM office hours: most Tuesdays
3:30-5:30 pm
OR by appointment
AskUs Desk
Webster LB building:
most Mondays 3-5
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Google: concordia library women's studies
WHERE/HOW CAN
YOU FIND ME?
on my women's studies
SUBJECT GUIDE
google:
women's studies concordia library
under women's studies see:
sometimes librarians can't help but others in the library can:
writing assistance at the library and the university
[writing guides from the library]
today's CONTEXT
You are about to submit a PROPOSAL for your final TERM PAPER. Your guidelines tell you to:
- "Attach a preliminary BIBLIOGRAPHY of 3-5 peer-reviewed SCHOLARLY articles or books that seem relevant to your interpretive problem..."
- locate "...DISAGREEMENTS among scholars, GAPS in knowledge"
- follow customary scholarly CITATION format (ie MLA or APA) ...and carefully acknowledge your sources."
What do YOU want to cover today?
tell me here:
OUR AGENDA
BUT FIRST....
NEED HELP WITH ANY OF THE
AGENDA ITEMS I PROPOSED?
ask questions - GET HELP:
at the AskUs desk
via chat
via email
by phone
Need assistance beyond a quick chat,
and have a bit of time to plan?
your subject librarian: susie.breier@concordia.ca (she/her)
Text
ZOOM office hours: most Tuesdays
3:30-5:30 pm
OR by appointment
AskUs Desk
Webster LB building:
most Mondays 3-5
Text
Google: concordia library women's studies
Text
SimoNe de Beauvoir Institute
Feminist library & Learning Centre
ER building, 2155 Guy Street, 6th floor
monday-thursday 9 am - 9pm + friDAY 9 AM - 5PM
contact: isabelle.lamoureux@concordia.ca
- ACCESS resources at Concordia and beyond
- FIND material that is RELEVANT to your topic / problem
- Trace scholarly CONVERSATIONS using "Cited by" in Google Scholar
- Make sure material is SCHOLARLY / peer-reviewed / academic
- Enter KEYWORDS in Library Databases (search strategies)
- Format your CITATIONS (APA / MLA) & use tools like ZOTERO
OUR Agenda
accessing resources at concordia & beyond
Search for library books, ebooks, articles and films
what if the library doesn't have it ONLINE?
request a book and pick it up later....
or use the call number and locate button to find it
what if the library DOESN'T have it at all?
search for it in any library worldwide:
... and simply request it!
but you CAN'T borrow ebooks from other libraries!!
find scholarly articles or books
related to your topic / problem
my tentative topic:
citational politics
I recently encountered compelling works by scholars Max Liboiron, Eve Tuck and Katherine McKittrick relating to citational politics in feminist, anti-colonial and black studies scholarship, as well as in the Cite Black Women movement...
quotations/ideas from these scholars of interest to me include:
This is a challenge for all of us: Reflect on the way you approach referencing the work of others in your own writing, presenting and thinking. Whose work do you build on to make arguments ... Who are you citing, and why do you cite them (and not others)?
Eve Tuck, K. Wayne Yang, Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández,"Citation Practices" Critical Ethnic Studies, April 2015...[B]ibliographies and endnotes and references and sources are alternative stories that can, in the most generous sense, centralize the practice of sharing ideas about liberation and resistance and writing against racial and sexual violence.
Katherine McKittrick,"Footnotes (Books and Papers Scattered about the Floor)", Dear Science and Other Stories,2021but also:
… I do not believe that citation, as a practice that includes or excludes, is useful. I am not interested in citations as quotable value.
Katherine McKittrick,"Footnotes (Books and Papers Scattered about the Floor)", Dear Science and Other Stories,2021
I have spent most of my career in education trying to convince non-Indigenous people to read Indigenous people.
Now …. unsurprisingly surprised by how demonstratively settlerish their reading is.
....
I forgot that people read extractively, for discovery….
I forgot that all these years of relation between settler and Indigenous people set up settlers to be terrible readers of Indigenous work.
Eve Tuck @tuckeve Oct. 8, 2017 "To Watch the White Settlers"
- How do these approaches to citation intersect (or not) with seminal 21st century writings by authors such as bell hooks (feminist theory from margin to center) or Audre Lorde (dismantling the master's house)?
- might these citational politics become tools of prescription or invasive appropriation and extraction instead of resistance?
my tentative question/problem
This will take SEVERAL SEARCHES to explore...
to find scholarly articles or books
related to this topic / problem
(or to YOURs)
where wouldyou search?
tELL your CLASSMATES
Search for library books, ebooks, articles and films
but go beyond sofia to search for topics
reminders:
- Use the readings, authors and literature you already know...
- and explore those to the fullest!
- Use Google (or your favourite tool) to get smarter about your topic
- and THEN:
Women's STUDIES databases
SEARCH EXAMPLE
("citation* politics" OR "citation* practices" OR "politics of citation")
AND
(feminis* OR black OR indigenous OR BIPOC OR justice OR resist* OR gender*)
| TIP | WHAT IT DOES | EXAMPLE |
|---|---|---|
|
AND |
Combines concepts. Limits how many results your search produces |
police AND violence |
|
OR |
Allows for synonyms or alternative terms. Increases the number or results your search produces. |
violence OR brutality |
|
* |
Near the end of a word, retrieves all words that start with the letters entered. Increases the number of results a search produces | Canad* (retrieves Canada, Canadian) |
| “ ” | For two words or more, search for an exact phrase only, rather than each keyword separately. Limits how many results your search produces | “systemic racism” (retrieves systemic racism, but not systemic oppression related to racism) |
search tips & tricks
standard library article databases
but aLSO:
a simpler search example:
now how can you access / download the articles you find?
search EXAMPLE:
I want to find articles that engage with (ie that cite) bell hook's book: Feminist theory: From margin to center, but that also discuss citational politics/practices
scholarly conversations in google scholar
citational politics OR practices
google scholar strategies:
- use OR for alternative terms
- use quotation marks " " for phrases
- DON'T use AND (it is implied)
- DON'T use * ( happens automatically)
in ebsco article databases:
in google scholar:
("citation* politics" OR "citation* practices" OR "politics of citation")
AND
(feminis* OR black OR indigenous OR BIPOC OR justice OR resist* OR gender*)
("citational politics" OR "citation practices" OR "politics of citation") (feminism OR black OR indigenous OR BIPOC OR justice OR resistance OR gender)
findit@concordia TIP:
scholarly / Peer-reviewed / academic
In some Library Databases you can use a checkbox:
TEST YOURSELF:
is it academic / scholarly /
peer-reviewed?
which one(s) is/are scholarly?
which one(s) is/are scholarly?
This is a resource aimed at practitioners and researchers, but it is not written by an academic describing a research study or a theoretical framework. Though it casually refers to other studies, it does not seriously engage with other academic research and has NO BIBLIOGRAPHY!
This IS an academic/scholarly/
peer-reviewed article, published in a peer-reviewed journal. Important clues: academic language, author draws on scholarly theories and outlines their own. Long BIBLIOGRAPHY of references.
How to properly enter your KEYWORDS in Library Databases
search strategies
| TIP | WHAT IT DOES | EXAMPLE |
|---|---|---|
|
AND |
Combines concepts. Limits how many results your search produces |
police AND violence |
|
OR |
Allows for synonyms or alternative terms. Increases the number or results your search produces. |
violence OR brutality |
|
* |
Near the end of a word, retrieves all words that start with the letters entered. Increases the number of results a search produces | Canad* (retrieves Canada, Canadian) |
| “ ” | For two words or more, search for an exact phrase only, rather than each keyword separately. Limits how many results your search produces | “systemic racism” (retrieves systemic racism, but not systemic oppression related to racism) |
search tips & tricks
standard library article databases
example of a keyword
combination in socindex
search tips & tricks for
library article databases
boolean operators, truncation, phrase searching:
another search example in this handout:
(YouTube, 7 mins)
Developing your search strategy: VIDEO
search strategy tip: keywords are not the only thing to think about!
Picking your topic takes strategy too
YouTube video, 3 mins
formatting referencES:
Zotero
& citation guides
what's the simplest way to properly cite?
it depends.
Start by picking a citation style
and consulting a:
use a citation style guides:
APA STYLE: typical examples
in-text citations
Hakkinen and Akrami (2014) found that “individuals are receptive to climate change communications, regardless of ideological position” (p. 65).
Research shows that people from any ideological background are open to hearing about climate change (Hakkinen & Akrami, 2014).
APA STLe: typical exampleS
Bibliography
What about automatic citation tools?
take your pick:
a) citation generators*
b) citation management tools*
a) citation generators
Many library databases (for example: Sofia Discovery tool, EBSCO and ProQuest databases) as well as Google Scholar will provide you with formatted citations in the style of your choice that you can copy and paste into your bibliography, reference list or works cited list.
Make sure to double check your generated citations - they are not always correct! Use those citation style guides to make sure all the required elements of the citation are present and correctly formatted.
*
b) citation management tools
Sometimes also called bibliographic management tools, these allow you to:
-
Download citations you find in library catalogues, databases, Google Scholar, and on the web.
-
Store and organize citations, and prepare a bibliography or reference list automatically.
-
Automatically format and insert in-text citations and a bibliography into papers you are writing with Microsoft Word, for example.
There are several citation management tools available.
Concordia Library provides support for ZOTERO...........
Make sure to double check your generated citations - they are not always correct! Use those citation style guides to make sure all the required elements of the citation are present and correctly formatted.
*
primary sources
bonus material
primary source
=
a source that provides first-hand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic
=
the object(s) of your study
=
can be almost anything, depending on the CONTEXT!
what is a primary source?
historical
can be PRIMARY sources?
typical primary sources
- newspaper articles
- diaries
- blogs, tweets & other social media posts
- films / videos
- court transcripts
- laws, bills, government publications
- NGO reports
locating primary sources will depend on what kind you are seeking, but see other library subject guides, such as:
WSDB 291 (Winter 2024)
By susie breier
WSDB 291 (Winter 2024)
Library Workshop slides for WSDB 291 Contemporary Issues in Women’s Studies, Professor Antonopoulos
