Determining Your Information Needs
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What type of assignment is it?
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How much information do you need?
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Do you need information from a certain type of publication?
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Scholarly or professional journals
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Do you need to use primary sources?
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Diaries, interview, letters, raw data
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Do you need the information in a particular format?
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Is the point of view an issue?
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Defining Your Topic
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State your topic as a question
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Helps clarify you focus and clarify your thoughts
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Identify the main concepts
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Pick out the significant terms in your question
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Make a list of related terms (this will help you when searching for information)
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May suggest ways to broaden or narrow your topic
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Finding Books
To identify books on your topic:
Library Catalog
The catalog contains all of the books and other materials owned by the library. The best way to identify materials related to your topic is by a "Word" search.
Summit
The Summit catalog allows you to search for books at most college and university libraries in Oregon and Washington. The books you request are delivered to Reed within 2-3 days.
WorldCat
Catalog of books and other materials in over 50,000 libraries worldwide. Contains over 52 million records. Click on the ILL button at the top of WorldCat's search page to order these materials.
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Encyclopedias & Dictionaries
Encyclopedias and dictionaries are reference sources which provide background information. There are two types, general and subject oriented.
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General encyclopedias offer introductory information on a variety of subjects and often have a brief bibliography at the end of each topic. Subject encyclopedias focus on a specific topic often with an extensive bibliographies.
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Subject dictionaries offer definitions or short explanations of the concepts used in a specific subject area.
Civilizations of the Ancient Near East
Oversize DS57 .C55 1995
Includes the civilizations of Egypt, Syro-Palestine, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, northeast Africa, and Aegean cultures such as Troy, Crete, and Rhodes and spans the period from the invention of writing in the third millennium B.C. until the destruction of Persepolis by Alexander the Great in 330 B.C.
Companion to Contemporary Architectural Thought
Ref NA2599 .C66 1993
Individual essays on architecture written from different view points.
A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Architecture
Ref NA212 .L45 1988
Survey of ancient Near Eastern architecture: from the Neolithic round huts in Palestine to the giant temples of Ptolemaic Egypt.
A Dictionary of Architecture
Ref NA31 .F55 1976
Deals with the historical development of architecture.
A Dictionary of Architecture
Covers all periods of Western architectural history, from ancient times to the present day. Concise biographies of leading architects.
Encyclopedia of Historical Archaeology
Ref CC77.H5 E53 2002
Guide to the essential sites, concepts, and issues central to the study of historical archaeology, and at the same time helps to define it as a field.
Grove Dictionary of Art
Ref N31 .D5 1996
Fulltext encyclopedia with over 45,000 entries covering "the visual arts worldwide from prehistory to the 1990s." Links to important art images in galleries and museums around the world.
Illustrated Dictionary of Symbols in Eastern and Western Art
Ref N7740 .H35 1994
Highlights the differences and similarities in the symbolism of everyday objects among various ancient, classical, eastern, and western civilizations.
The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Architects and Architecture
Ref NA40 .I45 1991
Provides biographical information for prominent architects from ancient times to the present. Traces Western and non-Western architectural styles and periods.
Key Monuments of the History of Architecture
Ref NA202 .M5 1965
Large collection of black-and-white photographs.
The Oxford Dictionary of Art
Covers Western art from the ancient world to the present day, with entries on a wide range of people and subjects, including artists, critics, collectors, dealers, patrons, museums, galleries, art schools, materials, and techniques.
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East
Ref DS56 .O9 1996
Covers the civilizations of Syria-Palestine, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Iran, Arabia, Cyprus, Egypt, and the coastal regions of North and East Africa.
The World Atlas of Architecture
Ref NA200 .W67 1984
Includes perspectives, exteriors, interiors, and plans.
Yale Dictionary of Art and Artists
Ref N33 .L353 2000
Deals with all aspects of Western art from 1300 to the present. Along with characterizations of artistic styles and individual artists, it describes and explains technical processes, theory, schools, movements, patrons and collecting, and more.
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Databases
Databases are used to find articles on a your topic. They may be general or subject specific. Unless the database is fulltext, they won't contain the articles but instead, will give you information to help you find the articles. They provide citations and often abstracts of the articles. Once you have found the citations you want, check the Print & Electronic Journals list to see if the library owns the journal in print or electronic format.
Academic Search Premier
Good, general interdisciplinary database. Good coverage of the popular literature, as well as core journals of the scholarly literature. Many fulltext articles.
ARTbibliographies Modern (1974 - present)
Literature of modern art, photography and design.
Art Abstracts (1984-present) and Art Index Retrospective (1929 - 1984)
Indexes English language arts periodicals, yearbooks, museum bulletins, and more.
Arts & Humanities Citation Index
A multidisciplinary index covering the journal literature of the arts and humanities. It indexes 1,144 of the world's leading arts and humanities journals, as well as covering individually selected, relevant items from over 6,800 major science and social science journals.
ARTstor
Digital library of art images, associated information, and software tools designed to enhance teaching, learning and scholarship. Contains approximately 300,000 images of art, architecture and archeology from a wide range of cultures and time periods, with initial strengths in European, American and Asian cultures.
Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals
Indexes articles on architectural design, history and practice of architecture, landscape architecture, etc. Selected coverage back to the 1860s.
BHA: Bibliography of the History of Art (1973 - present)
European and American art from late antiquity to the present.
Historical Abstracts 1954 - present
Index, with abstracts, to research in world history (excluding North America) from 1450 through the 20th Century.
JSTOR
Fulltext is available online from extensive backfile volumes of journals in history and other disciplines through JSTOR.
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Finding Print & E-Journals
Once you identify a citiation for an article using a database, or if you just want to browse a journal title, you must determine if the library subscribes to the journal. At this time, the best way to do so is to use the Print & Electronic Journals list. For help using the Print & Journals List, or finding journals in general, try How Do I Find Articles?.
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Style Manuals
Style manuals contain information to help you set up your paper in the proper format as well as showing you how to cite information found in the sources listed above.
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
Ref LB2369 .G53 2003
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