Early Modern World - West African Societies (HIST200)

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Contents

Getting Started

Begin your research with an understanding of the research process
The research process can be broken down into four parts. This link articulates the 4 steps and will guide you to better research.


Sheets for recording bibliographic informationimage:Pdficon_small.gif
These sheets will help you organize the sources for your bibliography

Gaining an overview with Reference Sources

Reference Sources are a great way to get broad information on a subject or idea. These books can help inform you on putting your ideas into a larger context.

Call Number Title
REF 403 D15d Dictionary of Languages
REF 409 At65 Atlas of Languages
REF 305.8 En19 Encyclopedia of Peoples of the World
REF 305.8 W88 Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life
REF 306 Il6 Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mankind
REF 306.3 H62 Historical Encyclopedia of World Slavery
REF 960 En192 Encyclopedia of African Peoples
REF 960 En193 Encyclopedia of African Nations and Civilizations
REF 960 H27f From Afar to Zulu a Dictionary of African Cultures
REF 960.03 P146e Encyclopedia of African History and Culture
REF 967 En19 Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara

The reference books will give you an overview of your subject; check the bibliographies for further information. Remember to use cross references, indexes, and tables of contents to help you locate information.

Delving deeper with Books

Books offer a more complete look at a subject as well as give good ideas for other resources and references.

Finding books and more at the OWHL

Reserve List

Reserve List for West African Societies
The above link will list all the books "on the cart" for this class.

Searching the Catalog

Most people start with a keyword searchof the library catalog. The computer will look for your words in the book "record" The record contains an item's title, author, subject, and table of contents or item summary.

Choose your keywords carefully!

Subject Searches'' are an even more powerful way to search the catalog. They will focus your search using the exact terminology employed by librarians to describe the book. Subjects can be found by clicking on the "more information" tab in the record

Interlibrary Loan

If you're not finding what you're looking for at the OWHL, you might want to search the entire NOBLE network. To do this, change location Phillips Academy to View Entire Collection


Finding Articles using Databases

Article databases contain thousands of articles organized and searchable using keywords, sepcific journal titles, publishing dates, etc... Information contained in articles can be more specific than book information as well as more up to date. The primary method to access articles from magazines and journals is through databases. You can access these databases both on and off campus. If you're off campus, you may be prompted for your "library card number". This is simply your PA ID number, which is on your ID card. Below is a chart of some databases that you may find helpful in this assignment. To see a listing of all the databases to which the library subscribes, visit the Databases A-Z Page.

Title of Database
Click on to go to database
About the Database
Ancient and Medieval History Online This database includes overview essays, biographies, primary sources, chronologies, maps, videos, etc.
JSTORLearn more about the scope and purpose of JSTOR.
Project MuseLearn more about the scope and purpose of Project Muse.

Exploring Internet Sources

You will probably find websites helpful for this project. Always remember to evaluate your sources when you are looking at websites. Below is a list of some sites you should find worthwhile for your project.

Peoples of Africa

Citations and Documentation

Make sure you are citing your sources and avoiding plagiarism!

All citation guides are available at the Main Help Desk and Garver Room Help Desk.

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