*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
The Lamont News-List lamontnews-list(a)fas.harvard.edu
December 17, 2004 http://hcl.harvard.edu/lamont
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Very best wishes, from all of us here in Lamont, for a happy holiday
season! Drop in for cookies and juice in the Lamont Lobby on Monday,
December 20, starting at 2 p.m.!
*********************************************************
IN THIS ISSUE:
-- Power Searching Tip
no. 3: Is JSTOR really the best place to search for journal
articles?
-- Cool Tool on the Web
Online guides for citing sources in MLA, APA, and other formats
-- Recommend a Good Book to Lamont News-List Readers
Send us a suggestion and you'll qualify for a great **prize**
-- Lamont Library Hours during Winter Recess
When we're open, when we're not, and what to know about reserves
-- In the Spirit of the Season
Did you know that many holiday traditions originated in the
Cambridge area?
*********************************************************
POWER SEARCHING TIP
no. 3. Going Beyond JSTOR
JSTOR is the one journal database that Harvard students manage to hear
about early on in their undergraduate careers. The quality of information
you find there is uniformly high; the journals it covers are some of the
most respected in their fields. But ask a Lamont Reference Librarian for
some research guidance, and we'll hardly ever suggest that you turn to
JSTOR first. Sounds like an odd position for us to take, doesn't it?
Even if--like us--you love the convenience of JSTOR, you're bound to
discover that it has drawbacks as a research tool. For example:
** JSTOR rarely provides you with the most recent issues of the
journals it covers. As a rule of thumb, you should expect that NOTHING
published in the last 3-5 years will be available here. The bottom line:
when currency is an absolute must for your research, JSTOR isn't the best
choice.
** JSTOR also doesn't handle topic searches very well. If you have a
specific citation in hand--say, from a 1980 issue of the _American
Historical Review_--JSTOR works like a dream. But something less
straightforward--like a search for information on East Indian immigrants
in the United States (for instance)--can lead to frustration. The words
you enter may appear in strange or very different contexts from what you
intended. That's because JSTOR searches every word of every article.
Searches that look so broadly for matches increase the likelihood of
irrelevant results.
But if not to JSTOR, then where should you go?
How about a database that covers the discipline you're studying in depth?
Every area of knowledge, from history, to medicine, to literature, to
sociology, has at least one online resource that is the preferred,
premier, or authoritative place to locate the research that scholars in a
field have produced. The easiest way to find these "places" (i.e.,
databases) is on the Harvard Libraries E-Resources page
(http://lib.harvard.edu/e-resources).
Choose your field of study from the SUBJECT list. Then select "indexes to
journal articles, etc." from the resource TYPE list. Click <GO!> and the
system will present you with a list of options.
What gives these resources the advantage over JSTOR?
** Subject specific databases will point you toward the most current
information published on your topic.
** Subject specific databases allow you to do more sophisticated
searching than JSTOR. The greater control you have over the way you
search, the better your results will be.
** Subject specific databases will cast a wider net. The JSTOR
"universe," while excellent, is limited. Consider these examples: JSTOR
contains just 30 journals in Political Science at present, and just 49 in
History. Compare those numbers to Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
(which searches 1300 journals) or Historical Abstracts (which searches
2000 journals--including those in JSTOR).
Which seems like the better option to you?
*********************************************************
RECOMMEND A GOOD BOOK TO LAMONT NEWS-LIST READERS
Send in your suggestion and you could win a great **prize**
What's on your shelf?
Every year at this time, we issue a call to Lamont News-List subscribers
for a few good book titles. And every year, we offer you a great
incentive for sending your suggestions in.
When you respond, we'll automatically enter you in a drawing to win a $10
Starbucks coffee card **and** one of our rare (and much coveted) Lamont
stainless steel mugs. Two lucky winners will be chosen at random.
To qualify for the drawing, here's all you need to do: send us the title
of your favorite book, a book you're dying to read, a book you've read
recently that made an impression on you, a book that changed your
life.
Tell us why you think other Lamont News-List readers might enjoy
reading it, too.
Books on any subject are welcome! You can even send us more than one
title, if you're so inclined!
We'll compile the list and publish it in a late January issue of the
Lamont News-List--just in time for some Intersession R & R!
Send your suggestions to sgilroy@fas as soon as you can . . . but not
later than ** January 19, 2005**
*********************************************************
COOL TOOL ON THE WEB:
Online Guides for Citing Sources in MLA, APA and other formats
http://hcl.harvard.edu/lamont/resources/links/citation.html
It's that time of year again: Harvard undergraduates in the thick of
research projects, style guides flying off the reference shelves.
Even students who have mastered the intricacies of parenthetical
references or the rules for books without publication dates can feel
stumped by a web page, a government document online, an article from
LEXIS-NEXIS, Academic Search Premier, or JSTOR. Just what do the MLA,
APA, and Chicago Style manuals recommend for non-print formats?
Lamont librarians can help you find out. Use the address above or take
this path from the Lamont home page (http://hcl.harvard.edu/lamont):
Conducting Research ---> Great Links ---> Citing Sources.
In addition to the Expos Program's _Writing with Sources_, you'll find
official rules of the APA and MLA, a link to the_Columbia Guide to Online
Style_ and Dartmouth College's excellent compilation of examples and rules
for referencing print, electronic, and Web materials.
*********************************************************
IN THE SPIRIT OF THE SEASON:
Did you know that many holiday traditions originated in the Cambridge
area?
[Editor's note: Chris Lenney, Reserves Assistant in Lamont, local history
buff, and author of _Sightseeking: Clues to the Landscape History of New
England_ (U Press of New England, 2003), contributed this piece for
News-List readers. Enjoy!]
Christmas came late to the Land of the Bean and the Cod. In Puritan
times, seasonal revelry carried a five shilling fine. Well into the
nineteenth century, proper Bostonian families exchanged their gifts on New
Year's Day. Surprising, then, that a number of American Yuletide
traditions have their origins here.
The first New England Christmas tree was set up in December 1832 in the
drawing-room of Harvard Professor Charles Follen, who brought the custom
from his native Germany. (That historic tree-lighting took place just off
Cambridge Common, where 50 Follen Street is today.)
The first American Christmas cards were published by Boston lithographer
Louis Prang in 1875, and featured artwork and greetings by such luminaries
as Winslow Homer and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
The snowy London streets haunted by Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas
Present in _A Christmas Carol_ are said to derive from wintry impressions
gathered by Dickens on his first visit to Boston in 1842. Dickens's
descriptions indeed have the iron-cold ring of New England winter. (Bear
in mind that real London snowfalls are negligible: two-and-a-half
inches--what the London _Times_called a "blizzard"--caused a sensation in
2003!)
Four actual Christmas carols were penned by locals, too: "Jingle Bells"
(James Pierpont), "O, Little Town of Bethlehem" (Phillips Brooks), "It
Came Upon a Midnight Clear" (Edmund Sears) and--pa-rum-pum-pum-pum--"The
Little Drummer Boy" (Katherine K Davis).
And America's oldest carol service is Harvard's own, first held in 1910.
Two modern year-end celebrations, much-imitated nationwide, the Christmas
Revels (1971) and First Night (1976) also had their origins in Cambridge
and Boston.
Not a bad comeback for a place where Christmas was outlawed in 1659!
*********************************************************
LAMONT LIBRARY HOURS DURING WINTER RECESS
When we're open, when we're closed, and what to do about course reserves
December 21, 2004 -- January 3, 2005
Tuesday, December 21 - Wednesday, December 22 8:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m.
Thursday, December 23 8:00 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.
Friday, December 24 - Sunday, December 26 CLOSED
Monday, December 27 - Thursday, December 30 8:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m.
Friday, December 31 - Sunday, January 2 CLOSED
Monday, January 3 8:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m.
Regular library hours resume on Tuesday, January 4, 2005.
DID YOU KNOW? Except for last or single copies, Reserve Books checked out
after 2 p.m. on Monday, December 20 are not due until Monday, January 4
at 9 a.m. Just be sure to get them back to us on time--fines for late
reserves returns are steep.
*********************************************************
HAVE A TOPIC you'd like to see us cover in a future issue of the Lamont
News-List? A research question you need answered? A tip you want
to pass along to other Lamont News-List readers? All suggestions welcome!
Send your thoughts and comments to sgilroy(a)fas.harvard.edu.
*********************************************************
You received this email because you subscribed to the Lamont News-List.
If at any time you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, point your
browser to http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/lamontnews-list.
Directions for unsubscribing are are the bottom of the page.
Copyright 2004 President and Fellows of Harvard University
