The Lamont News-List April 4, 2006

The Lamont News-List lamontnews-list(a)fas.harvard.edu April 4, 2006 http://hcl.harvard.edu/lamont *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- April is National Poetry Month! Read, listen, discuss and discover at the web site of the Academy of American Poets, which sponsors the annual event. Point your browser here: http://www.poets.org/index.cfm ********************************************************** IN THIS ISSUE: -- Power Searching Tip no. 6: Words and phrases that can "power up" a HOLLIS keyword search! -- E-Research Cool Tools: Citation Indexes: these special online resources can do a lot for you! -- It's April: Baseball is back! A selection of books and films in Lamont for fans of the game -- Missed an issue of the Lamont News-List? Previous newsletters are archived here: http://lists.fas.harvard.edu/pipermail/lamontnews-list/ ********************************************************** POWER SEARCHING TIP: No. 6: Words and phrases that can give your HOLLIS searches a real boost! The more time you spend searching the HOLLIS catalog, the more apt you are to notice that there are patterns to the way information is presented and described. Catalog records, for instance, clearly observe a set of rules or conventions; thus, author names always precede titles, titles always precede publication details, library locations are listed alphabetically, and so forth. HOLLIS records use language in regular and predictable patterns as well. Next time you're searching HOLLIS, take a look at the list of "SUBJECT" terms that appear toward the bottom of the screen. Subject terms (or "headings") are always drawn from a special approved vocabulary list and librarians use them to help identify the actual intellectual content of a particular book, video, document (and so on) that a Harvard Library owns. Only certain words may be used; only certain combinations of words are allowed; and these word combinations must be entered in very exact, fixed ways. Unless you become a library cataloger yourself, you'll never be expected to master this vocabulary or know its "rules of order" by heart. By using your powers of observation, however -- by keeping an eye out for subject words or phrases that seem to appear frequently, under particular conditions or in particular contexts -- you can learn quite a lot about the catalog's intellectual design. You can also put that learning to very good use building smarter, better, more efficient searches. After all, every minute saved searching means more time for reading, writing, and critical reflection. If you're facing an end-of term research crunch, the words and phrases we've listed below may help you shortcut your way to good information. Try adding one to your next keyword search and watch what it can do. We've highlighted 14 examples, based on the questions we most often get from anxious students at this point in the semester. If our list doesn't match your need, however, ask a Reference Librarian for other options or for an alternative search strategy. That's what we're here to do! *** "CRITICISM AND INTERPRETATION" Type this phrase (include the quotation marks) into your keyword search when you're interested in finding works that discuss or analyze a writer, a literary work, an artist, an art work, a musician, or a musical work. EXAMPLES: monet and "criticism and interpretation" Sidney and sonnets and "criticism and interpretation" *** UNITED STATES The official subject term for what we abbreviate as "U.S." and also call "America." *** BIBLIOGRAPHY Add this term to a keyword search when you're looking for publications which reference (that is, compile) research and scholarship on a person, event, or topic. *** "DESCRIPTION AND TRAVEL" Add this phrase to a keyword search when you're interested in finding travel literature, travel aids, or accounts of a geographic location. EXAMPLE: provence and "description and travel" *** SOURCES This term is used to identify collections of "primary" documents or discussions of writings that were contemporaneous with a particular event. These might be legal documents, letters, diaries, family papers, etc., that have been assembled and reprinted for use by students or scholars working on the topic. EXAMPLE: England and reformation and sources *** CORRESPONDENCE The official "library" way to look for letters by or to an individual or group. Remember that "correspondence" may be an option to consider when you're asked to incorporate primary source material into your research paper. *** "PERSONAL NARRATIVES" Add this phrase to a keyword search when you're interested in locating an eye-witness account of an event (e.g., a war). EXAMPLE: vietnam and war and "personal narratives" *** STATISTICS Add this word to a keyword search when you're interested in turning up numbers (i.e., data sources) on a topic or a place. EXAMPLES: developing countries and statistics pisa and italy and population and statistics *** BIOGRAPHY In addition to using this term for individuals, you can add it to a search for information on a particular place (like a country or city), an ethnic group, or a class of people. "History" is an option to consider pairing with place names and certain classes of people, too. EXAMPLES: long island and biography south africans and biography political refugees and biography *** "SOCIAL LIFE OR CUSTOMS" Pair this phrase with a country or city name, with ethnic groups or other classes of people. EXAMPLE: aborigines and australia and "social life or customs" *** "SOCIAL ASPECTS" or "ECONOMIC ASPECTS" or "PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS" or "RELIGIOUS ASPECTS" EXAMPLES: slavery and "united states" and "economic aspects" genocide and "psychological aspects" renaissance drama and "religious aspects" *** "PUBLIC OPINION" or "PUBLIC OPINION POLLS" or ATTITUDES *** You can power up a keyword search by thinking in terms of familiar forms that information comes in, too. For example, "ENCYCLOPEDIAS," "DICTIONARIES" or "HANDBOOKS" are great terms to add to a topic description when you're looking for subject overviews, term definitions, and the like. *** Sometimes, general chronology markers will focus a keyword search: "19th" (or "19th century"), "20th" (or "20th century)," etc. ********************************************************** ERESEARCH COOL TOOLS: Citation indexes: special online resources that can do a lot for you! Web of Science Citation Indexes [Science Citation Index/Arts and Humanities Citation Index/Social Sciences Citation Index] http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:hul.eresource:socscici Which of these scenarios sounds familiar to you? a) You're starting your research for a major paper in your seminar or tutorial. Your professor (or TF), in an effort to help you get started, has suggested that you look at an article by X or consider the arguments that Y put forth in his recent book. You can easily track Y's book down in HOLLIS; you can use "Citation Linker" to get your hands on X's article. You like what you read; now you need to find more, and preferably, more of the same. What research steps can you take from here? b) You're interested in a particular gene therapy experiment. How do you find out if there have been follow-up studies, or if the results have been confirmed elsewhere? c) You're one of the many students enrolled in Science B-62 ("The Human Mind") this term. You've heard a lot about one of your professor's books, _The Blank Slate_. You're interested in finding some scholarly appraisals of it. Where can you locate book reviews? Ask a Lamont Reference Librarian for advice on information problems like these and we'll probably point you toward an online resource called "Web of Science." The easiest way to access it is under the E-Research menu on the Harvard Libraries Portal Page (http://lib.harvard.edu). Click on "Find E-Resources." Then link right into Web of Science from the "Quick Jumps" list. Despite its name, Web of Science is actually a large multidisciplinary database that also covers the arts, humanities, and social sciences. What sets it apart from databases you may be familiar with already is the different kind of searching that it allows. In Academic Search Premier, or JStor, or even HOLLIS, for that matter, your search results depend on shared words or phrases (keywords), on shared concepts (subject headings), or a shared set of common characteristics (as when you ask HOLLIS for a list of books about Shakespeare, written in German, after 1980). In Web of Science, however, it's the shared citation -- the footnote or bibliographic reference -- that is the key to finding relevant related material. The idea behind Web of Science is this: research and scholarship always build on what comes before. In other words, like begets like; follow a citation trail forward or back, and you'll get a sense of how an argument or research proposition has taken shape, been modified, augmented, confirmed, or even, under certain conditions, disproved. Citation searching can thus be a powerful complement to the more typical keyword and subject heading searches that you've learned to do in HOLLIS and other e-resources. Sometimes, in fact, citation searching will be the best and fastest way to establish direct connections between ideas. When you have a perfect article in hand, or when you're after a precision that other search methods just don't satisfy, Web of Science is certainly worth a try. Because it scours an article's sources, it's an excellent place to look for significant discussions of things you might not expect: books of consequence, films, even individual works of art, musical pieces, and more. When your topic is obscure or isn't treated in the places you'd normally expect to find it covered, Web of Science might just turn some information up. Web of Science can seem tricky to use when you're new to it. Drop by the Lamont Reference Desk and we'll show you how the database works. Or take a tour of its features on your own, by clicking here: http://www.isinet.com/tutorials/citedreference/ ********************************************************* IT'S APRIL: TIME TO PLAY BALL! A small selection of baseball books and films on Lamont's shelves **WATCHING BASEBALL: DISCOVERING THE GAME WITHIN THE GAME, by Jerry Remy (2004). Lamont | Farnsworth Room GV867 .R46 2004 The former Sox second baseman and longtime voice of Red Sox Nation for NESN explains it all to you. Filled with insights (and many anecdotes), this is the book to read if you're new to the game. ** THE HIDDEN LANGUAGE OF BASEBALL: HOW SIGNS AND SIGN-STEALING HAVE INFLUENCED THE COURSE OF OUR NATIONAL PASTIME, by Paul Dickson (2003). Lamont | Farnsworth Room GV875.8 .D53 2003 Baseball is set apart from other sports by many things, but few are more distinctive than the intricate systems of coded language that govern action on the field and give baseball its unique appeal. Paul Dickson, a baseball historian, tells the story of how this complicated communication system developed -- and how it's tipped the balance in critical games. ** GAME OF SHADOWS: BARRY BONDS, BALCO, AND THE STEROIDS SCANDAL THAT ROCKED PROFESSIONAL SPORTS, by Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams (2006). Probably the most anticipated book of the new season and one that is sure to have immediate and perhaps long-term impacts. Bud Selig just spent a weekend reading it. When he finished, he announced that MLB was launching an investigation into steroid use. ** THE HEAVENLY WORLD SERIES: TIMELESS BASEBALL FICTION, ed. Frank O'Rourke (2002). Lamont | Farnsworth Room PS3529 .R58 H4 2002x O'Rourke (1916-89) wrote both Westerns and sports stories and published in magazines like _The Saturday Evening Post_, _Collier's_, and _Esquire_. Seventeen of his best short stories on baseball appear in this collection. The title story is a special treat, set as it is in the great beyond, where former heroes of the National and American leagues battle it out for the ultimate title. ** THE SANDLOT, dir. David Mickey Evans (1993). Lamont | Morse Music & Media Video | PN1995.9.C55 S36 1994x The story of a boy, his baseball buddies, and their summer adventures avoiding a baseball-eating dog known as "The Beast." ** THE MEANING OF SPORTS: WHY AMERICANS WATCH BASEBALL, FOOTBALL, AND BASKETBALL AND WHAT THEY SEE WHEN THEY DO, by Michael Mandelbaum (2004). Lamont GV706.5 .M345 2004 In a work that blends history, literature, anthropology, and sociology, Mandelbaum explores the ways three great sports became national institutions, when and why they each emerged, and what deep human needs they satisfy. ** A GREAT AND GLORIOUS GAME: THE BASEBALL WRITINGS OF A. BARTLETT GIAMATTI, ed. Kenneth Robson (1998). Lamont GV863.A1 G52 1998 Bart Giamatti, Renaissance scholar, Yale professor, onetime president of the National League, and (before his untimely death) Commissioner of Baseball, saw the game as a metaphor for life and for quintessentially American virtues: self-reliance, teamwork, integrity, community. Nine of his elegant and eloquent essays on the game are collected here. ** DOUBLE PLAY, by Robert B. Parker (2004). Lamont PS3566.A686 D68 2004 Parker, best known for his Spenser PI mysteries, measures the impact of Jackie Robinson's rookie year -- 1947, when he famously broke the "color line" -- through the player's (fictional) bodyguard, a WWII veteran named Joe Burke. ** EIGHT MEN OUT, dir. John Sayles (1988). Lamont | Morse Music & Media Video | PN1995.9 .B28 E54 1999x Movie about the 1919 Black Sox Scandal. Stars (among others) John Cusack, David Strathairn, Charlie Sheen and D.B. Sweeney (in the role of Shoeless Joe). ** THE PHYSICS OF BASEBALL, by Robert Adair (2002). Lamont | Farnsworth Room | QC26 A23 2002 What effects do stitch patterns have on wind resistance? How far does a curve ball break? Who reaches first base faster after a bunt: a left or right-handed batter? Adair makes these and other questions engaging, accessible, and illuminating. ** LUCKIEST MAN: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF LOU GEHRIG, by Jonathan Eig (2005). Lamont GV865.G4 E54 2005 The well-received biography of the Yankees' "Iron Horse," considered the game's best-ever first basemen. ** BASEBALL, a film by Ken Burns (1994). Lamont | Morse Music & Media Video | GV863.A1 B375 1994x The great, 19 hour documentary series originally produced for PBS television. ********************************************************* 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 at the bottom of the page. ********************************************************** Copyright 2006 President and Fellows of Harvard University