RSSS 350 - The Soviet Experiment: Strategies
1. How to Find a Good Source
Finding one good source [book, article, etc.] is your ticket to finding a whole host of other good sources. Once you locate a good one, it will lead you to others. If you've already found a good source, skip to # 2. For the rest of you, here are some tips:
- Start with the library catalog, as a good book will connect you with the most relevant sources.
- Use keywords to search for your topic. Generally, less is more. Start with just a few keywords. Look at the records of the titles your search returns and then change your keywords based on what you find (look especially at the words used in the Subjects field).
- If you aren't finding anything, try broader categories. For more information see the Research Rules to Live By tutorial.
- Still having trouble? Call the reference desk [621-6443], or use our Chat/IM service for help (available nearly 24/7).
2. How to "Mine" Good Sources
Once you locate a good source, there are several ways you can use it to find others.
- Look at the bibliographies and indexes of all good books or articles you find (see Strategy #3).
- If it is a book, always look at [and in] the books on the shelf next to it (tables of contents, indexes, etc): they will be on similar topics.
- If the article or book is found in an electronic database or library catalog, take note of the various links in the bibliographic record (Author, Source, SubjectsDescriptors, etc.) Clicking on these links will take you to more items by that author, from that source, or on that subject. You can learn more about how to use these "access points" to find more related resources here: Research Rules to Live By
3. Let Other's Work Guide You
Dozens, if not hundreds of scholars have already written extensively on the author/book/topic you're researching. Using their work to guide yours isn't cheating, it's smart and can save you a lot of time. How can you do it?
- Look for book-length bibliographies on your author or subject. If you find one, your research is practially done; it will provide citations to literally hundreds of works for you to read & use. You can learn how to find bibliographies here: Research Rules to Live By
- Look at the bibliographies of books or articles you find that seem relevant. These will provide a road map for your research. Most any scholarly book or article will have them, though some may have footnotes or endnotes instead of a bibliography (sometimes called "Works Cited"). They are always at the back of the book, or at the end of an article.
- Look at the indexes in books about your author or topic, or in books on a more general, but related topic.
4. Online vs. Print
It might seem like online access would always be preferable to print. But this is not always the case.
- Books (which are mostly in print) are generally written for a broader audience than articles and will provide more context and background (and other sources) that you'll need for your work.
- Articles (which are often online) can be extremely narrow in their focus, and are often written for a small circle of specialists. Do not avoid articles, but also understand the importance of finding a few good books.
- If you find a reference to a good book chapter or article that is NOT available online, you can get a scanned copy of it delivered to your email account through our FREE document delivery service. If we have the article in a print journal or book in our collection, you should receive within 24 to 48 hours. If we do not have it in our library, it may take 3 days to a week (as we'll have to request it from another library).
Peculiarities of searching for information on Russian authors
Russian is written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Rendering [transliterating] Russian names in our [Latin] alphabet can result in a number of different spellings.
- For example: Zamyatin/Zamiatin; Dostoevskii/Dostoievski/Dostoyevsky/Dostoevsky.
Take note of the different ways you see your author's name spelled and try them all when conducting a search (either in separate searches or connected with an "OR"). Click here to see an example. If you need additional help, consult your instructor or Michael Brewer, the Slavic librarian.