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History 190C & Asian American Studies 111 The Pacific Rim: China and Chinese America Winter 2005~ Y. Chen Library Research Guide

Librarian Contacts:

Research Librarian for History and Women's Studies: Joan Ariel  386 Langson Library  824-4970  jariel@uci.edu

Research Librarian for  Asian-American Studies, Political Science & Economics: Daniel Tsang 380 Langson Library 824-4978 dtsang@uci.edu

U.S. Government Information Librarian: Kay Collins  108 Langson Library  824-7290  kcollins@uci.edu

Research Librarian for Business and Managment: Harold Gee 145 Langson Library 824-8159 hgee@uci.edu

Special Collections: Steve MacLeod 500 Langson  Library    824-4967 smacleod@uci.edu

Contents:

This guide provides an introductory overview of library/bibliographic research in history focusing on key strategies and sources for researching topics related to the Pacific Rim, especially China and Chinese America. 

1. Historical Sources
2. Effective Research Skills
3. Search Types and Strategies
4. UCI Libraries Website and History Subject Guide
5. Guides to the Literature, Subject Dictionaries and Other Reference Works
6. Identifying and Locating Books and Other Monographic Literature
• ANTPAC: UCI Catalog
• Melvyl UC System Catalog
• WorldCat
7. Identifying and Locating Journal and Periodical Literature
• Selected Useful Resources
  
• Selected Web Indexes and Abstracts
• Historical Newspapers Online
• Full-Text Resources: Online/Electronic Journals
8. Primary Sources
   
9. Creating and Managing Citations and Bibliographies with Ease and Power: RefWorks and EndNote
   

• Ask a Librarian (virtually any question, via email or live chat)
• How to Connect from Home or Off Campus
• Interlibrary Loan




• History Subject Guide  

• Asian American Studies Subject Guide

• Also use other Subject Guides, depending on your topic; for example, Economics, Political Science, etc.
  
  
• News & Newspapers
  

Primary sources: Firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation.  The nature and value of a source cannot be determined without reference to the topic and questions it is meant to answer.  The same document, or other piece of evidence, may be a primary source in one investigation and secondary in another.  The search for primary sources does not, therefore, automatically include or exclude any format of research materials or type of records, documents, or publications.

Primary sources typically can include archives and manuscript material, photographs, letters and diaries, scrapbooks, newspapers and clippings, government publications, oral histories, magazines, published books, printed ephemera, and video and audio recordings.

Secondary sources: Sources  that analyze, assess, or interpret a topic under investigation, typically utilizing primary sources to do so.

Tertiary sources: Sources that  identify and locate primary and secondary sources; these include bibliographies, indexes, abstracts, encyclopedias, and other reference resources; available in multiple formats, ie. some are online, others only in print.

IMPORTANT:  Note that these categories are not mutually exclusive. A single item may be primary or secondary (or even tertiary) depending on your research topic and the use you make of that item.
 

2. Effective Research Skills

2.1. Start with topic analysis

• What is your topic, problem statement, and/or central question?
• Refine and diagram your topic (who, what, why, when, where, and how?).
• Identify keywords, synonyms, contemporary ways of referring to your topic that are no longer current (e.g., Negro for African American); make a written list of these for convenient referral in keyword searching.

• Research is an iterative process and the best researchers learn as they go.
• What resources and research tools have you used? Which ones have been the most productive?
• What terms have/have not worked?
• What new terms/names have you encountered in your searches?  Add these to your terminology list.
• Consider using bibliographic management software like EndNote to develop, organize, annotate, and manipulate bibliographic citations and  facilitate the production of manuscripts and the publication process. See section #9 below.

In doing bibliographic or  library-based research, there are three key approaches to identifying information and materials on a subject or topic: known item; keyword; and subject heading.  All are based on the "bibliographic record" for the book, article, or other item.

3.1.  Known Item

Search on a known title or author, then use subject headings in the bibliographic record to expand your retrieval to related items.  And, of course, in addition, use footnotes and bibliographic references.

Example:  Title:  Of Orphans and Warriors: Inventing Chinese American Culture and Identity

3.2. Keyword

In most library catalogs and databases, searches for your key words usually drawn from the following data fields:

• Books: title, series title, and/or subject heading words.
• Articles: article title, subject heading, abstract if available.

    Note:

• In some databases (ANTPAC included), you must use a single word, an exact phrase, or and between multiple words.
• Example: china and globalization
  
• In other databases (Melvyl included), the database automatically inserts an implicit and between multiple words and you do not have to type these nor worry about word order.
• Example: china globalization
  
 

• If in doubt or you get a zero result, try both approaches. 
  Never take zero for an answer; try other strategies and approaches.

A subject heading is a word or term that describes, often quite broadly, the contents of an information resource.  "Authorized" headings for U.S. libraries are generally determined by the Library of Congress (LCSH).  In addition to usage in catalog records for books, videotapes, and other library resources, many abstracting and indexing databases of articles use LCSH as the basis for their subject indexing.

Searches for subject heading(s) assigned by the Library of Congress or descriptors assigned by the index/database producer use a "controlled vocabulary."  The best way to identify subject heading(s) for your topic is to do a keyword search first, then note and link from subject headings of the most promising items.

Note:

• A subject search in ANTPAC is an exact subject heading search.
• In some databases,  "subject" searches may provide the option of searching by topic keywords, subject heading words, or exact subject heading.  Read search screens and select options carefully.

Sample LC subject headings for topics related to the Pacific Rim: China and Chinese America

• Asia -- Emigration and Immigration
  
• Asia -- Relations -- United States
• Asians -- California -- Los Angeles
• Big business -- China
  
• China -- Economic conditions
• China -- Emigration and immigration -- Social aspects
  
• China -- Foreign public opinion, American
  
• China -- History -- Tianamen Square Incident, 1989
  
• China -- Politics and government
  
• Chinatown (San Francisco, Calif.)
  
• Chinese -- California
• Chinese -- Foreign countries -- Cultural assimilation
  
• Chinese -- United States -- History
• Chinese American families
  
• Chinese American women -- History -- 20th century
  
• Chinese American women -- California -- San Francisco -- History -- 19th century
• Chinese Americans -- California -- Los Angeles -- History
  
• Chinese Americans -- Cultural assimilation
• Chinese Americans -- Ethnic identity
• Chinese Americans -- Historiography
• Cold War -- Social aspects -- United States
• Corporations, American -- China
  
• Immigrants -- California -- Social conditions -- 19th century
• Industrial policy -- China
• Intercultural communication -- Asia
• Investments, Foreign -- China
  
• Motion pictures -- China
• National characteristics, Chinese
  
• Negotiation in business -- China
  
• Popular Culture -- china
  
• Tibet (China) -- Foreign relations
  
• Tibet (China)-- Politics and government - 1951-
  
• United States -- Civilization -- East Asian influences
• United States -- Colonial question
• United States - Commerce -- China
  
• United States -- Emigration and immigration -- History -- 19th century
• United States -- Foreign relations -- China

• Human Rights in China (Organization)
  
• Jiang, Qing, 1910-
  
• Sun, Yat-sen, 1866-1925
• World Conference on Women (4th : 1995: Beijing, China)
  

3.4.1. Truncation:  Use trucation or wild card symbols (usually * and/or #) building on the root of a word to expand your retrieval.
Examples:

        histor*    =     history, historian, historical, historicism, etc.
        famil#     =      family, families, familial, etc
But caution:
        chin#         =     china, chinese, chinatown, but also chinchilla, chinook, etc.

Using AND between terms will give you a smaller set of retrievals, while using OR will get you more retrievals. This is called "boolean logic."   For more information, see Boolean Searching: A Primer

3.4.3.  Limiting/Modifying Search Results:

• Date:          Limiting result sets by dates can be a good approach when you particularly want current materials or are focusing on primary sources for a particular time period.
• Language:  Limit by language(s) that you can read to refine search results.
• Location:    Limit by library location to identify materials in Reference, Special Collections, Media Center, etc.
• Other:        Some databases also allow you to limit by: format, time period, etc.
  
  

The UCI Libraries Website provides an organized gateway for research across the disciplines.  Your familiarity with this resource will save you time and enhance your success in identifying research sources, services, and other useful information.  The sections on Online Research and the Subject Guides, created by the Research Librarians for each UCI academic program, are especially recommended.

5. Guides to the Literature, Subject Dictionaries, and Other Reference Works

Guides (or guides to the literature as they're sometimes called) provide the researcher with a basic introduction to the literature of a discipline. Guides list important bibliographies, dictionaries,directories, encyclopedias, periodical indexes, manuscript and statistical finding aids, etc. They may be  a useful first step in beginning research, helpful both in acquainting the researcher with critical sources in the field and assisting in organization and evaluation of research strategies. In other words, guides offer a structured overview of an academic discipline.

The key guide for history is:

• The American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature. New York: Oxford, 1995. 2 vols. Ref. Z6201 .A55 1995
  Considered by many to be the historian's bibliographic bible, this guide is one good place to begin researching any topic in any field of history. Hundreds of  historians from around the world have selected and comment on the best and most useful works in their fields--almost 27,000 annotated citations--to provide bibliographic guidance from prehistory to the twentieth century.

• Atlas of Asian-American History. Avakian, Monique. New York : Facts on File, c2002
  
• China : A Historical and Cultural Dictionary. Michael Dillon, ed. Richmond, Surrey : Curzon, 1998. Ref. DS733 C58523 1998
• Chinese History : A Manual. Endymion Wilkinson. Cambridge, Mass.: Published by the Harvard University Asia Center for the Harvard-Yenching Institute : Distributed by Harvard University Press, 2000.  Ref. DS735 .W695 2000
• The Columbia Guide to Modern Chinese History. R. Keith Schoppa. New York : Columbia University Press, c2000. Ref. DS755 .S635 2000.
• East Asia and the United States: An Encyclopedia of Relations Since 1784.  2 vols. James I. Matray, ed.  Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002.  Ref. DS 518.8 E22 2002.
• Encyclopedia of China : The Essential Reference to China, Its History and Culture. Dorothy Perkins. New York : Facts on File, c1999. Ref. DS705 .P47 1999
• Encyclopedia of American Social History. 3 vols. Macmillan, 1993. Ref. HN57 .E58 1993
• Encyclopedia of Multiculturalism.  New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1994.  Ref. E184 A1 E58 1994.
• Modern China : A Guide to a Century of Change.  Graham Hutchings.  Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001. Ref.  DS774 .H796 2001

The most comprehensive and current catalog to all holdings in the UCI Libraries.  Useful features include:

• Searching by collection: e.g., Entire; Government Information; Journals and Serials; Film and Video
• Limiting searches by: Language; Material Type; (Library) Location; Publisher; Year (of Publication).
• Direct submission of Recalls (when item is checked out)  and Interlibrary Loan* and Document Delivery Requests
• MY ANTPAC including:
• Preferred Searches - you can search the catalog in MY ANTPAC to save searches to a special file in your Patron Record. You can then request email alerts on "Preferred Searches." You can also request a hold on a title without having to retype your name and ID number.

Guide to Call Number & Subject Locations

6.2.  Melvyl UC System Catalog

6.2.1.
Melvyl®: UC System Catalog
Melvyl is a web-based gateway to the library holdings of the University of California Libraries and to those of the California Academy of Sciences, California Historical Society, California State Library, Center for Research Libraries, Graduate Theological Union, Hastings College of Law, and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

The database contains over 23,000,000 records, including books, periodicals or journal titles, videos, maps, sound recordings and much more. Melvyl allows you to browse records, save and mail items to your email account, set up a profile and Workspace so that you can save records and searches across sessions, and have email Updates automatically sent to you.

Highly Recommended:  Establish your profile and "Workspace" in new Melvyl  in order to:

• Save and view searches so they are available to you after you log out of your session.
• Save and view items after you log out of your session.
• Use the Update Service, an automated process that will perform searches defined by you at chosen intervals. The emailed results contain records that have been added to the Melvyl system during the previous interval (see Practitioners Guide 16.)
• Customize certain display preferences and save them across sessions, including the format of search results and the number of records displayed per page.
• Set your Email address for use with Updates and Request, the interlibrary loan service.

WorldCat is a"union catalog" databases for large groups of libraries that share cataloging information and access.   To be fully comprehensive in your research, you may wish to search this resource.

Note: Watch for UCI holdings statements and/or click on  (where available) to link to holdings in UC libraries.

WorldCat: The Onlince Computer Library Center (OCLC) union catalog for books and other materials in libraries worldwide.
An even larger bibliographic database than MELVYL, WorldCat includes citations for books, journals, manuscripts, maps, music scores, sound recordings, films, computer files, newspapers, slides, videotapes, etc., in a variety of languages, held in numerous libraries around the world. Coverage: 1000 A.D. - present.
 
 

7. Identifying and Locating Periodical Articles: Indexes and Abstracts

7.1. Selected Useful Resources

Tutorial:  Find Articles in Databases

• About databases
• Select a database
• Search for articles/other material
• Locate materials

Below are  selective listings of indexes most useful for history topics; depending on your topic, you may well need to consult other resources.

Note:

• Pay careful attention to the type and chronological scope of the database you are using as you select your search terms and evaluate your results.
• * indicates full-text resources or provides at least some articles full-text

7.2.1. History and Related Disciplines

America: History and Life (AHL)  1964-present
The most authoritative listing of periodical literature, book and media reviews, and dissertations in United States and Canadian history.  Covers over 1,700 journals published worldwide.

Search Tips:

• Use Advanced Search
• Use Keyword Search to begin, then if desired:
• Limit by language
• Indicate Time Period: For example,  1900H or 1980D. Click on magnifying glass icon to right of time period to browse options.
• Select document type: article
• Note subject headings (not LCSH, often quite general terms) and link to expand results if desired
• Note documentation
• Watch for  . Click on these to identify UC library holdings (via Melvyl), including full-text online if available.
• Email results to yourself from Output Options  change to full format and note your search strategy in subject line
• Once you have a productive search strategy(s), consider establishing a Clio Alert Profile

CLIO Alert allows a researcher to set up a research profile and then e-mails the researcher when items matching his or her profile are added to the database of choice. The screens for setting up a new profile or modifying an existing one can be  reached via the link on the search screen. To ensure success with a profile, use search criteria that have proven effective for searches of the current database.

Search Hints: See AHL above.

7.2.2 . Asian, Ethnic and Women's Studies:

Bibliography of Asian Studies.  1971-present
Contains over 410,000 records on all subjects (especially humanities and social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia Association for Asian Studies [via Association for Asian Studies]

Ethnic NewsWatch   1960- present
Full-text general reference database of the newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press covering both current and historical topics.

GenderWatch     1970 - present
Full text database of publications that focus on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas. Publications include academic and scholarly journals, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, regional publications, books, booklets and pamphlets, conference proceedings, and government, NGO and special reports.

Expanded Academic Index ASAP  1980 - present
Provides multi-disciplinary coverage from arts and the humanities to social sciences, science and technology; inlcudes scholarly journals, news magazines, and newspapers - many with full text and images.  Includes both popular and scholarly literature; for scholarly only, limit to refereed articles.

Lexis/Nexis Academic Universe
Nearly 5,000 publications span news, financial, medical, and legal information, the vast majority available in full text, with a limited number available in abstract form. Covers newspapers, magazines, wire services, federal and state court opinions, federal and state statutes, federal regulations, etc. News information is updated daily and wire services several times daily.

PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service) International  1972-present
Contains references to more than 460,000 journal articles, books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature, research reports, conference reports, publications of international agencies, microfiche, Internet material, and more. Newspapers and newsletters are not indexed.

Reader's Guide Retrospective   1890-1982
Provides citations (but not full text)  the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of 20th century America. Coverage: 1890 -1982

Reminder: Check for other Article Databases in the Subject Guides for disciplines related to your topic, e.g., Business, Political Science, Economics, etc.

7.3. Historical Newspapers/Magazines

Proquest Historical Newspapers Online:

• Los Angeles Times Historical    1881-1960+ (subsequent  years currently being loaded)
• New York Times Historical  1851-1999
• Wall Street Journal Historical   1889-1985
• Tip: You can also search all of these at once: Go to one of the databases then 1) click on Databases Selected link (at top under Basic Search), 2) scroll down the list of databases to Historical Databases;  3) mark those you want to search in combination; and 4) click on Continue button at bottom of page

7.4. Full-Text Resources: Online/Electronic Journals

Convenient access from:
    CDL: History,  Electronic Journals available to UC Irvine
    or
    UCI Libraries Website / Full-Text Journals

Specific Collections:

JSTOR   (Retrospective archive)
Provides searching and browsing access to the full text of back files of over 100 scholarly publications in dozens of academic disciplines, including History. Articles can be printed off using an Adobe PDF reader plug in to your Web browser (available on all public terminals in the UCI Libraries).
Note: for many journals does not include the latest 2-5 years, but often includes back issues from several decades past.

Project Muse (Current)
Full text of over 40 journals in the humanities and social sciences published by Johns Hopkins University Press. Full text coverage varies by journal title but ranges from 1993 to the present. Links to the full text of many articles available in CDL-hosted databases.
 
 

8. Primary Sources: Strategies and Selected Resources

In addition to the suggestions below, you may wish to consult:

    Systems and Serendipity: Identifying and Locating Primary Sources ~ A Guide to the UCI Libraries and Beyond   (J. Ariel)
 

8.1. Books: Strategies to Identify Primary Sources in Library Collections

         Use or adapt these strategies in ANTPAC, MELVYL®, or WorldCat:

1. Adding the subheading sources to the end of relevant Library of Congress Subject Heading (or use in a keyword search) obtains compilations of primary sources.  Please note, however, that this strategy is by no means comprehensive; use other strategies to complement this.
2. Use document* with keyword search; may retrieve collections of documents, documentary histories, etc.
3. Limit to Year of Publication, e.g., after 1800 and before 1900.
4. Limit to Location Special Collections (for ANTPAC searches)

The U.S. Government produces a mind-boggling amount of information.  The titles below are just a few resources that might be of use. You can also limit your search retrieval sets in ANTPAC to items located in "Langson-Gov Info" by using the "Limit/Sort" or Modify Search button.

If you want to use government information in your research, it is highly recommended that, near the beginning of the quarter, that you email Kay Collins , U.S. Government Information Librarian, regarding available information resources: kcollins@uci.edu.

• CIS U.S. Congressional Committee Hearings List, 1833- . Ref. KF40 .C56 1981
Provides access to House and Senate hearings by subject as well as name of witness. Parts XI and XII, 80th-91st Congresses, cover the 1950s.
• CIS U.S. Serial Set Index. Ref. Z1223 .Z9 C65
An ongoing collection of U.S. government publications compiled under the direction of Congress. Indexes congressional journals, administrative reports, and reports from federal agencies. Features some interesting rsources on "discrimination in education."
• Congressional Universe--Congressional Indexes, 1789-1969.
Online access to U.S. congressional indexes for published material and indexes to unpublished hearings.

Primary sources for China and Chinese America may include media (film and television), speeches by national leaders, presidential papers,CIA reports, congressional hearings, and documentary films. A brief sampling of some primary sources available at UCI Libraries, with call numbers (all in Langson Library) supplied in bold  after the resource title, is listed below.

For additional suggestions, see Identifying and Locating Primary Sources

• China, Special Studies, 1970-1980 Frederick, Md.: University Publications of America, 1981 Microfilm M 000371 Langson Microforms
• Lists Of Chinese Passengers Arriving At Seattle (Port Townsend), Washington 1882-1916 Washington, D.C. : National Archives and Records Administration, 1985
  Microfilm M 000755 Langson Microforms
• 
  

• China 21 San Francisco, Calif. : Distributed by NAATA Distribution, c2001 DS796.S25 C45 2001 Langson Multimedia ResCtr
  Interviews with four Chinese families on how they experience the 21st century in China
  
• From Madera, California To Kaiping, China Berkeley, CA : Center for Educational Telecommunications, [2001] F869.M2 F76 2001 Langson Multimedia ResCtr
  Filmed in Madera, California, and Kaiping, China, this is a true story of how a 6th grade class rescued a 70 year-old Chinese burial ground from historical oblivion. As they raised local awareness of the site, the town moved to preserve and restore the old cemetery site. Miraculously, the students efforts led to the discovery in Kaiping, China, of the elderly son of one of the men buried in the cemetery, a father not heard from for seven decades. In the house that the father's American wages helped to build in China, the grateful and amazed son and his children and grandchildren are presented with a photo of their lost patriarch's tombstone
  
• The Great Step Forward China Women In The 20th Century Princeton, N.J. : Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 2004 HQ1767 .G743 2004 Langson Multimedia ResCtr
  A two-part look at how Chinese women broke with their age-old traditions of subservience and prejudice to confront issues and agitate for reforms in the 20th century
  
• Tu Wei-Ming A Confucian Life In America Princeton, NJ : Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 2001  B127.C65 T8 2001 Langson Multimedia ResCtr
  Bill Moyers interviews Tu Wei-ming who discusses the relevance of Confucian philosophy to our times and the recent student movement in China. Tu Wei-ming suggests that the humanism of Confucius can help us sort out some of the ethical problems of today
• Note: Many more videos/dvds about China and Chinese Americans are available.  To identify these, do a keword search in ANTPAC and limit to Location Langson Multimedia Resource Center.
  

This department includes numerous collections of printed brochures, planning documents, newspapers, maps, photographs, pamphlets, and manuscript materials, a number of which may relate to this course.  Of particular potential interest is the political literature/pamphlets collection.

Search tip: 

• Do a keyword search in ANTPAC and modify/limit to:
• Location : Langson Special Collections

8.2. Internet Website Directories

While Google (http://www.google.com/) can be an excellent internet search engine for finding resources, even better sometimes are searchable web directories, which provide sites that  have been reviewed and selected by historians, librarians, and other experts.  Such directories include:

• The Best of the History Sites
An "award-winning portal created for students, history educators, and general history enthusiasts..."
• The Librarians Index to the Internet
Searchable guide to high quality, non-commercial internet resources evaluated and selected by librarians.
• The Scout Report
The Scout Report Archives are a searchable and browseable collection of over seven years' worth of critical annotations of Internet sites, mailing lists, and other online resources carefully selected by librarians and subject experts.

9. Creating & Managing Bibliographies with Ease and Power: RefWorks and EndNote

Bibliographic management software allows you to store, manipulate, and automatically format citations for the materials referenced in your research. Using either EndNote or RefWorks, you can import citations from library databases, format them into a completed bibliography, and insert them into a paper. Choose the program that most closely matches your needs.

RefWorks (New! Free!) is a basic web-based program that, as of January 2005, is freely available online to UCI  students, faculty and staff. It serves the needs of most undergraduates and those not needing to manage an extensive bibliography.

RefWorks:

• Workshops to be arranged.  Contact cjwoo@uci.edu if you are interested in being notified.
  
• RefWorks Quick Start Guide
• Tutorial

EndNote: 

• Guide: Introduction to EndNote, Ariel, HumaniTech and UCI Libraries, January 2005
• Tutorial