Freshman Seminar: Leaders: An Anthropological Perspective (Earle)

Finding Books

Use NUcat (the online catalog) to identify books that the library has, as well as journal titles, microfilm, videos, and other catalogued material. Books are excellent sources of overviews and substantial material on a particular topic, but do not necessarily reflect the most current events. NUcat will also tell you whether material is in the main library or in another Northwestern University library. More information on searching NUcat can be found in the online guide How to Find a Book

Finding Articles

Use journal article databases to track search for articles in journals and magazines. Articles usually have a specific focus, are relatively short, and can be very current. Some databases, particularly the general ones, include the full text of the article.

Examples of general databases are:
Academic Search Premier
Academic OneFile

Use discipline specific databases to dig deep in the scholarly literature of a particular field of study. For anthropology, a couple key databases are:
Anthropology Plus The major index to anthropology journals
Anthrosource Full-text journals published by the American Anthropological Association.

Additional useful databases for anthropology are:
JSTOR Full-text of important journals in anthropology and other disciplines. WATCH OUT: Most journals in JSTOR do NOT include the most recent 3-5 years.
International Bibliography of the Social Sciences An interdisciplinary database for the social sciences.

You can find more databases under the "Databases" tab on the library's home page.


Some databases will give only a citation for an article. To find the full-text of the article click the purple "Find it @ NU" button. This searches across all databases to find the full article.

eHRAF

A unique tool for anthropological research is the eHRAF Collection of Ethnography With eHRAF you can search and compare cultural traits across many different cultures from around the world.

Online eHRAF tutorial

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Encyclopedia of Anthropology
Dictionary of the Social Sciences

More dictionaries and encyclopedias

Need Help?

Get in touch with librarians at the Reference Desk or contact me directly.

Scott Garton
Reference Department
Email: s-garton@northwestern.edu
Office phone: 847.491-3825
Reference desk phone: 847.491.7656