The Poisonwood Bible ENC1141 Class Guide  to Library Research

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Shirley Curtis-Ference | PCC Library Home Page | PCC Home Page

Where to Begin?

1. First look for some background information on your topic.

This "background check" usually reveals good keywords and subject headings that you can use to find more specific sources of information on your topic in books and periodical articles. You may also find this helps you to focus your topic area and helps you to identify sources that you may have otherwise overlooked.

General Encyclopedias

• Encyclopedia Britannica
• Encyclopedia Americana
• World Book
• Compton's

Try searching for "Congo - History" or "Colonization" or "Missionaries".
Remember to write down any names, keywords, dates, or other subject headings
you might want to use in later searches.

Reference Books - some suggested titles

• Worldmark Encyclopedia of the Nations
• Africa South of the Sahara 1991 (section on colonial rule in "Africa in Historical Perspective")
• The Statesman's Yearbook
• An African Biographical Dictionary
• Day by Day: The Fifties

*You wil find these titles in the PCC Reference Collection.

You can search the Online Catalog by subject, author, or title.

Electronic Resources:

Many additional resources are available to you electronically within the PCC Library and via the Internet. 

Encyclopedia Britannica Online (available through the PCC Remote Databases Access Link)

Encyclopedia of World Cultures - CD ROM resource (available within the PCC Library)

2. OK, now you know what was going on and you want to dig a bit deeper into the topic.

You can search for books in the Online Catalog using those great keywords and subject headings that you found in your background search.

* Some titles are already on reserve - ask for them at the Circ. Desk.

* Allow sufficient time for delivery if you plan to ILL materials.

* Check the bibliographies of your good finds for hot leads to other materials.

* The library has a limited amount of information on any one the topic; please, be considerate of your classmates and review the books that you plan to checkout carefully.

3. Now, it really gets fun... Finding magazine, journal, and newspaper articles.

Search the Electronic Databases for magazine, journal, and newspaper articles

If you search these resources for articles on your topic and you will find some interesting articles. Keep in mind that your events occurred in the 50's and 60's. EbscoHost indexes articles back 10 years.   Any articles you find through these tools will be current discussions of past events or reprints.

You can access the Electronic Resources through the
PCC Libraries Home Page.
Click on the link to
Databases or Remote Access Databases

Don't panic if you are new to using electronic resources...
The librarians are here to assist you

JUST ASK

The Real Stuff - Articles from the 50's & 60's

Take those dates, subject headings, and keywords you've grown to love and try them out in the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature (the big fat green indexes) or the New York Times Index which is right next door to the Reader's Guide. Now you can find articles written at the time about the events you are researching. Make sure you copy down the complete citation (or photocopy the page)

So… Where are these articles and how do you get them?
Check the blue Periodical Holdings Lists to see what titles we have here at PCC.
The Holdings List will tell you what titles the PCC Libraries have, for example:

* The New York Times is available on microfilm (MF) back to 1940
* Time is available in bound form from 1958 - 1983 and in MF from 1923 - 1957
* Life is available in bound form from 1937

4. What about the book?
Hunting for Literary Criticisms and Biographical Info.

This is a relatively current work so your best bets for finding reviews and criticisms may lie with periodical sources. You can use the print sources for literary criticisms and biographical information and you can access resources for criticisms and biographies through the Electronic Resources WebPages that we spoke of previously.

You can find biographical information on Mrs. Kingsolver by using Electronic Resources like the Biography Resource Center or the Literary Resource Center available through PCC's Remote Access Databases or you can use the Contemporary Authors Cumulative Index (PN771 .C61 1997) which will direct you to various print resources in the reference collection.

Suggested Resources for reviews and criticisms: (all are available through the Remote Access Databases link)

• Literature Resource Center
• Custom Newspapers
• Academic Search Elite (Example Below)

There's lots of good stuff available through the Internet.
... just remember you can't believe everything you see/read/hear on the Internet.
Well, you can if you want ... but it's not a good idea.

Take a close look at who authored the pages you read, when they were written, and consider why you should believe their information. Take a look at the how to evaluate web resources page to learn more.

Here are some sites that the librarians found that you might find interesting.
Feel free to use the keywords, dates and subject heading you've collected to do your own Internet searching and feel free to ask the librarians for assistance.