Selected reference sources: philosophy, religion and mythology

Supplementary reading
Audi, Robert. “Philosophy: A Brief Guide for Undergraduates.” Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi. http://philosophy.tamucc.edu/program/apa-brief-guide-for-undergraduates

“Religion.” Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online. 2004. http://go.grolier.com/

“Mythology.” Encyclopedia Americana. Grolier Online. 2004. http://go.grolier.com/

Doyle, Bernard. Mythology. Encyclopedia Mythica. http://www.pantheon.org/articles/m/mythology.html

Folklore. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folklore

Philosophy
Print reference sources
See University of Winnipeg subject guide: “Philosophy (Print-Only).” http://libguides.uwinnipeg.ca/content.php?pid=3123&sid=16246

Online sources
See University of Winnipeg subject guide: “Philosophy” http://libguides.uwinnipeg.ca/philosophy

University of Guelph Philosophy subject guide
http://web.archive.org/web/20100616201855/http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/research/subject_&_course_guides/index.cfm?fuseaction=SubjectGuides.getGuide&code=psychology

Religion
Print reference sources
See University of Winnipeg subject guide: “Religious Studies (Print-Only).” http://web.archive.org/web/20040915085323/http://cybrary.uwinnipeg.ca/find/guides/guideDisplay.cfm?guideID=108

Online sources
See University of Winnipeg subject guides http://web.archive.org/web/20060721194146/http://cybrary.uwinnipeg.ca/find/guides/guideDisplay.cfm?guideID=73

Theology http://web.archive.org/web/20060519203404/http://cybrary.uwinnipeg.ca/find/guides/guideDisplay.cfm?guideID=75

“World Religions On The Web: A Guide To Some Of The Most Helpful Sites.” College and Research Libraries News, June 2002. http://web.archive.org/web/20080919042529/http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2002/june/worldreligions.cfm

Religious Studies Internet Links http://library.wlu.ca/subject/religion_and_theology/websites

Virtual Religion Index http://virtualreligion.net/vri/

Mythology and Folklore
Print Reference Sources

Search U of W catalogue using “Advanced Keyword Search” interface, keyword mythology or keyword folklore limit location to Reference (UW)

Internet sources
American Folklife Center (Library of Congress) http://www.loc.gov/folklife/

Academic Info: Mythology http://www.academicinfo.net/myth.html

British Columbia Folklore Society. What is Folklore? http://www.folklore.bc.ca/Whatsfolk.htm

Folklore Studies Association of Canada: Other Links
http://web.archive.org/web/20051122043308/http://www.fl.ulaval.ca/celat/acef/links.htm

Internet Public Library: Mythology & Folklore http://web.archive.org/web/20090526081306/http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/soc70.50.00/

MythSearch.com http://web.archive.org/web/20040901074809/http://www.mythsearch.com/

York University Libraries. Mythology Research Guide. http://web.archive.org/web/20101023232349/http://www.library.yorku.ca/ccm/rg/sm/mythology

Philosophy

What is philosophy?

• It’s a study that seeks to understand the mysteries of existence and reality.
• It tries to discover the nature of truth and knowledge and to find what is of basic value and importance in life.
• Philosophy arises out of wonder, curiosity, and the desire to know and understand.
• Philosophy is thus a form of inquiry.
• It’s a process of analysis, criticism, interpretation , and speculation
• 
  

Philosophy

The discipline concerned with basic principles of reality; methods for investigation and study; and the logical structures, systems, and interrelationships among all fields of knowledge.

(Blazek & Aversa, 2000, p. 28)

Origin of term

• The term philosophy itself comes from the Greek philosophia, which means love of wisdom.
• Ancient Greeks were the first known western philosophers dating back to 500 BC.
• Non-western philosophy: long history in China and India
• Western philosophy: generally developed independently of Eastern philosophy

Philosophy in everyday lives

Every institution of society is based on philosophic ideas:

• Law
• Government
• Collective versus independent
• Religion
• Traditions
• Family
• Raising
• Marriage
• More than one
• Wife can be acceptable
• Industry
• Worker treatment should be greater than productivity
• Business
• Education

The basic idea is of good understanding and treatment of others, although numerous countries have a different understanding.

Branches of philosophy

• Aesthetics
• Ethics
• Logic
• The study of the principles and methods of reasoning
• Studies what rules a person must follow in order to think correctly
• The syllogism is its most familiar form
• All terriers are dogs.
• All terriers are mammals.
• All mammals are dogs.
• Although this reasoning makes sense, it is false.

Metaphysics

• The study of the fundamental nature of reality and existence and of the essences of things
• Often divided into two areas:
• Ontology
• The study of being
• Cosmology
• The study of the origin and nature of the physical universal (the cosmos)

Metaphysics deals with such questions as:

• What is reality?
• What is the distinction between appearance and reality?
• What are the most general principles and concepts by which our experiences can be interpreted and understood?
• Do we possess free will or are our actions determined by causes over which we have no control?

Epistemology

• Epistemology aims to determine the nature, basis, and extent of knowledge
• Asks questions such as:
• What are the features of genuine knowledge as distinct from what appears to be knowledge?
• What is truth, and how can we know what is true and what is false?
• Are there different kinds of knowledge, with different grounds and characteristics?

Philosophical theology

• Is there a God?
• If there is, what is He/She like?
• Is man immortal?
• Is God’s goodness a factor in the direction of nature and of human life?
• If God does direct man’s life, in what sense is man free?
• Why is there evil in the world?

Philosophical psychology

• What exactly is man’s mind?
• Is mind basically a soul or spirit?
• Or neither?
• Or is mind a process that depends on the body?
• Is it psychological or physical?
• How are mind and body related?
• Philosophical psychology also addresses the many concepts having an essential mental element:
• Belief
• Desire
• Emotion
• Feeling
• Sensation
• Passion
• Will
• Personality
• and others.

Ethics

• Deals with human nature and matters of conduct, formulates principles to guide moral decisions
• What makes right actions right and wrong actions wrong?
• What is good and what is bad?
• What are the proper values of life?
• See: Hinman, Lawrence. Ethics Update. http://web.archive.org/web/20040821061535/http://ethics.acusd.edu/index.html

Some subfields of ethics

• Political philosophy
• Examines the nature and possible arguments for various competing forms of political organization, such as
• Laissez-faire capitalism
• Everyone sinks/swims
• Welfare democracy (capitalistic and socialistic)
• Anarchism
• Communism
• Karl Marx research from British Library
• Fascism, etc.
• Hitler
• Franco
• Mussolini
• Social philosophy
• Treats such moral problems with large-scale social dimensions as
• The basis of compulsory education
• The possible grounds for preferential treatment of minorities
• Traditionally shut out
• The justice of taxation
• Rich get richer, poor gets poorer, middle can get by
• The appropriate limits, if any, on free expression in the arts
• censorship
• Law philosophy
• Explores such topics as
• What law is
• What kinds of laws there are
• How law is or should be related to morality
• What sorts of principles should govern punishment and criminal justice in general
• Medical ethics
• Examines such questions as
• Standards applying to physician-patient relationships
• Moral questions raised by special procedures, such as abortion and ceasing of life-support for terminal patients
• Ethical standards for medical research, for instance genetic engineering and experimentation using human subjects
• Business ethics
• Explores such questions as
• How moral obligations may conflict with the profit motive and how these conflicts may be resolved
• Free trade/NAFTA moving production to Mexico because it had cheaper labour; was it right for Canadians to lose their jobs?
• The nature and scope of the social responsibilities of corporations, their rights in a free society, and their relations to other institutions
• Aesthetics (Esthetics)
• Aesthetics deals with the creation and principles of art and beauty
• It’s wider than Philosophy of Art as it involves both works of art created by human beings and the beauty found in nature
• Asks such questions as:
• How can people’s taste in the arts be improved?
• Collect non-popular articles
• Good literature
• Classical music
• How should the arts be taught in the schools?
• appreciation
• Do governments have the right to restrict artistic expression?
• Censorship
• Local community standards
• Philosophy of language
• The nature of language
• The nature of meaning
• The relations between words and things
• The various theories of language learning
• See as a whole
• Sound out
• Terminology
• Until the 1700s, no distinction was made between science and philosophy. For example, physics was called natural philosophy.
• Psychology was part of what was called moral philosophy.
• Logic has always been considered a branch of philosophy. However, logic has now developed to the point where it is also a branch of mathematics.
• Other subfields:
• Philosophy of History
• Philosophy of Mathematics
• Philosophy of Education
• Philosophy of Feminism
• Philosophy of Linguistics
• Philosophy of Criticism
• Philosophy of Culture
• Philosophy of Film

Non-western philosophies

• Major movements include
• Buddhism
• Jainism
• Hindu philosophies
• Confucianism and non-Confucianism
• Taiosm
• The Chinese Yin-Yang School
• Islamic philosophy

Western and non-Western philosophy

• The line between the two is now less clear now than it once was. Western philosophies have penetrated deeply into the non-Western world, and vice-versa.
• Marxism may have been for a time the most significant
• Now waning
• Discredited
• Though great interest in non-Western thought (often in association with religious interests), very few philosophers in the West have come to “do philosophy” in a non-Western world
• Subject to change. New philosophy teaching methods relating to current affairs

Philosophy and libraries

Interdisciplinary nature of philosophy

A cohesive body of literature exists that may be classified as ‘philosophy’. However, philosophy attached to other subject areas may be spread throughout the library, thereby complicating access since all works will not be together physically.

The literature of philosophy

• Literature of philosophy widely used and particular authors well cited in social sciences and sciences as well as the humanities
• Heavy reliance on monographs by scholars
• Primary sources (also translations)
• Most studied: Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Hume, Descartes, Hegel, Marx, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Kant, Husserl, Russell, and Dewey

Philosophy users

• Laypersons
• Popularizing works
• General students
• Textbooks
• • Scholars
• Scholarly works

Religion

The study of man’s beliefs and practices in relation to God, gods, or the supernatural.

(Lester Asheim, The Humanities and the Library, 1956, p. 2)

• Very broad discipline
• No one religion
• Religious literature perhaps the largest subject class in extent and variety
• Bible
• Koran
• Scriptures
• Sacred texts
• Concordance
• Commentaries
• Comparatives
• Hymn books
• Prayer books
• Tracks
• Biblical stories/books

Many facets of religious studies

“The religious studies curriculum has become, increasingly, a crazy quilt of courses encompassing many disciplines, eras, religions, languages, and methods of enquiry.”

• Cultic institutions dedicated to religious ends
• Mainstream religions, cults and sects
• Charismatic figures
• Sociology of religion
• Christian history and theology
• Biblical studies
• Anthropology of religion
• The Bible as literature
• Archaeological
• Philosophy of religion
• Interdisciplinary
• Psychology of religion
• Theology
• Islamic studies
• Jewish studies
• Faith
• Women and religion
• Their place
• Comparative religion
• Religion and literature
• Religion and the arts
• Michelangelo
• Images of Mary and Jesus
• Only date back to the 15th century
• Expressions
• Religion and science
• Church history
• Geography of religion
• Relates to archaeology
• History of religion
• Various types
• Religious ethics
• Near Eastern languages and literatures
• East Asian, African and Indian religions
• Religion and society
• Separation
• Religious education
• Contemporary religious thought, etc.

Changes in study of religion

• Since World War II the academic study of religion has generally prospered in North American colleges and universities
• The more conservative faith based institutions have tended to retain an exclusively Christian focus
• Secular institutions, responding to ecumenical and secularizing forces, have broadened their programs
• The amalgamation of philosophy and religious studies are quite common
• Generally, the recent tendency has been away from a sole focus on the Judaeo-Christian tradition to more global perspectives
• Today, as such areas as Jewish studies, African religions, eastern religion, religion and women, etc. are increasingly taught, more often than not they and other religion courses are taught by non-clerics.
• Comparative religion and history of religion have been particularly big growth subjects
• Liberation theory has also been very popular

Library inadequacy

• Recent growth of Religious Studies have left many, even large, libraries with very shallow collections in the field, particularly with respect to primary source documents as well as interpretive works now out of print
• E.g. growing interest in Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, and Confucianism

“Innovative” resources now common

Scholars often make use of materials not previously considered important to the study of religion:

• Myths and folktales
• Poetry and devotional epics
• Psychoanalytic tracts and case studies
• Newspapers
• Proper journals and journals from other disciplines
• Studies and theoretical works from the social sciences
• The published writings of feminists, Third World commentators, etc.

Libraries need a totally balanced collection – difficiult

• Also often difficult to categorize religious materials neatly or easily:
• In LC, for example, most religious materials are in the BL-BX classification, but religious ethics is in BJ, religious dance and aspects of primitive religions in GV, religious music in M, and religion in literature and religious drama in PN

Great need for a collection policy statement

• While a policy is of course needed to ensure the integrity and comprehensiveness of the collection, it will also help safeguard against undue pressure from specific “difficult” groups or individual patrons
• Library holdings must be both multidisciplinary and cross-cultural
• Must have a Global Perspective: “Only by locating Western traditions in the total history of humankind can one truly appreciate the commonalities these share with other religions as well as the uniqueness and integrity of each religious tradition”

Major religious literature divisions

• Theology
• Philosophy of religion
• Science of religion (scientific study of religion)
• Personal religion
• Sacred scriptures
• Bible
• Koran
• Commentaries
• Popularizations, biography, devotional

“Popular literature”

• Includes the fiction, inspirational works pamphlets, sermons, music, and self-help materials produced by many religious and secular houses as well as by local congregations and other groups

Unpublished materials create problems

• Church minutes and records
• Collections of sermons
• Manuscript autobiographies
• Pamphlets and religious tracts
• Travelers’ accounts
• Pilgrimages
• Oral histories
• Personal correspondence
• And so on

This information is often poorly documented and just as often very scattered

Housed in churches, provincial, and academic affiliated collections

Microform collections are very important

Older material may no longer be made. Microformed or scanned reproductions are cheaper to make and ensures that more access is available to materials that have been around for centuries

Computers in religion

• Increasing importance of Internet resources
• Concordancing and indexing
• Electronic texts
• E-mail
• List servs

Mythology

A body or collection of myths belonging to a people and addressing their origin, history, deities, ancestors, and heroes.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company

Deals with Gods and Goddesses and bigger than life collections, e.g. myth of creation. Associated with Greek and Roman mythology, myths and legends

• Myths are concerned with the supernatural and are especially associated with religious feasts, festivals, rites and beliefs
• Mythology often classified by social scientists as part of primitive religion
• Links to anthropology, classics, literatures, theology

Folklore

1. The traditional beliefs, myths, tales, and practices of a people, transmitted orally. 2. The comparative study of folk knowledge and culture.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company

• Term coined in 1846 to replace “popular antiquities”
• Relatively new
• Traditions relating to people
• Now an independent discipline in universities
• Newfoundland’s Memorial University probably has one of the biggest collections

Folk Heritage Collections

Problems of preservation and access

See: Folk Heritage Collections in Crisis http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub96/contents.html

Oral traditions and folk songs recorded on tape will deteriorate over time; not to mention the disappearance of equipment to play

Academic Disciplines: Humanities. DDP Gen ED 300. Washington State University Libraries.

Academic Disciplines: Humanities. DDP Gen ED 300. Washington State University Libraries. http://libguides.wsulibs.wsu.edu/content.php?pid=108535&sid=2713058

After scholars have communicated informally with colleagues via the invisible college, performed literature searches, and consulted their own professional reading collections, they develop a research design for a specific research project. 

When the project is complete, the scholar may communicate the research results at a professional conference, and/or publish the article in a refereed journal, laying out the results of the research in a highly defined manner. Refereed journals have editorial boards and editors who carefully sift articles submitted to them and judge them by exciting standards, such as soundness of research methodology, quality of writing and presentation, and originality of ideas. In this sense the editors are exercising a gatekeeping function: that is, they control what gets published according to their view of what is valuable or appropriate to their discipline or sub-discipline at the time. This process of “quality control” is exercised by colleagues or other people in the same field and is therefore called peer review. 

Journal articles are often later reviewed, and critiqued by other scholars familiar with the subject. If the original research article proves especially significant, its results may be discussed in a monograph (book) summarizing research on specific topics in the field. 

Finally, though years later, the results may be mentioned in a specialized encyclopedia – by which time the results may have been significantly challenged or questioned by much newer research. Other researchers may find new ideas for research on this topic at various stages of this process; it is likely, though, that they will be plugged into the invisible college and therefore will not be dependent on older sources such as encyclopedias. This cyclical pattern of original research, followed by a chain of various publication formats, is known as the publication cycle. 

There are, of course, variations on the basic pattern which reflect the differing orientations of the sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

Image from: http://www.uri.edu/library/staff_pages/kinnie/lib120/periodical.html

Interdisciplinary research

If you’ve read the “Discourse” module, you’ve learned about the main building blocks which shape all of the various academic disciplines – the invisible college, primary and secondary resources, discourse communities, and publication cycle. 

Of course, there are vast difference in the orientation and approach to knowledge among these three schools of knowledge. Increasingly, scholars of all disciplines conduct “interdisciplinary research” which draws from not just one academic discipline, but two or more disciplines.

This is especially true in the Social Sciences. This approach to research recognizes that most research topics spill over into other disciplines. For example, the topic of “learning disabilities” pertains not only to education, but also psychology and even sociology. When you determine which academic discipline(s) your research draws on, you are also determining many of the qualities your project or paper will contain.

http://web.archive.org/web/20040826004004/http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/electric/trainingmods/Academic_Disciplines/disciplines.htm

What is discourse?

The word “discourse” is a fairly common one, although we may interchange it for the word “discussion” or “conversation” in everyday speech. To better understand the full meaning of the word, we will look at how it is defined within The Oxford English Dictionary. The Oxford English Dictionary provides us with several definitions of the term “discourse”. The first two definitions below are somewhat archaic now, but still hold relevance for out discussion: 

• “Process or faulty of reasoning”, as in the phrase “discourse of reason”
• “A spoken or written treatment of a subject, in which it is handled or discussed at length”
• “Familiarity with a subject; conversancy” and “mutual intercourse of language”

Briefly think about what discourse, or conversation, between individuals requires. They need to speak the same language, for example. Discourse is further facilitated by shared assumptions, cultural cues, and values. Groups of people who communicate with these shared qualities can be called discourse communities.

What is Academic Discourse?
Academic disciplines are just one example of discourse communities. Attorneys, physicians, carpenters, and any other profession you can identify make up their own discourse communities. Discourse communities share common understandings, norms, and conventions for communicating in their discipline, particularly in writing. You might imagine that all biologists, for example, agree on certain facts and use specific terminology to describe those facts. This notion of discourse communities will help you understand some of the varieties of language and search vocabularies used in various search tools as you do your own research. 

Scholars and researchers share some distinctive habits and practices, especially in their methods of communicating with each other. Many rely heavily on their colleagues for information about new developments in their fields. They may confer by phone, communicate by e-mail, pass drafts of research articles back and forth by regular mail or e-mail, and attend conferences in their specialities where they learn by word-of-mouth about the latest research, teaching practices, or other trends in their disciplines. 

Because they use informal communication channels, scholars and re searchers are often described as members of the invisible college. The invisible college is a network or web of informal communication among individuals with similar interests. It contrasts with the more formal ways that scholars use for obtaining information, such as doing literature reviews in libraries. The invisible college lacks formal organizational structure, and formality in its method of communication. “Invisibility” describes a component of its very existence. 

More formal ways in which researchers communicate are through the publication of conference papers, journal articles and books. Publications of this type usually undergo a strict “peer review” which ensures the quality and accuracy of these professional, researched materials. 

http://libguides.wsulibs.wsu.edu/content.php?pid=108535&sid=816702

Reference: social sciences: subject information sources

Subject information sources

• A subject reference source can be defined as a publication in which items of information about one particular subject…are brought together from many sources and arranged so that individual items can be found quickly and easily.(Gates. Guide to the Use of Libraries and Information Sources. 7th ed. 1994, p. 159)
• Provide specialized definitions and explanations for words and phrases not found in general word dictionaries
• The more specific a definition, the less likely it will be found in a general word dictionary
• Trace the growth of important ideas in a subject area
• Provide an introduction to the development of the literature of a subject
• E.g. bibliography
• Give authoritative information on major questions and issues in a specialized area
• Explain and clarify concepts
• Locate, describe and evaluate the literature of the field
• Provide facts which indicate trends and they summarize the events of a given year in a given subject field (Gates. Guide to the Use of Libraries and Information Sources. 7th ed. 1994, p. 159)
• E.g. Annual, yearbook

Subject information sources: kinds and purposes

• Bibliographies and guides
• Point out literature in question
• Provide descriptive and evaluative information not included in catalog record and point out library materials not listed in catalogue, e.g. periodical articles, parts of books
• Arrange works according to form: dictionaries, histories, encyclopaedias, handbooks, indexes and books of criticism (in literature field)
• Sample titles:
• Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature
• A Reader’s Guide to the Great Religions
• Indexes
• Indicate where periodical articles on a subject can be found
• Indicate collections in which plays, short stories, essays and poems can be found
• Analyze books and parts of books
• Sample titles:
• Short Story Index
• Art Index
• Abstracts (a brief digest or summary which gives the essential points of an article, pamphlet, book, monograph, or report)
• Abstracts contain more information and descriptions than can be found in indexes. This helps the reader decide if they want to read the material, if the title doesn’t reflect its content. Examples of abstracts include ERIC and Ebsco.
• Abstract journal: a collection of abstracts in a particular field, include bibliographic info to find work as do indexes
• Usually gives researcher enough information to decide if entire work should be consulted
• If non-English language work abstract may be in English or original language of work
• Sample titles:
• Historical Abstracts
• Psychological Abstracts
• Dictionaries
• Provide specialized definitions and explanations of terminology and concepts
• Help to establish terminology
• Serve as a guide to current as well as historical usage of words and phrases
• Give short, concise answers to questions
• May give chronology
• May give biographical information
• May give pronunciation
• Sample title:
• Harvard Dictionary of Music
• Encyclopaedias
• Give summary treatment of the different phases and aspects of a subject
• Explain historical backgrounds, trends, and the influence of events outside the subject area, such as the influence of social conditions on the literature of the period
• Trace the development of ideas in a subject field
• Sample titles:
• Encyclopedia of World Art
• The Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Handbooks and manuals
• Identify references, allusions, dates, quotations and characters in literature
• Summarize literary points
• Provide statistics and useful bits of information
• Give instructions in specialized areas
• Sample titles:
• The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature
• Halliwell’s Film & Video guide
• Yearbooks and annuals
• Summarize events of the past year, including research projects undertaken and completed
• Provide a source for hard-to-locate items of information
• Sample titles:
• The Mental Measurements Yearbook
• The Bowker Annual
• Collections (anthologies)
• Bring together in one place selections or quotations from essays, poetry, drama, short stories, periodicals and other forms of literature
• Serve as source materials for courses in literature, history, education, psychology, and other subject fields
• Sample titles:
• The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
• Documents in British History
• Atlases and gazetteers
• Provide geographical information in any subject area in maps, text, or both
• Give overall picture emphasizing location of industries, products, literature
• Sample titles:
• Oxford Bible Atlas
• British History Atlas
• Biographical dictionaries
• Provide concise information about important persons in a subject field: authors, scholars, scientists, educators
• May include bibliographies and evaluations of an author’s work
• Sample titles:
• Twentieth Century Authors
• Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians
• Reference histories give factual information, trends, and main facts of development, covering
• Chronology
• Interpretation of events
• Biographical data
• Bibliographical information
• Sample titles:
• The Oxford History of English Literature
• The Cambridge History of American Literature
• Professional journals provide up-to-date articles, essays, book reviews, and other material relating specifically to the subject matter of a given branch of knowledge
• Sample titles:
• The Canadian Historical Review
• Canadian Journal of Philosophy
• Online sources
• Online versions of many of the foregoing resources exist
• When using Web resources be sure to evaluate the site’s authority, accuracy/quality, objectivity, currency, and coverage

Humanities

• “The theoretical broadening which comes from having many humanities subjects on the campus is offset by the general dopiness of the people who study these things…”
  
  --Richard Phillips Feynman (1918-88), American physicist, shared Nobel – quantam electrodynamics 
• “America has not always been kind to its artists and scholars. Somehow the scientists always seem to get the penthouse while the arts and humanities get the basement.”
  
  -- Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908-73), 36th US President, Democrat

Definition

• No single authoritative definition for the Humanities.
• “Imagine a world in which you were unable to write; imagine a world in which you were unable to read; imagine a world in which you were unable to look at any pictures; imagine a world in which you were unable to hear any music; imagine a world where you knew nothing of other cultures so you did not know where you wanted to travel; imagine a world in which you could not imagine, in which there were no novels or plays, there was no science fiction, there was no poetry. Imagine a world in which there were no values, in which the words love, justice, equality, right, wrong, good and evil did not exist. Imagine a world in which there were no theodicies. Finally, imagine a world without all these things. That would be a world without the humanities.” 
  
  
  Kate Stimpson, “The Humanities in Everyday Life” in Hilda Smith, ed. The Humanities and Civic Responsibility (Washington, D.C.: Council of Chief State School Officers, 1986), 33-47.

• “Humans “tall, dance, sing, paint, praise the beauties of their beloved; they tell stories, maintain legends, build monuments, try to discover facts, live by rules, make choices between better and worse, complain about injustice; they puzzle over the mysterious ways of God and man. And all these activities human beings bring passion.” The Humanities are the “disciplines that comment on and appraise such activities, that reflect on their meaning and seek to clarify the standards by which they should be judged.”

Charles Frankel

• “Beyond university walls, the humanities moonlight. They engage citizens in literature discussions at public libraries; in re-creations of history at museums; and in debating civic, ethical, and community issues at public forums nationwide. The humanities inform videotapes on public television, dramatizations at historic places, interpretations at archaeological sites, and talks exploring performances of music and theatre. More Americans attend museums and historic sites than sporting events.”

Naomi F. Collins. Culture’s New Frontier: Stalking a Common Ground.

• “The humanities are the stories, the ideas, and the words that help us make sense of our lives and our world. The humanities introduce us to people we have never met, places we have never visited, and ideas that may have never crossed our minds. By showing how others have lived and thought about life, the humanities help us decide what is important in our own lives and what we can do to make them better. By connecting us with other people, they point the way to answers about what is right or wrong, or what is true to our heritage and our history. The humanities help us address the challenges we face together in our families, our communities, and as a nation.”

Ohio Humanities Council. What Are The Humanities? http://www.ohiohumanities.org/grant/what

• Definition:
• No single authoritative definition for the Humanities.
• Those fields of study which are “dedicated to the disciplined development of verbal, perceptual, and imaginative skills needed to understand experience.” (Commission on the Humanities. The Humanities in American Life: Report of the Commission on the Humanities. Berkeley: Univ. of Calif. Press, c1980. http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft8j49p1jc&brand=ucpress) 
• Branches of knowledge that investigate human beings, their culture, and their self-expression. (“Humanities.” Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. 2012. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/276026/humanities) 

	Humanities	Social sciences
Art		Anthropology
Literature		Business and economics
Music		Education
Philosophy		Political Science
Religion		Psychology
		Sociology

Humanities are considered to be Liberal or Fine Arts, or traditional subjects. Sometimes you have to think about which subject is being analysed, and perhaps double check because this can affect where you may find information. History, for example, includes information regarding dates, names, stories, battles and well-known and political battles. You also have to consider what actually happened, and the cause and effect of such events.

Characteristics of scholarly humanities literature and its users

• Question of value
• Is this right?
• Individualistic
• Tendency to work along
• Pursuing passion
• Person’s interpretation
• Lack of standardized/controlled vocabulary
• Under numerous terms
• Library=laboratory
• Read to formulate opinion
• Preference for books/pamphlets
• Tendency
• Numerous books on topics
• Web increasing in importance
• Communication
• Projects
• Greater spread of individual titles used
• Browsing important

Social sciences and humanities: Selected reference sources

Bibliographies/guides
REF Z 1035.1 A353
American Reference Books Annual
Also available at http://arba.lu.com/login.asp

REF Z 548 A72 1997
ARBA Guide to Subject Encyclopedias and Dictionaries, 2nd ed.
Also available at http://arba.lu.com/login.asp

Z6265 B53 2000
Blazek, Ron, and Elizabeth Aversa. Humanities: a selective guide to information sources. 5th ed.

REF Z7161 A1 L5 2000
Herron, Nancy, ed. Social sciences: a cross-disciplinary guide to selected sources. 3rd ed.

Z7161 A1 L5 2000
Li, Tze-chung. Social science reference sources. 3rd ed.

Ref Z1035 A1 R43 1994
Reader’s Adviser. 14th ed. 6v.

Ref Z1035.1 W34 1998
Walford’s guide to reference material, volume 3: generalia, language and literature, the arts. 7th ed.

Ref Z1035.1 W34 2000
Walford’s guide to reference material, volume 2: social and historical sciences, philosophy and religion. 8th ed.

Z 7171 S666 1986
Webb, William H. Sources of information in the social sciences: a guide to the literature.

Online subject guide
Mount Royal College Library. Calgary. Internet Subject Guides: Humanities http://web.archive.org/web/20040808084111/http://library.mtroyal.ca/subguides/humanit.htm