Anthropology indexes, abstracts, internet resources and special subject guides

Indexes and abstracts
Anthropological Index Online http://aio.anthropology.org.uk/aio/
The Anthropological Index Online is based on the journal holdings of The Anthropology Library at the British Museum (Museum of Mankind) which receives periodicals in all branches of anthropology, from academic institutions and publishers around the world. The online index includes all entries from the print index and is updated regularly. It can be searched at no cost.

ARD: The Anthropology Review Database http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/
An extensive and fully searchable database of reviews of anthropological books, films and videos, software and multimedia, on-line resources. From the department of Anthropology at the University of Buffalo.

Ethnologue http://www.ethnologue.com
The Ethnologue is a catalogue of more than 6,900 languages spoken in 228 countries… including alternate names, number of speakers, location, dialects, linguistics affiliation, and other sociolinguistic and demographic data.

First Nations Periodical Index http://www.lights.ca/sifc/INTRO.HTM
A searchable index of 20 Aboriginal newspapers, journals, and magazines (including the Saskatchewan Indian).

Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) http://www.yale.edu/hraf/collections.htm
Founded in 1949 at Yale University, HRAF is a not-for-profit membership consortium of universities, colleges, and research institutions. Its mission is to provide information that facilitates the cross-cultural study of human behavior, society and culture. In the 1930s, behavioral scientists at Yale’s Institute of Human Relations started to develop a classification of cultural information by subject, providing quick access to research materials. HRAF grew out of these efforts. HRAF has two electronic collections: the eHRAF Collection of Ethnology and the eHRAF Collection of Anthropology. Both are fulltext. Availability of HRAF collections is limited to members of the HRAF consortium.

Print Resources Guide
University of Winnipeg Library. Anthropology Dictionaries, Encyclopedias & Atlases. http://libguides.uwinnipeg.ca/content.php?pid=3060&sid=2410816

Internet Resources
General Guide
BUBL Link / 5: 15 : Anthropology http://web.archive.org/web/20121027201106/http://bubl.ac.uk/link/a/anthropology.htm
Gateway to quality resources in anthropology that have been evaluated by a team of experts.

University of Manitoba. Elizabeth Dafoe Library. Anthropology. http://libguides.lib.umanitoba.ca/content.php?pid=217328

University of Winnipeg Library. Anthropology. http://libguides.uwinnipeg.ca/anthropology

WWW Virtual Library: Anthropology http://web.archive.org/web/20040901085031/http://vlib.anthrotech.com/
Provides a gateway to an international range of internet resources including cultural anthropology sites, electronic discussion lists, directories, publications and theories.

Special subject guides
Aboriginal Canada Portal http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100010002/1100100010021
Your single window to Canadian Aboriginal online resources, contacts, information, and government programs and services.

ArchNet WWW Virtual Library: Archaeology http://archnet.asu.edu/
Serves as the WWW Virtual Library for archaeology. Provides access to archaeological resources available on the Internet. Information is categorized by geographic region and subject.

Anthropology Biography Web http://web.archive.org/web/20101206012220/http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/index.shtml
Contains brief descriptions of anthropologists and other scientists who have directly influenced the discipline. Developed by graduate students in the Anthropology Department at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Library of Congress. Resources in Ethnographic Studies A Collection of Resources in Anthropology, Ethnomusicology, Folklore and Folklife http://www.loc.gov/folklife/other.html
Worldwide Email Directory of Anthropologists (WEDA) http://wings.buffalo.edu/WEDA/
A searchable database of address and research information about anthropologists from around the world.

Listserv
ANSS-L – The ANSS Listserv http://anssacrl.wordpress.com/publications/anss-l/
ANSS supports a listserv called ANSS-L (pronounced Ansel), which is a discussion forum for information specialists in anthropology, sociology, and related fields. The list provides information about activities and news of the section. Postings may also include information new publications, Internet resources, and topics of broad interest to its readership. ANSS-L is open to anyone who wishes to subscribe and the contents of the list are archived.

Anthropology

What is anthropology?

“Anthropology is the most humanistic of the sciences and the most scientific of the humanities.”

- Alfred L. Kroeber

Study of Human Kind

“The word anthropology itself tells the basic story from the Greek anthropos (“human”) and logia (“study”)—it is the study of humankind, from its beginning millions of years ago to the present day.”

- American Anthropological Association http://www.aanet.org/anthbroc.htm

Definition

“the science of human beings; especially : the study of human beings in relation to distribution, origin, classification, and relationship of races, physical character, environmental and social relations, and culture.”

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. 10th ed.

Anthropology is the study of humankind. Anthropologists study human physical evolution and the history of culture, as well as provide in-depth studies of specific societies.

Anthropology has four main parts:

• Physical or biological anthropology
• Physical anthropology (aka biological anthropology) is human biological diversity and evolution
• Examines evolution of human anatomy and physiology
• Includes
• Medical anthropology (diseases)
• Paleoanthropology (including some paleontology) 
• Human genetics and evolution
• Primatology (studying apes)
• May be seen as a bridge between the social and biological sciences
• Archaeology
• The study of human prehistory and cultural evolution
• Archaeologists study ancient society and culture through material remains
• Like human remains and artifacts – bones, money, jewellery
• Bioarchaeology = study of ancient human remains
• Paleopathology = study of ancient disease through material remains
• Cultural (social) anthropology
• Largest branch in North America
• Cultural anthropologists study modern, existing human cultures
• Comparative and holistic
• Ethnology is the study of particular cultures
• Ethnography is writing about a culture
• Social anthropology (which is part of cultural anthropology) focuses more on social structure
• Closely related to sociology, history, religious studies, art
• Linguistics
• Look for patterns and similarities
• Scientific study of human language
• Language is the basis of culture
• Includes historic linguistics, sociolinguistics, morphology, syntax, etc.
• Very Broad field
• Runs the gamut from medicine and genetics (pure or hard sciences) to art, religion, drama, and poetry (humanities)

Closely related fields

• Social sciences
• Economics
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Political Science
• Sciences
• Medicine
• Genetics
• Human Biology
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Humanities
• Arts
• Literature
• Ethnomusiciology
• Religion
• Ritual

 

Characteristics

• Shares methodology and theory with other social sciences e.g. Sociology, psychology, history, geography
• Ties to natural sciences, e.g. Medicine, biology, geology
• Emphasizes fieldwork
• Participative observation the unique anthropological method (borrowed by other social sciences, especially sociology)
• Focus on non-Western or tribal people until after WWII
• WWII engaged most of the world; places were placed in contact with others, became aware of most societies
• Emerged as separate discipline in 19th century
• Colonization, exploration, navigation
• Evolution
• Bones, stone tools
• Darwin’s On the Origin of Species (1859)
• Associated with museums, academia, institutes, scientific associations, governments
• Anthropologists more likely to use foreign language material than most other social scientists
• For published material French and German most important

Anthropological literature

• Scholarly
• Reliance on both current and older literature
• Pictorial material important
• Popular
• Especially archaeology, human evolution, human culture interest
• Aboriginal peoples; ancient mysteries; Biblical archaeology; buried treasure; underwater archaeology
• Problems of reliability

Reference

• Problem of literature scatter
• Dewey
• 300’s (social anthropology)
• 500’s (physical)
• 600’s (medical)
• 800’s (linguistics)
• 900’s (archaeology)
• LC
• LC GN (main classification area)
• CC (archaeology)
• D (history)
• E/F (history of the Americas, Aboriginal peoples)
• GR (folklore)
• P (linguistics)
• Q (human evolution)
• R (medical)

User study

Hartmann, Jonathan. “Information Needs of Anthropologists.” Behavioral and Social Sciences Librarian. Vol. 13 (2) 1995. 13-34.

• Use their own field data, and use pictorial sources, maps, and interlibrary loan more than other social scientists
• Prefer having their bibliographical information arranged by geographic area and like more foreign language coverage
• Reporting may first appear in literature in working papers, association papers, conference proceedings; next theses dissertations, journal articles, and finally in monographs
• Publications of professional associations and societies, university departments, student organizations, and museums are very valuable
• Resources of atlases, federal foreign and international government publications, special library catalogs, bibliography handbooks and maps are more important than in the other social science disciplines
•  Museum literature is also important

Academic disciplines: social sciences

Academic Disciplines: Social Sciences http://web.archive.org/web/20040919104610/http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/electric/trainingmods/Academic_Disciplines/disciplines2.htm

General social sciences

General social sciences
Christine A. Whittington
ESSAY
Defining the Social Sciences in the 21st Century

In the introduction to this chapter on general social sciences in the first edition of this guide, we endeavored to pin down a definition of the social sciences and to define the disciplines they encompass. We cited the 1930 definition by R. A. Seligman, editor-in-chief of Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (A-52) as “those mental or cultural sciences, which deal with the activities of the individual as a member of a group.” 1 Seligman divided the social sciences into three groups. The older, purely social sciences are political science, economics, history, and jurisprudence. Those “of more recent origin” are anthropology, penology, sociology, and social work. The semi-social sciences are social in origin or have acquired a social aspect: ethics, education, philosophy, and psychology. A third category consists of natural and cultural sciences with recognized social implications: biology, geography, linguistics, and art. 2 In the second edition of the Social Science Encyclopedia, Raff Dahrendorf presented a more contemporary definition:

The social sciences include economics, sociology (and anthropology) and political science. At their boundaries, the social sciences reach into the study of the individual (social psychology) and of nature (social biology, social geography). Methodologically, they straddle normative (law, social philosophy, political theory) and historical approaches (social history, economic history). In terms of university departments, the social sciences have split up into numerous areas of teaching and research, including not only the central disciplines, but also such subjects as industrial relations, international relations, business studies, and social (public) administration. 3

Although reference book editors continue to include different disciplines and fields of study within their definitions of the social sciences, the importance of trying to reach a consensus about which disciplines are or are not included seem inconsequential next to the new theoretical approaches, applications and methodology, and the social dimensions and implications of a vast array of other disciplines, from genetics to spatial engineering. Adam Kuper and Jessica Kuper have noted that “[m]any fields have moved on from the preoccupations of the 1980s.” 4 It no longer seems as crucial to establish whether business, philosophy, or demography are indeed social sciences as it is to examine new or freshly approached fields of study such as post-modernism, subcultures, sex and gender, environmental and resource economics, media studies, and culture studies.

Scholarly Communication in the Social Sciences
The 1989 edition of this guide included mostly print resources. The 1996 edition included relatively few new print titles but listed electronic equivalents of print sources and resources available only in electronic format. This edition includes more resources available electronically only (such as the World Bibliographical Index and FedStats) and focuses on electronic, rather than print versions, because those are the versions that most researchers are using. Although all librarians should be aware of the existence of the print versions of Dissertations Abstracts or the Monthly Catalog of Government Publications, for example, not many librarians or researchers chose to perform comprehensive searches in those indexes if an electronic version is available. At the time the 1996 edition of this guide was being written, use of the World Wide Web in the reference environment was still in its infancy. Librarians depended on electronic discussion lists such as LIBREF-L and GOVDOC-L to keep in touch with developments in the world of electronic information. Librarians watched in fascination while an image of a butterfly loaded on the Web browser Mosaic over a period of several minutes. At the turn of the millennium, electronic versions of reference sources not only replicate their print versions but also use interactivity and hyperlinking features to link to resources elsewhere on the Web. For example, Statistical Universe, the electronic equivalent of the American Statistics Index, not only provides the SuDocs numbers needed to retrieve publications in government but also links to full-text publications available on the Internet. The Catalog of Government Publications is more than the Web version of the Monthly Catalog of Government Publications, providing links to full-text publications and to agency Websites. Librarians and social scientists still share information on e-mail and electronic discussion lists but also routinely check portals like FedStats, the Scout Report, and the Librarians’ Index to the Internet to keep up with technology.

Electronic publishing has not completely superseded print publishing in the social sciences. The 1996 edition of this guide noted the continued use of print classics such as the Dictionary of the History of Ideas, the Encyclopedia of Social Sciences, and the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, and this guide retains those classic sources. Although it has not yet been published as of this writing, the new International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioural Sciences (IESBS) (Elsevier, 2001) has the potential to become the social sciences encyclopedia of the new millennium. Like many other massive reference works (the Dictionary of Art, for example), the IESBS is preceded by and accompanied by a Web page that includes plans for publication, abstracts of articles, several sample articles, and a list of topics. After the print version has been published, the Web site will continue to offer updates and special features.

Internet resources have given research not so much an electronic substitute for print resources as additional options. Librarians still serve as leaders, teaching their users how to determine whether their information needs will be best served by using print sources, electronic sources, or a combination of both. Because university professors and high school teachers have expressed dismay at student papers citing only Internet sources—and not always good ones—librarians have also begun to teach their users to evaluate critically material they find on the Internet. In the second edition of our book, we mentioned the freewheeling nature of and lack of quality control on the Internet and the various tools used to gain access to it. The tools mentioned—Gopher, Archie, Veronica, and Mosaic—have long since gone to the Internet vocabulary graveyard, replaced by Google, Northern Light, Yahoo, and Inference Find, as well as a number of specialized portals, such as University of Michigan’s Document Centre.

One thing that has not changed is the assumption among many library users that all information needed is free on the Internet and that all the librarian (or user) needs to do is “punch it into the computer and get it from the Web.” Although a great deal of information is indeed free, database vendors, periodical publishers, and producers of market research and financial records are not about to make their expensive products available for free to all Internet users. On the other hand, scholars are exploring refereed electronic publishing venture s and ownership of their own work to address the high price tag that information often carries. Initiatives such as SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) hope to “return science to the scientists” by using technology to bring quality research to a broader audience at a lower cost. Social science initiatives include electronic publications such as the Electronic Journal of Communication (EJC/REC), e-published by the Communication Institute for Online Scholarship.

Much research in the social sciences is recorded in unpublished papers; in conferences whose proceedings are not always published; and in materials produced by national and international organizations, research centers, and corporations. As information has become increasingly available on the Internet, librarians and other information professionals have created sources that identify and control this information. Because many social science disciplines depend on recent information, prompt access to these materials is essential. Primary sources and review articles are usually more useful to the social scientist than books, which may not be as up-to-date or as specialized. Reference sources provide access to both types of materials, and if the source is online on a commercial database or the Internet, information is usually even more timely. A need for very recent materials often involves online database searching or identifying people or organizations that the researcher can contact to initiate networking activity.

The interdisciplinary nature of much social science research requires the use of sources involving several disciplines both within and outside the social sciences. For example, an economist working on valuation of natural resources will study human needs for recreation and scenic areas. The social sciences librarian must be aware of reference sources covering tangential disciplines so users will not miss relevant materials that may not be included in reference sources specific to their disciplines.

Research in the social sciences is complicated by terminology that varies to discipline, reference sources, chronological period, geographic location, and individual author. Controlled subject headings exist for many sources, but others, such as the Social Sciences Citation Index (A-23), Dissertation Abstracts International (A-39), NTIS Database (A-48), and the online periodical index CARL UnCover (A-17), have little controlled vocabulary, and access is dependent upon the titles and abstracts authors have written for their papers. Even when controlled vocabulary is present, as in online public access catalogs or general periodical indexes, many users do not use it, preferring to search by keyword ds. The “softness” of social science terminology, although not as problematic as in the humanities, can be a challenge for reference librarians.

Once information has been located, its delivery is the next issue to be addressed. The Internet has revolutionized document delivery. Most periodical articles can be faxed or delivered to a researcher’s computer desktop, if the researcher is willing to pay the price of document delivery through databases such as UnCover. Material retrieved on the Internet can be e-mailed, downloaded, or printed. Some “chat” reference services offer technology that enables a librarian to “push” a Web page to the person at the other end of a “chat”. In the second edition of this book, it was noted that “the delivery method has become part of the total reference environment” and, at the turn of the millennium, this is more true than ever.

Information strategies
In the first and second editions of this guide, it was noted that reference strategies varied according the problem to be explored, the sophistication of the researcher, and the resources within the person’s reach. Previous volumes discussed differences among “laypeople,” undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and professional researchers. Many of these distinctions are beginning to blur. Library users once though of as laypeople are beginning to take undergraduate and graduate level courses, often at a distance from the academic institution with which they are registered, connecting with their own computers. Computers that can provide access to e-mail and the Web are being marketed to students and their families. Resources within reach extend around the world. “Traditional” undergraduate students may come to their university libraries with inadequate preparation for writing research papers, having discovered the wealth of information available at their fingertips on the Internet but not having mastered the tools for critical analysis of those resources. Graduate students may be returning to the research environment after many years away at a time when only a few months away may drastically change resources available at their libraries. Thus, it is more reasonable to define information strategies by the type of problem rather than the type of library user.

Some library users need to find information about real-life issues that concern them. This can range from a need to find information about immigration and naturalization, to whether a news story is real or a hoax or “urban legend,” to the types of decorations associated with Mardi Gras. Library users looking for this type of information may have limited time to spend looking for it in a library. They may phone the library to get advice on how to search for this information on the Internet or ask that it be mailed, e-mailed, or faxed to them. They may be best served by references to government Web sites, online almanacs, online encyclopaedias, or general periodical indexes that include full-text articles that can be printed out quickly, downloaded, or e0mailed. Library users looking for this type of information especially appreciate electronic resources because they often provide information that is immediately accessible, rather than having to decipher and round up a list of sources from a bibliographic database. Many popular magazines include columns on Internet resources, and publications such as Wired (1993- ) and Yahoo Internet Life (1996- ) are devoted to the Internet. In the second edition of this guide we mentioned that Newsweek had a regular feature on the “Net,” now the New Yorker has a regular Web column and Martha Stewart Living includes references to Web sites.

Undergraduate research supporting term papers and coursework is often similar to the information needs described above in its urgency and the desire of undergraduate researchers for full-text and immediately usable information rather than a list of sources. An additional characteristic of undergraduate research is that material retrieved usually must be scholarly in nature, and undergraduates’ professors often require—with good intentions—that a certain number of resources be in print rather than Internet resources. This last criterion is often the result of faculty members having received too many papers citing only Internet resources or looking suspiciously as though they had been downloaded from the Internet. Individuals researching undergraduate papers or projects still need to identify important books and articles in their disciplines and critically evaluate what they find, whether or not they acquired their articles full text on the Internet. They may need an electronic or print source that will help them choose a topic or design a research project. Undergraduate students may also be faced with designing a research project for the first time. They will also need to identify measures, tests, and scales used in social science research. They will require clear and concise discussions of abstract concepts, such as postmodernism, semiotics, existentialism, or teleology, that they may hear in class or find in their readings but not completely understand.

Undergraduate researchers need to find discussions of major thinkers in their fields—Foucault is popular in social sciences these days—definitions of specialized or technical terms, and statistics to reinforce their arguments. The second edition of this guide noted that undergraduates’ use of the electronic sources consisted of “online public access catalogs and general periodical indexes.” Five years later, undergraduates use the Web search engines more than public access catalogs and almost certainly use public access catalogs on the Web. Students doing undergraduate research should be encouraged to become more familiar with specialized resources in their fields—both electronic and print—and critically evaluate what they find on the Internet. They can increase the quality of Internet sites they use by applying standards for evaluating resources and becoming familiar with portals that exercise some control over the Web sites they include, such as the Scout Report for the Social Sciences, or the library’s own refereed lists of Web resources.

Graduate students, university faculty, and practitioners such as psychologists, social workers, economists, and those working in public policy or criminal justice are usually involved in very specialized research. Like people researching real-life problems or involved in undergraduate coursework, this user group seeks to locate articles, facts, books, and specialized Web sites on their topics, but intense professional networking, resource-sharing behavior, and the practice of identifying materials through lists of references in articles rather than indexes or abstracts often cause them to come to the library already knowing what materials they need to support their research. Some may feel little need for “finding” tools and may not be aware of indexing and abstracting sources in their fields. Some enjoy conducting research themselves and make an effort to discover all ways of finding information, including electronically.

Others may be suspicious of information available on the Internet, especially if it dominates their students’ papers. On the other hand, professional practitioners are usually problem-oriented and generally prefer the Internet or database searching to searches of print indexes to save time when pursuing information on elusive, specialized topics. Practitioners with corporate libraries may rely completely on fee-based electronic database searches. Because social sciences research often involves scientific method, including controlling the variability of human behavior, graduate students, university faculty, and practitioners often need access to information about research design and social measurement. They need detailed information about various research options (surveys, questionnaires, and the like) and test and scale construction more than do the undergraduate or practitioner. Graduate students, faculty, and practitioners may all need data of the type that can be found on the Internet and in commercial electronic sources.

All types of users may be interested in electronic subject-oriented discussion groups, but such groups have revolutionized the communication of academic and professional researchers. News of archaeological discoveries often appears on the archaeology discussion list (ARCH-L) before it appears anywhere else in print. Novices can post questions on discussion lists or Ask-a-Librarian sites and receive advice from the top experts in the fields within days, if not hours. Web sites such as Government Documents in the News or Anthropology in the News make news and discoveries easier to find.

The type of information needed to satisfy these types of research activities varies according to the specific problem, the discipline, and the level of research required to satisfy the information need. The needs of the social science researcher will further depend on whether the problem requires current or retrospective information, whether there are other disciplines within or outside the social sciences that should be considered, and the geographic and chronological parameters of the problem. The reference interview can uncover these parameters, help the researcher define questions that need to be answered, and match reference sources to individual questions.

Many libraries subscribe to suites of licensed databases that their users have access to within the library and remotely from home. The growth of distance education—students completing coursework via interactive television or courses on the Web—has created a demand for licenses for even more full-text databases.

Area studies
In an article in the International Encyclopedia of Education, P. Foster defined area studies as “academic programs of study focusing upon particular nation-states or clusters of states characterized by contiguous geographic location and usually exhibiting common characteristics in terms of social structure, culture, or linguistic and historical traditions.” 6 During the 1930s, U.S. colleges and universities began to develop academic programs around the study of particular regions of the world. These programs came to be known as “area studies” in course catalogs and bulletins were often linked to disciplines in the social sciences as well as studies of language, culture, and humanities. During World War II and the postwar period, wariness toward other countries and a heightened demand for information about distant places left urgency to the development of area studies programs. Bryce Wood, in his article on area studies in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (A-55), wrote that area studies programs in U.S. universities were “largely created on a ‘know-your-enemy’ basis.” 7 The phrase “area studies” was first used in a military intelligence context. 8 Western governments, including that of the United States, felt that the expertise was not available to inform international relations policymakers and military personnel about the languages, ethnic groups, cultures, and geographic characteristics of areas about which important military, political, and economic decisions would have to be made, especially Soviet bloc countries and developing nations, such as those in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. 9 At first, individuals were trained in language programs within the armed forces, then academe provided expertise through faculty specialists who focused on specific regions of the world. After World War II, grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Rockefeller Foundation funded Russian studies centers at Harvard and Columbia universities, which served as models for area studies centers at other academic institutions, many of which were supported by the Ford Foundation. 10 The National Defense Education Act, Fullbright-Hayes Act, Foreign Area Fellowship Program, and private foundation awards provided for expansion of area studies programs. 11

Although sometimes called a discipline, area studies can be more accurately described as an interdisciplinary program that takes advantage of the expertise of faculty in a wide range of programs in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. The Committee on World Area Research listed the most desirable features of area programs as intensive language instruction; joint seminars; group research; combined study in humanities and social sciences; participation of foreign students and faculty members; and the availability of specialized materials such as newspapers, official records, maps, and other sources. 12 Research and publication in area studies began to increase steadily, and by the 1960s three research councils—the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Research Council, and the Social Science Research Council—were all providing leadership in some aspects of area studies. Implication for college and research libraries increased substantially as the proliferation growth brought new problems for libraries associated with institutions that were trying valiantly to collect comprehensively in all areas. This challenge was heightened by staggering new printing costs, changing world alliances, and diverse user populations with more complex information needs.

The American Library Association’s focus on area studies began as a project conceived and developed by the Collection Management and Development Committee, Resources and Technical Services Division. Its first volume, Selection of Library Materials in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Sciences (American Library Association) was published in 1985. From that publication grew the idea for a series of three volumes, the second of which was titled Selection of Library Materials in Applied and Interdisciplinary Fields (American Library Association, 1987). The third and final volume of the series was devoted exclusively to area studies, covering the entire world except for North America. Because of scheduling difficulties and potential manuscript length, it was decided to issue this volume in two parts, with Asia, the Iberian Peninsula, the Caribbean and Latin America, Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, and the South Pacific grouped together in the first part, and Australia, Canada and New Zealand making up the second part of the publication, titled Selection of Library Materials for Area Studies (1990-1994). Other scholars, including members of learned societies and area studies departments, defined the world (excluding North America) in the following seven geographic regions: Africa, Latin America, South Asia, the Middle East, the Far East, the Slavic and Eastern European countries, and Western Europe. All helped to define a structure to the literature and access to the humanities.

Cecily Johns noted that while academic institutions and research centers developed a studies programs, public, school, and academic libraries are also interested in collecting material for area studies. All types of libraries now serve diverse communities, including Spanish-speaking users and immigrants from Asia and former Soviet countries. 13 In their introduction to a collection of essays about area studies in U.S. libraries, Marianna Tax Chodrin et al. wrote that “this nation’s ability to deal successfully in strategic, political, economic and cultural spheres with important parts of the world depends to a significant extent on our ability to provide access to information from and all those parts of the world.” 14

In the reference environment, area studies resources present additional challenges because of time lags in obtaining information, erratic indexing, and bibliographic control. The Internet eased research in areas studies because many resources are now available on the Web that would have been impossible to gain access to even a few years ago. National organizations and national libraries have Web sites and Web-publishing initiatives, such as Unesco’s directory of social science In nations, that make communication and networking easier than ever.

Social sciences

Definitions

• no single authoritative definition
• those mental or cultural sciences which deal with the activities of the individual as a member of a group (R. A. Seligman. Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences)
• any discipline or branch of science that deals with human behaviour in its social and cultural aspects (Encyclopedia Britannica)
• branch of science
• human behaviour focus is important
• identify phenomenons
• Those fields that study human behavior at the level of the individual, the group, and the society, and are concerned with people and their cultures, and with the structure and activities of human collectives, and with the interaction of human beings and their physical environment. (The Reader’s Adviser v. 3, 14th ed.)
• Those fields of learning and research that are primarily concerned with human relationships, or more broadly, social phenomena. (Encyclopedia Americana)

Related/alternative terms

• Behavioural sciences
• sometimes used as a synonym
• term came into widespread use in the 1950s
• applies principally to the fields of psychology and sociology but also to areas within economics and political science
• the aim of behavioural science is to establish generalizations about human behaviour that can be supported by empirical evidence (capable of being verified or disproved by observation or experiment)
• Human sciences
• all disciplines not falling under the natural sciences, engineering or medicine
• Social studies
• courses or instruction in the social sciences at the elementary and secondary school levels

Disciplines

• No absolute consensus on what disciplines make up the social sciences
• Gen Ed 300 http://libguides.wsulibs.wsu.edu/content.php?pid=108535&sid=816692
• Social Sciences Virtual Library http://vlib.org/
• Intute – Social Sciences http://www.intute.ac.uk/socialsciences/
• Statistics Canada http://www.statcan.gc.ca/subjects-sujets/standard-norme/cip-cpe/2011/index-indexe-eng.htm

Core disciplines

• anthropology
• languages and linguistics are consistently mentioned
• sociology
• psychology
• economics
• political science
• history
• geography
• reminder that some disciplines float between humanities and social sciences and sciences

Social science professions

• May apply findings and conclusions generated by social scientists
• business
• education
• journalism
• law
• public health
• social work

Social sciences: evolution

What caused the social sciences to be known as they were? Where did they come from? They have morphed since then.

• Industrial revolution: French revolution
• changed the way people survived in 1700s, 1800s

British revolution Factories Water wheels Sheep Spinning industry All work 16 hours a day Create wealth for industrialists Housing, pollution problems

French revolution Social autocracy People who weren't/were taking over the country

• Population increase
• condition of labour
• Change in nature of “property”
• Urbanization
• Technology
• Factory system
• Development of political masses
• Separate disciplines emerged in Western Europe in 1870s and 1880s
• Professional organizations appear in U.S. 1880s to early 1900s
• Post WWII period of most rapid growth
• Great Depression
• Russian Revolution
• Baby Boom
• Popular field of study at post secondary level
• “Social Sciences in Canada” http://web.archive.org/web/20070919225852/http://isuma.net/v03n02/renaud/renaud_e.shtml
• http://web.archive.org/web/20070216222913/http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/rma/dpr/02-03/SSHRC-CRSHC/SSHRC-CRSHC03D01_e.asp

Social sciences: characteristics, trends

Canada

• Since 1980’s majority of degrees of faculty from Canadian institutions (previously U.S., England, France)
• Growth in Canadian history, Canadian political science
• Noted for expertise in
• Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
• Research methodology for understanding how election campaign shape way people vote
• French immersion and second language learning

General trends, characteristics, problems

• Increasing number of women at PhD level
• Public feels personally knowledgeable in areas of social sciences
• Harder to get funding for research
• public money decreasing
• Twigging or fragmentation
• no one place to go to
• Interdisciplinary
• Mission-oriented research
• Use of new info technologies
• Massive way of faculty retirements on horizon

Research can be spent on opinion polls. Over 70 disciplinary in humanities. Mission-oriented research look at a particular problem with people with expertise and present information.

Social science research

• Greater use of numbers post WWII
• Research may not be used
• Ethical problems

Other major problems

Literature scatter

Lack of global consistency

Different patterns of development according to culture, resources and politics of regions

Social science literature and its users

• Interdisciplinary
• Often little interest in research conducted in other countries, especially as typical social scientist lacks reading fluency in foreign languages
• Reliance on both journals and monographs
• Publication explosion results in problem of information overload
• Citations single most important source of information for social science researchers
• Consultation with colleagues (invisible college) important but less so than in natural sciences
• Tend to be heavy users of government information especially census and statistical data
• With improvement in online technology and resources recent dramatic increase in their use

Public libraries

• Practitioners may seek info at public libraries (business, social workers, etc.)
• General public will have need or interest for info falling in many areas of the social sciences (teachers)
• Students at all levels for homework, general interest

Accessing information in language and literature

From: Blazek, Ron and Aversa, Elizabeth. Humanities: A Selective Guide to Information Sources, 5th ed. Englewood, Colorado: Libraries Unlimited, 2000.

Working definitions of language and literature
Language and literature are treated together in this guide because they are interdependent and because one of the primary ways of organizing literature is by the language of the literary work under consideration. 

The common definitions of language and literature suggest that language has to do with spoken and written words and the systems for their use, while literature comprises the writings that capture ideas. Although literature, it can be said, is dependent on language for its very essence, it is probably wise to look at the definitions of the two fields separately, at least at the very outset. Because language is a requirement of literature, it is considered first. 

Language, according to one commonly used reference tool, is “systematic communication by verbal symbols” (The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia (New York: Avon, 1983), pp. 456-66); another dictionary states that language is the “form or style of verbal expression” (The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (New York: Pocket Books, 1974), p. 397); while a third suggests that it is “communication by voice in the distinctively human manner.” (The American College Dictionary (New York: Random House, 1961), p. 685). All of these definitions, spanning nearly thirty years, seem to suggest that language must be spoken, when in fact some languages (notably sign languages and artificial languages) are not vocal yet constitute a means of communication within a community nonetheless. Some might argue that sign language is a substitute for spoken language, while other researchers suggest that it is indeed a language in its own right and not a surrogate at all. The same may be said for computer programming languages that sometimes substitute for foreign-language requirements for admission to academic programs. 

Languages are subdivided into families and stocks, based upon the relationships among and derivations of each. Often, but not always, the distribution of languages is of geographic origin: Sino-Tiberian languages, for example, are most often used in a particular Asian region. 

Closely involved with the study of language are the fields of linguistics (the scientific study of language) and anthropology (the study of social and cultural constructs and how humans live within them). Language is sometimes claimed as a subdiscipline of both. 

To clarify the definitions of language, the reader should consult Edward S. Apir’s Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech (Harcourt, 1921; repr., 1955), a classic cited in later textbooks. Literature is easier to define. Helen Haines, in the now-classic Living with Books (2d ed., Columbia University Press, 1950), offers: “Literature, in familiar library classification and definition, embraces the whole domain of imaginative and creative writing as well as the history, philosophy, and art of literary expression and various distinctive forms in which literary art finds manifestation.” 4 Although Haines later differentiates literature from science, we can assume from her definition that the “distinctive forms” might include writings in the sciences and social sciences, thus constituting the literature of science, social sciences literature, and indeed, the literature of library and information science. These “literatures of…” refer to writings in a special discipline or field of study. Sometimes definitions of literature suggest a value judgment: that the literature has “lasting value” or is of “permanent interest.” 

The importance of the literature of various academic disciplines is made apparent in the curricular offerings of graduate schools of library science, information science, and information studies. Courses such as “Social Studies Literature,” “Resources in the Humanities,” and “Sources and Services: Science and Technology” are just a few examples. 5 The role of the literatures, as vehicles for scholarly communication, is stressed in courses entitled “Scientific and Technical Communication” and the like. Few courses in contemporary programs put the whole emphasis on titles; most now include coverage of structures of the literature, the roles of various types of publications, and the unique forms of communications that one finds in the fields under study. 

Some are inclined to define literature by the genres, or forms, that are usually included including fiction, poetry, drama, essays and criticism. Asheim included oratory, excluded essays, and suggested that “imaginative writings” in those forms should define the area of literature. The same parameters are observed in this guide. 

The issue of value in literature is an important one. While this issue is of interest in all fields of the humanities, the fact that criticism of one work may ultimately become a part of the body of literature itself is nowhere more evident than in the areas of literary scholarship. The critical literature, then, is subject to subsequent criticism as well. 

Major divisions of the field
Both of the basic approaches to the division of literature, by language and by form, are usually taken into account in the customary division of the field. The Reader’s Advisor: A Layman’s Guide to the Literature (R. R. Bowker, 1988, v. 2) divides literature by language group and form, covering drama and then other literature. 

Division of literature on the basis of the language in which it is written may require some refinements and modifications. For example, the volume of literature written in English is so large that further subdivision is desirable. In this case the term “English literature” is restricted to the output of the United Kingdom that appears in English, or even to the literature of England alone. Separate provision is customarily made for American literature, Australian literature, and so forth. At the other extreme, some of the world’s smallest literatures may be grouped together under a single parent language. 

As suggested above, the basic forms of literature are poetry and prose. Prose is normally divided into novels, short stories, and essays. Poetry is normally treated as a single unit, but it can be subdivided by type (lyric poems, epic poems, etc.). The drama, as a literary record of what is to be performed on the stage, has an independent life of its own and may also be considered a major literary form. Modern drama is ordinarily prose, but it may also be verse, or it may consist of both prose and verse. 

Another approach to the organization of literature is by historical periods of literary movements. These are often combined with the forms outlined above. J. B. Priestly’s classic Literature and Western Man (Harper, 1960) divides the field by form (poetry, drama, and fiction) and by chronological period. Another detailed approach to the divisions of language and literature is offered by The Modern Humanities Research Association in ABELL: The Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (MHRA, 1920—1997, v1-72). Many of the divisions and subdivisions can be applied to other than English materials; see the Web pages at http://web.archive.org/web/19990202233305/http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/MHRA/ABELL/ (accessed December 19, 2012). 

In addition to the extensive coverage of literature and of individual language literatures in general encyclopaedias (Encyclopedia Americana and Encyclopedia Britannica both have excellent articles), Haines’s Living with Books should be consulted for the classic librarian’s view of the fields of literature, drama, poetry, and fiction. A more recent discussion, also directed to the librarian, is James K. Brachen’s “Literature,” in The Humanities and the Library, edited by Nena Couch and Nancy Allen (American Library Association, 1993, pp. 86-131). The sources in the historical section of Chapter 12 of this guide provide additional background reading on literature. 

A recommended source for more current Internet resources is Pam Day’s “Internet Reference Resources in Language and Literature” The Reference Librarian 57 (1997): 153-59. 

Use and users of information in language and literature
Of all the disciplines covered in this guide, literature is the one in which scholars have been subjected to greatest scrutiny in terms of their information needs and information-seeking behaviors. Surveys, observational studies, and unobtrusive citation analyses provide an interesting and varied picture of the literature scholar’s work habits and literature use. Because of the number of studies in this area, only those reported after 1980 are listed here; for earlier work, see earlier editions of this guide. 

R. Heinzkill looked at English literary work in “Characteristics of References in Selected Scholarly English Literary Journals,” Library Quarterly 50 (July 1980): 352-65. M. Stern’s “Characteristics of the Literature of Literary Scholarship,” College and Research Libraries 44 (July 1983): 199-209, is another frequently cited article. In 1985-1986, three significant studies were published: John Cullars’s “Characteristics of the Monographic Literature of British and American Literary Studies,” College and Research Libraries 46 (November 1985): 511-22; John Budd’s “Characteristics of Written Scholarship in American Literature: A Citation Study,” Library and Information Science Research 8 (April 1986): 189-211; and John Budd’s “A Citation Study of American Literature: Implications for Collections Management” Collection Management 8 (Summer 1986): 49-62. 

John Cullars has investigated the characteristics of other special literatures in “Citation Characteristics of French and German Literary Monographs,” Library Quarterly 59 (October 1989): 305-25; “Characteristics of the Monographic Scholarship of Foreign Literary Studies by Native Speakers of English,” College and Research Libraries 49 (March 1988): 157-70; and more recently, “Citation Characteristics of Italian and Spanish Literary Monographs,” Library Quarterly 60 (October 1990): 337-56. 

Richard Hopkins’s doctoral dissertation, “The Information Seeking Behaviour of Literary Scholars in Canadian Universities” (University of Toronto, 1988), confirmed and refined findings of some earlier works, and suggests that constraints of time and cost affect information seeking among scholars. The findings are summarized in Hopkins’s “The Information Seeking Behaviour of Literary Scholars,” Canadian Library Journal (April 1989): 113-15. 

Broader studies of humanists’ information seeking and use have included faculty members and literary scholars. Two still useful reports are Stephen E. Wiberley, Jr., and William G. Jones, “Patterns of Information Seeking in the Humanities,” College and Research Libraries 51 (May 1990): 231-40. 

As we predicted in this guide’s fourth edition, the recent years have yielded many studies of the use of electronic materials: scholars’ attitudes toward electronic sources and texts; and studies of new work methods made possible by networks, document delivery services, and other information technologies. See, for example, “Bibliographies Database Searching by Graduate Students in Language and Literature: Search Strategies, System Interfaces, and Relevance Judgments,” by Debora Shaw (Library and Information Science Research 17 (Fall 1995): 327-45). 

Computers in language and literature
The area of computing in language and literature continued to grow in the 1990s. In the fields of language and literature, computational linguistics, language teaching, writing and editing, text analysis, and automated translation are some of the areas for which we have an extensive literature. But perhaps the most prevalent growth has been in the area of Internet and Web resources. Bibliographies such as the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature are now available on the Web as well as on CD-ROM. Records in the bibliography from 1920 through 1946 are available at http://web.archive.org/web/19991009124947/http://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/MHRA/ABELL/OnLine.html (accessed December 14, 1999). MLA International Bibliography, Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA) and other important resources are available in a variety of machine-readable formats. 

Another important Web resource is Voice of the Shuttle at http://vos.ucsb.edu/index.asp (accessed December 19, 2012). This site includes numerous resources in all areas of the humanities and is particularly strong in the areas of literature and linguistics. A page on “technology of writing” is included. See http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=3 (accessed December 19, 2012) for the English-language pages on the VOS site. 

An extensive list of sources and an excellent review of literary texts is still Helen R. Tibbo’s “Information Systems, Services, and Technology for the Humanities,” Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) 26 (1991): 287-346. This provides a good starting point and can be updated by many articles, including Perry Willett, “Building Support for a Humanities Electronic Text Center: The Experience at Indiana University,” Library Hi-Tech 16 (1998): 51-56; and Marianne Gaunt, “CETH, Electronic Text Centers, and the Humanities Community,” Library Hi-Tech 16 (1998): 31-42. An earlier article that will provide background on the topic is Anita Lowry “Electronic Texts in English and American Literature,” Library Trends (Spring 1992): 704-23. Here the reader can find information about Shakespeare and other English-language text files and also about basic considerations such as descriptive markup language and encoding. Avra Michelson and Jeff Rothenberg discuss all aspects of electronic text in “Scholarly Communication and Information Technology: Exploring the Impact of Changes in the Research Process on Archives,” American Archivist 55 (Spring 1992): 236-315. The article describes projects such as the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae (TLG) and American and French Research on the Treasury of the French Language (ARTFL). 

Electronic text projects, such as Michael Hart’s Project Gutenberg and the Online Book Initiative, have made the full text of many great literary works available. Dartmouth’s Dante Project provides the full text of The Divine Comedy, along with six centuries of commentary on the work, in searchable form. Other sources of information on the availability of electronic text include The Georgetown University Catalogue of Projects in Electronic Text, The Humanities Computing Yearbook (latest edition), Oxford University Press, and Chadwyck-Healey. The impact of electronic text is covered in Literary Texts in an Electronic Age: Scholarly Implications and Library Services, edited by B. Sutton (Urbana-Champaign: ASLIS, University of Illinois, 1994). 

Database searching is also important in the fields of literature and languages. MLA Bibliography (file 71 on Dialog, also available on CD-ROM) covers 1963 to the present and provides access to books and journals on language, literature, and linguistics. LLBA (Linguistics and Language Behaviour Abstracts), produced by Sociological Abstracts, Inc., covers the period 1973 to the present. Included are articles from over 1,000 journals. It is file 36 on Dialog. Other popular databases that literary scholars use include Arts and Humanities Search (produced by the Institute for Scientific Information and available in a variety of formats, including the new Web of Science), and Dissertation Abstracts Online. 

The Internet resources related to literature and linguistics are vast and include listservs and electronic journals on many literature genres, writers, and special topics. Search the Web for the particular genres or authors, and access to a wealth of resources will result. A good starting point for links to resources and reviews of them is the Argus Clearinghouse at http://web.archive.org/web/20020408104907/http://www.clearinghouse.net/arthum.html (accessed December 19, 2012). 

Finally, scholarly publishing is the subject of John Unsworth’s “Electronic Scholarship or Scholarly Publishing and the Public,” Journal of Scholarly Publishing 28 (October 1996): 3-12. 

Major organizations, information centers, and special collections
The oldest, largest, and best known of the organizations that promote the study and teaching of languages in this country is the Modern Language Association of America (26 Broadway, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10004-1789). Founded in 1883, it has more than 30,000 members, primarily university of college teachers, and it conducts an immerse range of programs and activities. Publications include PMLA (quarterly). Job Information Lists—English and Foreign Language versions are available on the Web. An important contribution of the Association is its style manual, available in high school and scholar’s versions, and also on the Web. The MLA International Bibliography, covered in detail in chapter 12, is among the world’s most important bibliographic resources covering drama, English, folklore, foreign languages, humanities, language, linguistics, and literature. The website for MLA is at http://www.mla.org/ (accessed December 19, 2012). 

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (1001 N Fairfax Street, Suite 200, Alexandria, VA 22314) was founded by MLA in 1967, but now exists as a separate entity. Its publications include Foreign Language Annals (6/yr.) and Series on Foreign Language Education (annual). 

The National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Association (659 57th Ave., Omaha, NE 68132) is a federation of national, regional, and state associations in the United States that publishes The Modern Language Journal, a quarterly.
The American Association of Language Specialists (1000 Connecticut Ave., NW, Ste. 9, Washington, DC 20036) is a group of interpreters, editors, and translators who provide language services worldwide. The members’ directory is available on the Web. The Web address is http://www.taals.net (accessed December 19, 2012). 

U.S. English (1747 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Ste. 1100, Washington, DC 20006) is an organization active in promoting English as the official governmental language of this country. It maintains a Web site at http://www.us-english.org/ (accessed December 20, 2012) that keeps members and the press up-to-date on legislative matters related to their goals. 

There are a wide variety of organizations concerned with specific languages, and some maintain a Web presence. An example of the latter is Esperanto Language Society of Chicago (http://www.esperanto-chicago.org/ [accessed December 20, 2012]). Other organizations concerned with specific languages include the International Association for the Study of the Italian Language and Literature and the League for Yiddish, Inc. (200 West 72d St., New York, NY 10023). 

The American Comparative Literature Association (University of Alabama, Box 870262, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0262) promotes the study and teaching of comparative literature in American universities, cosponsors Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature, and maintains a list of links to Web sites concerned with comparative literature. Its Web address is http://www.acla.org/ (accessed December 20, 2012). 

The Council of Literary Magazines and Presses (666 Broadway, 11th Fl., New York, NY 10012) assists “little magazines” in a variety of ways. The Council maintains a Web presence with links to many small presses at http://www.litline.org/ (accessed December 20, 2012). 

Regional interests are served by such groups as the Society for the Study of Southern Literature and the Western Literature Association (Department of English, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322-3200). 

Various library, literary, and children’s literary associations serve a host of special clienteles with interests in all aspects of books, literature, and publishing. General association directories will lead the reader to the many organizations that are too specialized to be listed here. 

Special collections in language and literature are numerous—they include those in information centers, libraries, associations, and scholarly societies--and there are far too many of them to list here. Good sources to use as supplements to this section are Subject Collections, compiled by Lee Ash and William G. Miller (7th ed., R. R. Bowker, 1993) and the Websites identified above. Besides this guide to subject collections by Ash and Miller, publications of the American Library Association, Special Libraries Association, and the Center for Research Libraries will guide the reader to other collections of note. 

Some special collections remain noteworthy. They include the Folger Shakespeare Library (201 E. Capitol St. SE, Washington, DC 20003-1094) which has an active research and publication program in British civilization of the Tudor and Stuart periods and theatrical history as they relate to Shakespeare. See http://www.folger.edu/ (accessed December 20, 2012). 

The Center for Hellenic Studies (3100 Whitehaven St., Washington, DC 20008) is an international center associated with Harvard University. It conducts research in such areas as classical Greek literature, philosophy, and history. 

Other giant collections are held by the Library of Congress (http://www.loc.gov [accessed December 20, 2012]), the British Library (http://portico.bl.uk/ [accessed December 20, 2012]), the Bibliotheque Nationale (http://www.bnf.fr/ [accessed December 20, 2012]), the New York Public Library (http://www.nypl.org/ [accessed December 20, 2012]), and Harvard University (http://www.harvard.edu [accessed December 20, 2012]). Information about the institutions and their holdings is readily accessible now via the Internet; many services can be provided electronically.

Literature and language selected reference sources

Required reading:
Wyatt, Neal. "Mapping the Reference Maze". Library Journal, 8/15/2003, Vol. 128 Issue 13, p49, 4p.
Recommends several U.S. and British literature references for library collections. Description of a typical core collection; recommended biographies; Web sites; List of suggested dictionaries and encyclopaedias.

Subject guides/pathfinders
Academic Writing http://web.archive.org/web/20061012135952/http://cybrary.uwinnipeg.ca/find/guides/guideDisplay.cfm?guideID=40

Books & Literature Links http://wpl.winnipeg.ca/library/onlineresources/internet/literature.asp

Children’s Literature http://web.archive.org/web/20070706021435/http://cybrary.uwinnipeg.ca/find/guides/guideDisplay.cfm?guideID=63

Children’s Literature (print-only) http://web.archive.org/web/20040629030906/http://cybrary.uwinnipeg.ca/find/guides/guideDisplay.cfm?guideID=64

English http://web.archive.org/web/20060519203203/http://cybrary.uwinnipeg.ca/find/guides/guideDisplay.cfm?guideID=60

A Guide to Sources of Reviews and Criticism in Literature and Language http://cybrary.uwinnipeg.ca/resources/reference_books/literature_and_language.html

Literature and Language (print-only) http://web.archive.org/web/20040625154035/http://cybrary.uwinnipeg.ca/find/guides/guideDisplay.cfm?guideID=101

Literature: English Canadian (print-only) http://web.archive.org/web/20040708081004/http://cybrary.uwinnipeg.ca/find/guides/guideDisplay.cfm?guideID=92

Literature: Twentieth-Century (print-only) http://web.archive.org/web/20041015084412/http://cybrary.uwinnipeg.ca/find/guides/guideDisplay.cfm?guideID=112

Online sources
Languages
Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation http://www.grammarbook.com
Use this site to find the answer to your questions concerning proper English grammar and punctuation. Based on Jane Straus’ book of the same name.

Guide to Grammar and Writing http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
A comprehensive guide for grammar and writing sponsored by Capital Community-Technical College, Hartford, CT.

The Text Doctor http://www.textdoctor.com/webliography/
The English and Language Resources page provides a collection of writing-related reference sources.

yourDictionary.com http://www.yourdictionary.com/
Web portal specializing in information about any language in the world. Based on the former scholarly site “A Web of Dictionaries.” Main service is access to dictionaries in many languages but also offers FAQs about language.

Literature
Canadian Literature Archive http://umanitoba.ca/outreach/canlit/
Emphasizes bibliographic aids and links to sources on Canadian writing. From University of Manitoba and St. John’s College.

Gale’s Literary Index http://www.galenet.com/servlet/LitIndex/
A master index to the major literature series published by the Gale Group. It combines and cross references more than 130,000 author names, including pseudonyms and variant names, and more than 140,000 titles into one source.

Literary Resources on the Net http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/
A searchable site maintained by Jack Lynch of Rutgers’ University.

LitLinks http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/litlinks/Pages/Main.aspx
A publisher’s Website covering fiction, drama, essays, poetry, and critical theory. Sites are organized alphabetically by author.

The Modern Word http://www.themodernword.com/
Focuses on 20th and 21st century English and American authors.

Online Literary Criticism Collection http://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/
An Internet Public Library site. Contains over 5,000 critical and biographical websites about authors and their works that can be browsed by author, by title, or by nationality and literary period. Links to IPL pathfinders, Online Literary Criticism Guide http://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/guide.html and Literacy Criticism Pathfinder http://www.ipl.org/div/pf/entry/48496

Poetry Portal http://web.archive.org/web/20130121005635/http://www.poetry-portal.com/
A gateway to poetry sites.

Storytellers: Native American Authors Online http://www.hanksville.org/storytellers/
Provides a list of Web pages for many contemporary Native American authors.