Research Resources for Church History 734:
American Religion Through Literature
Drew University
Information Literacy Session
Wed., Sept.
14, 4-6:30 pm
Library Conference Room (2nd floor, No. 212, off Cornell Room)
Library Catalog ---------------------------------------------------------------------Research Resources
I. The inherent conservatism of libraries
A. In the classification of items
1. The Dewey system
2. The concept of hierarchy
B. In the subject description of items
1. Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)
2. The concept of authority
II. The research rite (or recipe): Ascending and descending the hierarchy
A. Situating your topic in the hierarchy of subjects
B. Identifying the broadest subsuming subjects
C. Searching the for Catalog
1. Encyclopedias, dictionaries handbooks for:
a. Suggestions and/or refinements of topic
b. Orientation to your topic
c. Key issues in your topic
d. Principal writers in your topic
e. Bibliography
2. Books on your topic
a. Meditating on synonymy
b. The helpfulness of LCSH
3. Bibliographies on your topic
a. Bibliographies as books
b. Bibliographies in books
D. Searching periodical Indexes
1. For articles and essays within books
2. For bibliographic essays
3. For bibliography
E. Searching the Web
III. American church history through the portrayal of clergy in 19th and 20th century American fiction
A. Where does this fall in the hierarchy of subjects?
1. The challenge of interdisciplinarity to the hierarchy
2. History narrowing to American history narrowing to American church history
3. History narrowing to social history narrowing to American social history
4. Literature narrowing to American literature narrowing to 19 th and 20 th century American literature
5. Religion narrowing to Christianity narrowing to clergy
B. The broadest subsuming subjects: Religion, Literature, History
C. A recognized subdiscipline in religious studies: Religion and Literature
D. A goal of the research descent: the books on the reading list
IV. Searching the catalog for subject encyclopedias
A. Two kinds of subject searching
1. By keyword: for broad searches
2. By authority words: for narrow (more focused) searches
3. The MARC record
B. In Religion, by keyword subject
1. Religion [Christianity, Clergy] encyclopedias in keyword subjects
2. Number of hits goes down as subject narrows
3. Broadening the search by including dictionaries and handbooks
4. Consulting the encyclopedias for articles on: clergy
a. Encyclopedia of Religion : “Fiction: western novel and religion”
b. Encyclopedia of American Religious History : “Christianity and Literature”
c. Encyclopedia of Religion and Society: “Clergy”
C. In Literature, by keyword subject
1. Literature [American Literature, --19 th century, --20 th century] encyclopedias in keyword subjects
2. Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature
3. Encyclopedia of American Literature, 1999
4. American Writers
5. Oxford Encyclopedia of African American Literature
6 Cyclopedia of Literary Characters [5 vols]
7. Browsing the reference section where these are you cannot miss:
a. Contemporary Literary Criticism
b. Twentieth Century Literary Criticism
c. Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism
d. Dictionary of Literary Biography
e. Drama Criticism
g. Online approximation of a-e: Literature Resource Center
h. Extensive material on all our authors
D. In History, by keyword subject
1. Search on History encyclopedias: too many!
2. Search on United States Church History encyclopedias: too few!
3. United States Church History and (Encyclopedias or Dictionaries or Handbooks): just right!
4. Encyclopedia of American Social History ["The Clergy"]
5. The Gallup Poll [Cumulative Index, 1935-1997. ["Clergy and Clergymen, Extramarital affairs by"]
V. Searching the catalog for books
A. By keyword: clergy literature
B. And then by authority term, as located in relevant hits: Clergy in Literature
C. Evaluating your finds
1. ABCDEF
2. Judging a book by its cover
D. Identifying bibliographies
1. In the books already located
2. In other more broadly focused books: moving back up the hierarchy
a. Religion Literature Bibliography in keyword subject
b. United States Religion Bibliography in keyword subject
c. su christianity and su literature and bibliography
A great find: The Protestant Sensibility and the American Novel: An Annotated Bibliographyd. A Critical Bibliography of Religion in America, by Nelson Burr (1961), part of multi-volume work, Religion in American Life, ed by James Ward Smith. Section on “The Clergy: Writers and Subjects” [v. 4, pp. 885-887]
e. Year's Work in English Studies [annual; Ref. 820.9 E58e]
f. American Literary Scholarship [annual; Ref. 810.9 A512a; also online]
E. Broadening the search
1. Check the heading in LCSH
2. Note the subheading –characters—clergy
3. Keyword search: new hits
4. Searching Worldcat
F. Instant gratification!: our authors
1. Search author name by keyword subject
2. Search author name by subject and title by unqualified keyword
3. Bibliography abounds!
G. Beyond clergy in literature: clergy in real life
1. LCSH: Clergy--Conduct of Life
2. Keyword possibilities: clergy and stress (sex; sexual; public opinion)
VI. Searching Periodical Indexes
A. The idiosyncrasy of indexes (vs. the standardization of library catalogs)
B. A strategy for searching indexes
1. Library user guides
2. Begin with keyword searching
3. Locate the authority terms used to describe your topic
a. In an online thesaurus, if available
b. In the subject headings (descriptors) of the records
4. Re-search on the authority terms
5. Broaden to keyword searching as needed
C. ATLAS+
D. MLA
F. The full-text indexes [do not be seduced by the superficial attraction of these!]
1. Proquest
2. Academic Search Premier
G. Obtaining the articles you find through the indexes: Library guide
VII. Searching the Web
A. Using reliable guides: the classified index
1. The Library homepage: Recommended online sources by subject
2. The Wabash Center
B. Using Google
1. Evaluating websites is like evaluating books, but more urgent: ABCDEF
2. Helps from Google
a. Limiting by .edu
b. Google Print (Religion and Sexuality in American Literature)
c. Google Scholar (an annotated bibliography on The Damnation of Theron Ware)
VIII Writing a bibliographic essay
A. A type of annotated bibliography
B. Evaluating your finds
1. Summarize [listen actively to the writer]
2. Critique [consider: the writer's credentials, perspective, intended audience, persuasiveness of argument, self-location within the larger world of scholarship]
3. Assess the contribution to your research topic or question
C. Writing the essay
1. Consider your reader (Remember Emerson's words on friendship)
2. Use full sentences and paragraphs
3. Introduce your topic
4. For each source you discuss
a. Briefly identify it, following a consisent form, and summarize it
b. Weave in your evaluation of it
c. Relate it to the other sources you discuss, if possible
5. Conclude with a list of the sources you discussed, cited in prescribed bibliographic form
a. University of Chicago Manual of Style (and other style manuals)
(1) Available at Reference counter
(2) Nicely summarized, with examples, in A Pocket Style Manual by Diana Hacker [in bookstore]
b. Why are we so obsessive about form?
6. Examples
a. Burr, Nelson R. A Critical Bibliography of Religion in America. Vol. 4, Religion in American Life. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1961. [227.3 S651r v.4]. {Note: vol. 4 is in 2 parts. An especially helpful example for this class is the essay entited "Religion and Literature: General" in part 1, pp. 850-852}
b. "Navigating the labyrinth : A bibliographic essay of selected criticism of the works of Umberto Eco," in Academic Search Premier. The opening paragraphs joined to the 3 paragraphs on Foucault's Pendulum make a nice, short-ish example. Note that the form is "Chicago" and the in-text citations follow a consistent form.
c. Essays in American Literary Scholarship [Ref. 810.9 A512a. Published annually, always includes a chapter, for example, on Hawthorne, reviewing outstanding scholarship of the year. The essays are indexed online in MLA Bibliography]
IX. A poor but timely example
B. Can we get the play? or Worldcat and ILL
C. Subject encyclopedias with info on John Patrick Shanley?
D. Bibliography in the catalog?
E. Indexes?
F. Websites?
G. Points for an annotated bibliography?