Hilarity and Mirth

Drew University Library
www.depts.drew.edu/lib

Research Guide: Hilarity and Mirth
Fall 2005

Locating Background Information:
Often encyclopedias provide a useful overview of a new research topic. In this instance, check the encyclopedias of specific disciplines to see how different areas view humor.

Reference
305.803
E56e
Encyclopedia of cultural anthropology.

Reference
150.3
E566e Encyclopedia of psychology.

Reference
808.003
E562e Encyclopedia of rhetoric.

Locating Books:

Use the sources listed above to identify recommended works. To see if Drew owns them, check the Drew Library Catalog, in Browse mode. To look for other books on humor, you can start with Keyword mode, and then select appropriate subject headings. Some possible headings include:

laughter
wit and humor [to retrieve books about humor, look for headings containing 'history and criticism']
English wit and humor or American wit and humor

Locating Journal Articles:
To retrieve (reasonably) current material about humor, add theory or a relevant discipline such as psychology, anthropology or rhetoric, or a specific topic such as advertising. Two good places to begin are:

Academic Search Premiere (under "Starting Points" in Online Reference Sources and Articles on the Research Resources page): Indexes around 3000 journals and magazines, and provides full-text for about half. Click on "Academic Journals" to begin to winnow out more popular material.
ProQuest Direct (under "Starting Points" in Online Reference Sources and Articles on the Research Resources page):
Indexes around 2000 journals, magazines and newspapers, with full-text for about half. In the results, you can separate out articles in popular magazines from more academic ones, but do not assume that all the articles under "Scholarly Journals" actually are scholarly.

To locate articles from the first half of the 20th century, you'll need to use paper indexes to articles in magazines and journals, and then check to see if Drew Library owns the magazine or journal. The two most useful indexes are:

Per Room 050 S678s	International index to periodicals, 1907-1955. Indexes articles primarily in scholarly journals.
Per Room 050 R286r	Readers' guide to periodical literature, 1901-1982. Indexes articles in popular magazines

If the full text of an article is not available in the database or index you're using, do NOT assume that it's not available at all! Use the guide on Finding Periodicals (http://depts.drew.edu/lib/perguide.html) to find out if it's available in another database, or in hard copy in the Library.

Another possibility is to check bibliographies on the topic. In addition to the material cited in books and articles, there are two helpful bibliographies available:

Reference 016.8097 N712h	Humor scholarship: a research bibliography, 1993. Includes short essays prefacing such subtopics as gallows humor, sex roles and national styles of humor.
Reference 016.817009 N712h	Humor in American literature: a selected annotated bibliograpy, 1992.. Provides brief descriptions of material on a range of American literary humor.

Locating Public Internet Sources:
Locating material on humor, not just humorous material, can be a challenge! If you use Google, searching theory humor (as two separate terms, not as a phrase) along with an academic discipline helps winnow out the humorous pages in psychology, anthropology, literature or rhetoric.

Problems?
If you have questions or are encountering roadblocks, help is available! Call the Reference Desk at 973-408-3588 (9am-5pm, M-F; 6pm-10pm S-Th) for assistance from a Drew librarian, or check out the 24/7 chat reference available at http://depts.drew.edu/lib/eref.html .

Drew University Library: http://depts.drew.edu/lib/
Research Resources: http://depts.drew.edu/lib/research.html
Drew Library Catalog:http://webcat.drew.edu

Reference 305.803 E56e	Encyclopedia of cultural anthropology.
Reference 150.3 E566e	Encyclopedia of psychology.
Reference 808.003 E562e	Encyclopedia of rhetoric.