Engl 255/Ulen

Contemporary African Women Writers

3-8-04

Tony Doyle

tdoyle@hunter.cuny.edu

 

1. Reference books. The two books listed below provide excerpts of criticism and discussions (mostly non-scholarly) of the three authors covered by your assignment. Ask at the reference desk (4th floor) for their location.

  1. Africana: the Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience
  2. Black Literature Criticism, three volumes.
  3. Modern Black Writers, second edition

 

2. Scholarly (peer reviewed) vs. non-scholarly journals

 

3. Access from home: the proxy server. I recommend that you sign up for the proxy server as soon as possible. This will give you complete access to the online full text that Hunter subscribes to. To sign up online go to http://library.hunter.cuny.edu/proxy.htm. Make sure you’ve gotten a barcode to stick on you id from the circulation desk of the third floor of the library; you’ll need it to sign up for the proxy server. (Even without the proxy server, you can get remote access to those databases that feature the green house. Just click on it and enter your library barcode.)

 

4. JSTOR. JSTOR consists of the full text of hundreds of the best scholarly journals across disciplines, including English literature. To get in go to http://library.hunter.cuny.edu/webres.htm and click on the name of the database.

 

 

5. Once in click on SEARCH.

 

 

6. Then you have to select a discipline to search in. Scroll down and select African Studies and Language & Literature. (Note: African American Studies and African Studies include Callaloo, African Languages and
Cultures, African Studies Review, and The Journal of African Cultural Studies.)

 

 

7. Searching. The search engine in JSTOR is unremarkable. Still, you’ll find a few of articles on Head (search under bessie head) and Emecheta. You’re best off searching under title. For articles on Maraire try MLA (see below).

 

8. By default the articles are listed by relevance to your search. You can re-sort them from the top of your screen.

 

 

9. To see the full text click on the article’s title.

 

10. EBSCO/Academic Search Premier (for a tutorial see http://library.hunter.cuny.edu/tdoyle) EBSCO/Academic Search Premier is a very extensive database for scholarly journals and popular magazines, including literary criticism, going back to 1975 for some journals. Roughly half of articles from the early 90s onward are full text; roughly 70% of articles published since the late 90s are full text. You can access ASP from http://library.hunter.cuny.edu/webres.htm.  You won’t find anything here on Maraire, but you should find a fair number of articles on Head (type full name) and Emecheta.

 

11. Getting in. From http://library.hunter.cuny.edu/webres.htm click on Academic Search Premier:

 

12. Search boxes in Academic Search Premier. Enter your search in the boxes below. You’re probably best off leaving the pull downs on the left on Default, which searches author, title, subjects, and abstract.

 

 

 

13. Notice that you can limit your results in different ways, for instance, to peer reviewed (that is, scholarly) journals. I recommend that you check that box. I also recommend that you not limit to full text, since this could prevent you from finding useful articles.

 

 

14. Sample search:

 

15. Looking at results. By default results are listed by date, with the most recent first.

 

 

16. Looking at the full record; looking at the full text (when available). To see article’s record click on the article’s title. Some articles offer HTML full text (generally just the text), PDF full text (the text as it actually appeared in the magazine or journal), or both. Note: if you need to cite the page number(s) of articles, then you need PDF. If the article isn’t available in PDF, see below. It’s also possible to email the article; click on the E-mail link at the top of the page.

 

 

17. Determining whether Hunter owns a journal. There are two places to go.

 

18. First, from http://library.hunter.cuny.edu, click on  on the left side of your screen. Type in the name of the magazine or journal you’re seeking. If Hunter owns it, you will find information about holdings and links to the full text.

 

 

19. CUNY+. Not everything is available electronically. When you don’t find what you need in Electronic Journals, you have to go into CUNY+ and do a title search under the name of the journal. From http://library.hunter.cuny.edu choose CUNY+ from the left of your screen.

 

 

20. Enter the journal title in the lower box, under Browse Alphabetical List. 

 

 

 

21. Then click on the title of the journal.

 

 

22. This will give you information about the dates that Hunter has and where you can find the journal.

 

 

23. Searching for books in CUNY+. Bear in mind that scholarly books nearly always have extensive bibliographies and so can be useful sources for articles on your topic.

 

24. Expanding your search to all of CUNY: I strongly recommend that you do this, since Hunter doesn’t have many books on the authors that you’ll be writing on. (In fact CUNY only owns one book on her, and they’re at City Tech and Hostos.) Click on  towards the top of your screen.

 

25. Enter the search below in the top (Keyword) box, last name first. This will give you books both by and about Head.

 

 

 

26. Getting the call number. Click on Hunter-Main (or Hunter Reserve).

 

 

27. Looking at the full record. Clicking on the title of the book will give you the full record for the book, including the book’s subjects (that is, what the book is about). Unfortunately this link won’t give you a call number directly.

 

28. MLA. MLA is a comprehensive index of literary studies. Unfortunately it is just an index and so has no full text. Moreover, Hunter owns only a minority of the items indexed there. You probably won’t need to go into MLA for research on Head or Emecheta, but you might have to for Maraire.

 

29. Getting in. From http://library.hunter.cuny.edu/webres.htm choose:

 

30. Then choose: