Background Knowledge
When you begin a research project, it is a good idea to take a moment to reflect on your prior knowledge of the topic area. How much do you already know about this topic? How confident are you in moving forward with this topic? In most cases, you will need to do a bit of research to get some general information on your topic.
A great way to gather background information is through searching reference materials. Reference materials such as Encyclopedias and Dictionaries are arranged alphabetically and contain a general overview of a term or subject matter.
The library has access to encyclopedias and dictionaries in print and online through particular databases.
Online Encyclopedic Databases:
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Britannica Academic This link opens in a new windowProvides reference sources in almost all disciplines. Also includes historical timelines, multimedia, selected magazine articles, notable quotations, and a dictionary and thesaurus.
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Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) This link opens in a new windowExplore this database of encyclopedias and reference sources within the Gale eBooks platform. For multidisciplinary research. A collection of full text electronic reference books covering many subject areas. Can be searched by keyword, source, subject, image caption, full text, and audience. Individual books can be combined for cross-title searching.
Locating Print Sources at Milne Library
Search & Discover provides sweeping access to books, ebooks, articles, movies, music, and more through a user-driven platform supporting your research interests. You can use Search & Discover without signing in. However, to access e-books, you will need to sign in when prompted.
There are two main ways to use Search & Discover.
Everything allows you to search simultaneously for books, ebooks, articles, movies, music, and more. You may use keywords, titles, authors, or phrases. Refine your results using the choices on the left. For example, if you want to discover the newest results then select Sort by. Explore Resource Type, also on the left, to get a sense of the various materials available to you.
Library Catalog is commonly used to search the physical collections of the James M. Milne Library, including ebooks, by an author’s name or a book’s title. You may also use keywords to search the library catalog, which contains the table of contents for many records. Subject headings are included in keyword searching and are assigned to all library catalog holdings.
While Everything and Library Catalog are two of the main searching functions in Search & Discover, there are others available for use. Child Collection, Course Reserves, EMC Media, NY State Collection, Reference, Special Collections (SCC), SUNY Catalog, and Young Adult (YA) are all options to choose from. These collections can be searched exclusively by selecting them in the top menu. For example, selecting Child Collection will include results only from that collection.
***You can also check out items at Hartwick College with your SUNY Oneonta ID card.***
Below are a few titles that may be helpful for your research.
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Televised Morality by The increasing frequency of moralist critiques of television shows is an acknowledgment of television's growing role in the shaping of a culture's moral values. Yet many moralist critiques misconstrue the full moral message of a show due to a restrictive focus on sex, violence, and profanity. Televised Morality explores the nature of moral discourse on television by using "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as a case study. "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" has simultaneously been heralded as one of the most morally sophisticated shows on television and one of the most morally corrupt. The program offers a fascinating look into the divergent issues involved in the moral evaluation of television today. Stevenson argues that analysis of this show's moral vision, its methods of moral reasoning, and its narrative function reveal the complexity of moral discourse on television and provides a good model for the moral critique of other television shows.Call Number: PN1992.77.B84 S74 2003ISBN: 0761828338Publication Date: 2004-02-23 -
Why Buffy Matters by Rhonda Wilcox is a world authority on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who has been writing and lecturing about the show since its arrival on our screens. This book is the distillation of this remarkable body of work and thought, a celebration of the series that she proposes is an aesthetic test case for television. Buffy is enduring as art, she argues, by exploring its own possibilities for long-term construction as well as producing individual episodes that are powerful in their own right. She examines therefore the larger patterns that extend through many episodes: the hero myth, the imagery of light, naming symbolism, Spike, sex and redemption, Buffy Summers compared and contrasted with Harry Potter. She then moves in to focus on individual episodes, such as the Buffy musical Once More, with Feeling, the largely silent Hush and the dream episode Restless (T.S. Eliot comes to television). She also examines Buffy's ways of making meaning - from literary narrative and symbolism to visual imagery and sound. Combining great intelligence and wit, written for the wide Buffy readership, this is the worthy companion to the show that has claimed and kept the minds and hearts of watchers worldwide.Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780857730381Publication Date: 2005-08-26
Locating Online Resources
Electronic articles can be searched through our databases. There are some general databases and some subject specific databases. To access the databases, click on the database tab on the library homepage. You can then browse through them alphabetically, or browse by discipline (i.e., gender studies, history, etc.).
Below you will find a list of databases that will be helpful for your current assignment. It is not an exhaustive list, but it is a good place to start.
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Academic OneFile This link opens in a new windowProvides over 54,000,000 articles, most full-text, from about 13,000 scholarly journals across most academic subject areas. Coverage is from 1980 to the present.
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Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowFull text for about 8,500 periodicals including over 7,300 peer-reviewed journals across most areas of academic study as well as indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 magazines and journals. Coverage is from 1887 to the present.
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Fine Arts Collection This link opens in a new windowContains over 100 full-text magazines and journals in areas such as drama, music, art history, and film making.
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Diversity Studies This link opens in a new windowA subset of Academic OneFile. This collection explores cultural differences, contributions and influences in our global community. Includes more than 150 journals. Coverage is about from 1996 to the present.
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Gender Studies Collection This link opens in a new windowAims to provide balanced coverage of gender studies topics such as family issues, marital issues, and health aspects. Coverage is from 1980 to the present.
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GenderWatch This link opens in a new windowOffers authoritative historical and current perspectives on the evolution of gender roles as they affect both men and women. Coverage is from 1970 to the present.
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Humanities SourceIncludes both Humanities Full Text and Humanities International. Contains over 1400 full text journals with citations to over 3,500,000 articles.
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JSTOR This link opens in a new windowFull-text of over 1400 core scholarly journals and Books across most subject areas.
Can be used for course content: Titles from many university presses and other academic publishers -
Project MuseFull text of over 100 scholarly journals and books from university presses in fields including literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, political science, gender studies, and economics.
Can be used for course content: Includes books from many university presses and scholarly journals
