ICSM Girlstories
Best Bet Database: General OneFile : Try a Subject Search on Women and first look at the "Related Subjects" for a long list of more specific topics and then open "Subdivisions" for greater focus: Civil rights, Economic aspects, Health aspects, Portrayals, Psychological aspects, Religious aspects, Social aspects, etc.
Note: As extensive as these Subject Headings may seem, they are not exhaustive and are intended only to indicate the range of possibilities you can expect to find.
Women
Women--Health and hygiene
Women--Identity
Women--Mental health
Women--Psychology
Women--Religious life
Women and religion
Women--Social conditions
Women--Socialization
Women--United States
Women--United States--Attitudes
Women--Employment--United States
Women--United States--History
Women--United States--History--19th century
Women--United States--History--20th century
Women--United States--Psychology
Women--United States--Social conditions
Femininity
Femininity (Psychology)
Feminine beauty (Aesthetics)
Body image in women
Women's rights
Women's rights--United States
Sexism--United States
Sex discrimination against women--United States
Feminism--United States
Feminist theory
Feminist theory--United States
Women's studies
Women in advertising
Advertising and women
Women in art
Women in literature
Women in mass media
Mass media and women
Women in popular culture
Women in popular culture--United States
Motion pictures and women
Motion pictures for women
Women in motion pictures
Femmes fatales in motion pictures
Feminist film criticism
Feminist motion pictures
Women on television
Television and women
Feminist television criticism--United States
Women heroes
Women heroes in literature
Heroines in literature
Women heroes in motion pictures
Heroines in motion pictures
Women heroes on television
Heroines on television
Women artists
Women composers
Women athletes
Women authors
Women and literature
Women and literature--England--History--19th century
Women and literature--England--History--20th century
Women and literature--Great Britain--History--19th century
Women and literature--Great Britain--History--20th century
Women and literature--United States
Women and literature--United States--History--19th century
Women and literature--United States--History--20th century
American literature--Women authors--History and criticism
American drama--Women authors--History and criticism
English literature--Women authors--History and criticism
English drama--Women authors--History and criticism
Feminist literary criticism
Girls
Girls in popular culture
Girls in popular culture--United States
Girls--Psychology
Girls--United States--Psychology
Girls--United States--Social conditions
Teenage girls
Teenage girls--Attitudes
Teenage girls--Mental health
Teenage girls--Psychology
Teenage girls--United States
Women college students
Women--Sexual behavior
Sex differences (Psychology)
Communication--Sex differences
Language and languages--Sex differences
Emotions--Sex differences
Brain--Sex differences
Sex role
Sex role--United States
Gender identity
Gender identity--United States
Lesbians--Identity
Lesbians--Psychology
Lesbians--United States
Lesbian couples--United States
Husband and wife--United States
Married people--Psychology
Married people--United States—Psychology
Sexual division of labor
Sexual division of labor--United States
Housewives--United States
Working mothers--United States
Dual-career families--United States
Work and family--United States
Motherhood
Divorced mothers--Legal status, laws, etc.
Single-parent families--United States
Single mothers--United States
Widows
Widows--United States
Widowhood
Marital violence--United States
Abused women--United States
Abused wives--Services for--United States
Rape in marriage--United States
Women--Crimes against
Rape
Rape--Psychological aspects
Rape--United States
Acquaintance rape
Acquaintance rape--United States
Stalking
Women
Women--Health and hygiene
Women--Identity
Women--Mental health
Women--Psychology
Women--Religious life
Women and religion
Women--Social conditions
Women--Socialization
Women--United States
Women--United States--Attitudes
Women--Employment--United States
Women--United States--History
Women--United States--History--19th century
Women--United States--History--20th century
Women--United States--Psychology
Women--United States--Social conditions
Femininity
Femininity (Psychology)
Feminine beauty (Aesthetics)
Body image in women
Women's rights
Women's rights--United States
Sexism--United States
Sex discrimination against women--United States
Feminism--United States
Feminist theory
Feminist theory--United States
Women's studies
Women in advertising
Advertising and women
Women in art
Women in literature
Women in mass media
Mass media and women
Women in popular culture
Women in popular culture--United States
Motion pictures and women
Motion pictures for women
Women in motion pictures
Femmes fatales in motion pictures
Feminist film criticism
Feminist motion pictures
Women on television
Television and women
Feminist television criticism--United States
Women heroes
Women heroes in literature
Heroines in literature
Women heroes in motion pictures
Heroines in motion pictures
Women heroes on television
Heroines on television
Women artists
Women composers
Women athletes
Women authors
Women and literature
Women and literature--England--History--19th century
Women and literature--England--History--20th century
Women and literature--Great Britain--History--19th century
Women and literature--Great Britain--History--20th century
Women and literature--United States
Women and literature--United States--History--19th century
Women and literature--United States--History--20th century
American literature--Women authors--History and criticism
American drama--Women authors--History and criticism
English literature--Women authors--History and criticism
English drama--Women authors--History and criticism
Feminist literary criticism
Girls
Girls in popular culture
Girls in popular culture--United States
Girls--Psychology
Girls--United States--Psychology
Girls--United States--Social conditions
Teenage girls
Teenage girls--Attitudes
Teenage girls--Mental health
Teenage girls--Psychology
Teenage girls--United States
Women college students
Women--Sexual behavior
Sex differences (Psychology)
Communication--Sex differences
Language and languages--Sex differences
Emotions--Sex differences
Brain--Sex differences
Sex role
Sex role--United States
Gender identity
Gender identity--United States
Lesbians--Identity
Lesbians--Psychology
Lesbians--United States
Lesbian couples--United States
Husband and wife--United States
Married people--Psychology
Married people--United States—Psychology
Sexual division of labor
Sexual division of labor--United States
Housewives--United States
Working mothers--United States
Dual-career families--United States
Work and family--United States
Motherhood
Divorced mothers--Legal status, laws, etc.
Single-parent families--United States
Single mothers--United States
Widows
Widows--United States
Widowhood
Marital violence--United States
Abused women--United States
Abused wives--Services for--United States
Rape in marriage--United States
Women--Crimes against
Rape
Rape--Psychological aspects
Rape--United States
Acquaintance rape
Acquaintance rape--United States
Stalking
General OneFile : is the most user-friendly of our comprehensive databases, covering almost any topic from a wide range of disciplinary angles and offering lots of full text. Use the default Subject search to find the best subject heading for your topic (and when you find a good one be sure to look at the "Related Subjects" to see if there's something even better).
When you settle on a subject heading, open the "Subdivisions" link below it. Most General OneFile subject searchs produce very large retrievals and the "subdivisions" help you narrow your search to a particular aspect: "Ethical aspects," "Forecasts and Trends," "History," "Political aspects," "Psychological aspects," and "Social aspects," to name only a few.
If the best available subdivision is still too broad, open it and add your own Keywords in the "Search within these results" slot at the upper left.
User Advisory: When first viewing your retrievals in General OneFile, note that you are seeing only the "Magazines" (popular articles) and must click on the tabs for "Academic Journals" (scholarly articles) or "News" (newspaper articles) to see those results
Academic Search Premier : Comprehensive subject coverage with considerable full text. Note that there is a “Subject Terms” link just above the search boxes, allowing you to search the index of Subject Headings--often a good first stop for more efficient Subject searching whereby you are guaranteed that your topic is indeed a main subject of the articles retrieved.
When you settle on a subject heading, open the "Subdivisions" link below it. Most General OneFile subject searchs produce very large retrievals and the "subdivisions" help you narrow your search to a particular aspect: "Ethical aspects," "Forecasts and Trends," "History," "Political aspects," "Psychological aspects," and "Social aspects," to name only a few.
If the best available subdivision is still too broad, open it and add your own Keywords in the "Search within these results" slot at the upper left.
User Advisory: When first viewing your retrievals in General OneFile, note that you are seeing only the "Magazines" (popular articles) and must click on the tabs for "Academic Journals" (scholarly articles) or "News" (newspaper articles) to see those results
Academic Search Premier : Comprehensive subject coverage with considerable full text. Note that there is a “Subject Terms” link just above the search boxes, allowing you to search the index of Subject Headings--often a good first stop for more efficient Subject searching whereby you are guaranteed that your topic is indeed a main subject of the articles retrieved.
A good initial strategy in this database is to search a likely topic in the Subject Terms and when you find it “explode” the term by double clicking it--this brings up a list of related Subject terms. You can check as many terms as you like before "adding" them to your search by AND-ing or OR-ing them together.
User Advisory: For any retrieved set of articles, there will be a box displayed on the left that will limit the articles to “Scholarly” journals—just check the box and click the “Update Results” button below.
Also from EBSCO, try the more discipline-specific databases Communication Source and SocINDEX with Full Text .
ProQuest Research Library is another comprehensive database with substantial full text. Use the "Thesaurus" (above the search slots) to preview what Subject Headings are available.
Note that to the right of your search results you can limit your retrieval by "Source Type" (including Magazines, Newspapers, Scholarly Journals), "Document Type," (including Cover Story, Editorial, or Interview), and "Location."
Above each set of articles you retrieve ProQuest will display related Subject searches to help either broaden or narrow your focus.
Also from ProQuest, try the resource collection called GenderWatch .
PsycINFO : The American Psychological Association use their own Subject vocabulary (called "Descriptors"), so a visit to the "Thesaurus" above the search slots is usually a good idea--but unfortunately there is no Subject Heading for "conspiracy" or "conspiracy theories" here. Both will work as keywords, however, and retrieve dozens of articles.
PsycINFO deals only with scholarly literature, much of it assuming a graduate-level understanding of the discipline. But among these you may find interesting, accessible articles on your topic.
User Advisory: If what you're searching for are "journals" in "English," it's a good idea to check those boxes below the search slots.
JSTOR : covers a wide range of scholarly journals in most disciiplines, always beginning with the first issue of each one. This provides 100% full text access to articles from not only the first half of the 20th century but even the second half of the 19th. Be aware, however, that at the other end of the date range articles don't appear in JSTOR until at least 1-2 years after publication.
JSTOR offers only a Keyword search of its complete full text, so retrievals are large, but the relevancy ranking does a good job of putting the strongest matches on the first few pages. This relevancy ranking does not weigh date, however, and will display a mix of articles written decades apart. So if your topic is time sensitive, be alert to publication dates.
User Advisory: The academic journals covered here feature numerous book reviews, so it's a good idea to tic the "Article" limit below the search slots so you won't be overwhelmed by book reviews on your topic.
Project Muse : provides 100% full text of mostly scholarly journals, but its coverage is entirely current--mainly spanning the only last 10-15 years. Muse uses a "black box" search approach--you enter your search terms in one slot with no designated field options. This broad approach to searching tends to generate large retrievals--almost 500 for "conspiracy theories"--so it's best to be as specific as possible. And note--once you have a retrieval set, you can add more search terms by clicking "Modify Search" at the top.
MLA International Bibliography provides the most complete and fully indexed coverage of articles and books on modern literatures, linguistics, folklore, rhetoric, and composition from 1925 to the present. There is ample full text provided by ProQuest, as well as links to full-text articles in JSTOR and Project Muse. Full text from other IC databases is also readily available via the "GetIt" links below article citations.
Because books, book chapters/essays, and dissertations will usually not be available full text, you may wish to limit your search to "Journal article" under "Source type."
"Author's Work" and "Author as Subject" will be especially helpful search fields at finding literary criticism. And for additional search field options either click on "Show more fields," or, for the complete list, open the drop-down menus to the right of the "Anywhere" default for the top three rows of search slots. This list includes both "Literary Influence"--who influenced a particular author you have entered--and "Literary Source"--who was influenced by that particular author.
Literary Reference Center : The emphasis here is on articles from a wide range of reference resources, including Magill's Survey of American Literature, Cyclopedia of World Literature, Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature, Masterplots, etc. There is also access to the Critical Insights book series published by Salem Press, each volume dedicated to a single author or a single work. Both the reference works and the Critical Insights series provide very basic biography and interpretation, but these are supplemented by selected scholarly articles.
The simplest approach may be to enter a single author or a particular work in the "Most Studied Authors" or "Most Studied Works" sections of the "Browse" box. An Author or Work record will offer you "Related Information" categories such as "Literary Criticism," "Reference Books," "Biography," and "Plot Summaries."
In addition to literary criticism and reference, there is a wide range of full-text literary works supplied (mostly) by Project Gutenberg.
Also from EBSCO, try the more discipline-specific databases Communication Source and SocINDEX with Full Text .
ProQuest Research Library is another comprehensive database with substantial full text. Use the "Thesaurus" (above the search slots) to preview what Subject Headings are available.
Note that to the right of your search results you can limit your retrieval by "Source Type" (including Magazines, Newspapers, Scholarly Journals), "Document Type," (including Cover Story, Editorial, or Interview), and "Location."
Above each set of articles you retrieve ProQuest will display related Subject searches to help either broaden or narrow your focus.
Also from ProQuest, try the resource collection called GenderWatch .
PsycINFO : The American Psychological Association use their own Subject vocabulary (called "Descriptors"), so a visit to the "Thesaurus" above the search slots is usually a good idea--but unfortunately there is no Subject Heading for "conspiracy" or "conspiracy theories" here. Both will work as keywords, however, and retrieve dozens of articles.
PsycINFO deals only with scholarly literature, much of it assuming a graduate-level understanding of the discipline. But among these you may find interesting, accessible articles on your topic.
User Advisory: If what you're searching for are "journals" in "English," it's a good idea to check those boxes below the search slots.
JSTOR : covers a wide range of scholarly journals in most disciiplines, always beginning with the first issue of each one. This provides 100% full text access to articles from not only the first half of the 20th century but even the second half of the 19th. Be aware, however, that at the other end of the date range articles don't appear in JSTOR until at least 1-2 years after publication.
JSTOR offers only a Keyword search of its complete full text, so retrievals are large, but the relevancy ranking does a good job of putting the strongest matches on the first few pages. This relevancy ranking does not weigh date, however, and will display a mix of articles written decades apart. So if your topic is time sensitive, be alert to publication dates.
User Advisory: The academic journals covered here feature numerous book reviews, so it's a good idea to tic the "Article" limit below the search slots so you won't be overwhelmed by book reviews on your topic.
Project Muse : provides 100% full text of mostly scholarly journals, but its coverage is entirely current--mainly spanning the only last 10-15 years. Muse uses a "black box" search approach--you enter your search terms in one slot with no designated field options. This broad approach to searching tends to generate large retrievals--almost 500 for "conspiracy theories"--so it's best to be as specific as possible. And note--once you have a retrieval set, you can add more search terms by clicking "Modify Search" at the top.
MLA International Bibliography provides the most complete and fully indexed coverage of articles and books on modern literatures, linguistics, folklore, rhetoric, and composition from 1925 to the present. There is ample full text provided by ProQuest, as well as links to full-text articles in JSTOR and Project Muse. Full text from other IC databases is also readily available via the "GetIt" links below article citations.
Because books, book chapters/essays, and dissertations will usually not be available full text, you may wish to limit your search to "Journal article" under "Source type."
"Author's Work" and "Author as Subject" will be especially helpful search fields at finding literary criticism. And for additional search field options either click on "Show more fields," or, for the complete list, open the drop-down menus to the right of the "Anywhere" default for the top three rows of search slots. This list includes both "Literary Influence"--who influenced a particular author you have entered--and "Literary Source"--who was influenced by that particular author.
Literary Reference Center : The emphasis here is on articles from a wide range of reference resources, including Magill's Survey of American Literature, Cyclopedia of World Literature, Continuum Encyclopedia of British Literature, Masterplots, etc. There is also access to the Critical Insights book series published by Salem Press, each volume dedicated to a single author or a single work. Both the reference works and the Critical Insights series provide very basic biography and interpretation, but these are supplemented by selected scholarly articles.
The simplest approach may be to enter a single author or a particular work in the "Most Studied Authors" or "Most Studied Works" sections of the "Browse" box. An Author or Work record will offer you "Related Information" categories such as "Literary Criticism," "Reference Books," "Biography," and "Plot Summaries."
In addition to literary criticism and reference, there is a wide range of full-text literary works supplied (mostly) by Project Gutenberg.
Few databases offer 100% full text. Most retrieve a mix of full text articles and article "citations"--article title, author(s), publication info, and usually an "abstract" or one-prargraph summary of the content. When a citation makes you want the full text, look below it for this icon:
Clicking "GETIT" checks (almost all) the IC Library's other databases to see if any offers the full text of the article--or if the Library has a print subscription to the journal in which the article appeared.
Clicking "GETIT" checks (almost all) the IC Library's other databases to see if any offers the full text of the article--or if the Library has a print subscription to the journal in which the article appeared.
- "GETIT" will usually find the full text in another database and open it in a new window.
- If none of our databases can access the full text but we have a print subsciption to the journal, "GETIT" will retrieve the Library catalog record for the journal so that you can see if the date of the article falls within the date range we have on hand.
- If full text is not available from any database or from a print subsciption, "GETIT" will provide a link to the IC Library's Interlibrary Loan. Log in (same as your IC e-mail)--and set up your account if you've never used it before. "GETIT" will have populated the article request form with all the necessary information and you simply submit the request elecrtonically. Most articles are supplied as digital files and will be sent to you via e-mail when they arrive.
- Ebrary
- Citation
- Interlibrary Loan
- Plagiarism Tutorial
- You've Come A Long Way, Baby : Women, Politics, and Popular Culture
- Not My Mother's Sister : Generational Conflict and Third-Wave Feminism
- Her Way : Young Women Remake the Sexual Revolution
- Understanding Teenage Girls : Culture, Identity and Schooling
- If I'd Known Then : Women in Their 20s and 30s Write Letters to Their Younger Selves
- Women and Equality : Changing Patterns in American Culture
- Built to Win : The Female Athlete As Cultural Icon
- Black Feminist Thought : Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of Empowerment
- Pimps up, Ho's Down : Hip Hop's Hold on Young Black Women
- Sisters and Saints : Women and American Religion
- Very Serious Thing : Women's Humor and American Culture
- Women and Language : Essays on Gendered Communication Across Media
- Action Chicks : New Images of Tough Women in Popular Culture
- Push Comes to Shove : New Images of Aggressive Women
- Gun Women : Firearms & Feminism in Contemporary America
- Ink-Stained Amazons and Cinematic Warriors : Superwomen in Modern Mythology
- Killing Women : The Visual Culture of Gender and Violence
- Unruly Girls, Unrepentant Mothers : Redefining Feminism on Screen
- In the Company of Women : Contemporary Female Friendship Films
- Reel Knockouts : Violent Women in the Movies
- Fast-Talking Dames
- Women on Screen : Feminism and Femininity in Visual Culture
- Hollywood Heroines : Women in Film Noir and the Female Gothic Film
- Working Girls : Gender and Sexuality in Popular Cinema
- Space Oddities : Women and Outer Space in Popular Film and Culture, 1960-2000
- Third Wave Feminism and Television : Jane Puts It in a Box
- Female Acts in Greek Tragedy
- Literary Subversions of Medieval Women
- Reading Early Modern Women's Writing
- Shakespeare and Women
- Women Writers and Public Debate in 17th-Century Britain
- Lewd and Notorious : Female Transgression in the Eighteenth Century
- Fatal Women of Romanticism
- Sisters in Time : Imagining Gender in Nineteenth-Century British Fiction
- Subjects on Display : Psychoanalysis, Social Expectation, and Victorian Femininity
- Women's Experience of Modernity, 1875-1945
- Embodied Shame : Uncovering Female Shame in Contemporary Women's Writings
- One for the Girls! : The Pleasures and Practices of Reading Womens Porn
- Graphic Women : Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics
- Black Women, Identity, and Cultural Theory
- Ain't I A Beauty Queen? : Black Women, Beauty, and the Politics of Race
- Dangerous Curves : Latina Bodies in the Media
- From Bananas to Buttocks : The Latina Body in Popular Film and Culture
- Beyond the Frame : Women of Color and Visual Representation
- Betrayal and Other Acts of Subversion : Feminism, Sexual Politics, Asian American Women's Literature
- Women and the Machine : Representations from the Spinning Wheel to the Electronic Age
- Fashioning the Feminine : Representation and Women's Fashion from the Fin de Siecle to the Present
- Crimes of Womanhood : Defining Femininity in a Court of Law
- Single By Chance, Mothers by Choice : How Women Are Choosing Parenthood Without Marriage and Creating the New America Family
- Boundaries of Her Body : A History of Women's Rights in America
- Just a Housewife : The Rise and Fall of Domesticity in America
Note: The universe of women on the Web is vast and what will prove most useful depends on your particular interests. Below are sites I have chosen for their value as comprehensive gateways to a wide range of topics.
- Women's Studies/Women's Issues Resources Sites: This is an outstanding gateway to a wide range of women's issues sites on the Web. The home page allows you to choose among broad topical categories, which are then further subdivided. Resources are chosen for substance and annotated by Joan Korenman, emerita professor of English and Women's Studies at the University of Maryland.
- Women's Studies Resources: Communication & Media & Women's Studies Resources: Literature: Two good gateways to Web resources from Karla Tonella at the University of Iowa.
- National Council for Research on Women: Communications, Culture & Society: An excellent range of resources and reports here.
- Women & Gender Studies Section:Web Sites: From the Association of College and Research Libraries, this site offers an extensive range of categorized links to the best Web resources.
- Women's Studies: From Margaret Vail Anderson up in Courtland, this is a very extensive set of links relating to all aspects of women's studies. The alphabetical-by-title arrangement isn't very helpful, but patient scanning of the list will turn up all sorts of interesting resources.
- Subject Listing of Women and Gender Resources: This University of Wisconsin site hasn't been maintained for a number of years, but it is much more ambitious than its replacement, the topical organization of resources is helpful, and my testing of links indicates that most of these still work.
- Internet Public Library (IPL2): Women: Gateway to women's studies resources on the Web.
- Women's Studies: By Topic: Categorized links from the Open Directory Project.
- Feminism and Women's Issues: Wide ranging, international gateway to Web resources from Sociosite.
- Women's Studies & Feminist Theory: Extensive (though not well maintained) set of links from Voice of the Shuttle.
- Women's History Sourcebook: From Fordham University, scroll down to the table of contents, where you will find the materials organized both chronologically and geographically.
- Women's e-news: Nonprofit news service covering issues of particular concern to women and providing women's perspectives on public policy.
- National Organization for Women: Key Issues: News and public policy debate organized by topic.
- Women: This links to a simple keyword search on "women" at Pew Research: Social & Demographic Trends. Pew is one of the most influential polling and social research organizations in the U.S. and a quick scan of the results here shows how wide a range of issues relevant to contemporary American women are addressed.
- Media Literacy: Women and Girls: Brief but helpful overviews of issues in media coverage of women, from the Center for Digital and Media Literacy.
MLA is the citation style used by most disciplines in the Humanities. The guides below use the latest 2008/9 standards.
