Getting Background Information on Your Topic

Your search for information on Native American Women and Native American Women Writers can include books, periodicals, online databases, and authoritative Internet resources. Within the guidelines of the assignment given to you by your instructor, select a topic that you find interesting. Once you have selected a topic for your paper, use the general reference books available in the library to get background information on your topic. Reference books such as the encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks listed below are a good starting point for your research because they help you become better acquainted with your topic.

Once you have done your background research you will be ready to conduct more comprehensive research using books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and the Internet.

Use the Library Catalog to find books available in the Cerritos College Library. Books can provide a broad overview of a topic or in-depth information.

You can search for books by author, title, subject, or keyword. Listed below are some Library of Congress Subject Headings used in the catalog for books relating to your topic. Use these terms to Search by Subject. Remember, this list is by no means conclusive.

Selected Subject Headings include:

Circulating Books

Journals and magazines usually provide the most current information on a topic. Journal articles are more scholarly or professional while magazine articles tend to be shorter and more general. Newspaper articles, while not usually scholarly or professional, can give you the most current news and some additional facts on your topic. To find articles on your topic, use one of the indexes listed below. See the Library Internet Resources handout for a complete description of our online resources.

Print Indexes
Shelved In Reference Section

Readers’ Guide

Social Sciences Index

New York Times Index

Los Angeles Times Index

Internet Sites

The Internet can be a valuable source for supplementing the information you have gathered from books and periodicals. It is important that you evaluate the information you get from the Internet to determine if it is reliable and useful to your research. A few Internet sites that may be useful are listed here.

Native American Women on the WWW
http://www.library.wisc.edu/libraries/WomensStudies/native.htm

Women’s Issues from The Wind River Rendezvous
http://www.bluecloud.org/women.html

Voices from the Gaps: Native American Women
http://voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Bios/byAxes.html#Native American

Native American Authors
http://www.ipl.org/div/natam

Arctic Studies Center
http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/features/croads/athapask.html

Anchorage Museum – Alaska Gallery - Athabascan Indian History and Culture
http://www.anchoragemuseum.org/ag_browse.asp?page_id=30

Athabascan
http://www.ankn.uaf.edu/ANCR/athabascan.html

LN BK Rev 3/03; REV SW 9/06

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