Well hello there!
This guide is meant to help you find additional research materials for your annotated bibliography for your Humanities 180: Pop Culture in America course.
This guide will include a variety of material, both in physical items and digital so make sure you are looking at all the information.
Questions? Comments? Concerns? Contact Librarian Kaylee Harrington via the links below or use the 24/7 Librarian Chat feature to get help from a human librarian anytime.
First thing you need to know is that research is a PROCESS. You start with a question, and finding answers should lead you to more questions, which leads to searching for more answers and the process repeats itself.
If you are first getting started researching, it's best to set a timer for yourself. Research takes a long time and sometimes it does not go the way you want.
For instance, you may have trouble finding what you are looking for. That's where the timer comes in. That way if you get frustrated, you have a way to give yourself a break.
If you are finding what you are looking for then great! Continue on. But give yourself space and time if you are having trouble.
You may also find that your original question doesn't work because your research has led you to a different conclusion. That's okay! That's actually what you are supposed to do when you are researching!
Image of Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes from the movie "Sherlock Holmes". Copyright Warner Bros. 2009
So start with a broad topic and several keywords that you use to search.
Use limiters to narrow down your results.
Look at the subjects, authors, or other keywords of research that supports your information and use those to find yet more information!
Fall down a research hole! (Just make sure you can pull yourself back out again).
There is no one perfect source that will cover all the parts of your topic. You may find one source that supports one part, two others that support another. You are pulling all those sources into one place and building on what you learned from them to form your own thoughts.
And if you get stuck? It's okay to ask for help. Contact the SPSCC librarians or use the Chat with a Librarian 24/7 feature to get help anytime.
Your teacher has given you a handout on what they are expecting from this annotated bibliography assignment but what is an annotated bibliography??
An annotated bibliography is basically a list of source that you have found with a brief summary of each source and WHY YOU THINK IT RELATES TO YOUR TOPIC.
I put that all in caps because that's the part I forget sometimes making my own bibliographies.
It does no good to your research to merely list sources with summaries. Anyone can do that for anything. You have to put your thoughts and your analysis for each source to show you are connecting the source to your topic.
So make sure your annotated bibliography is about connecting your sources to your ideas, not merely listing the ones you found and plan to use.
Writing the Annotated Bibliography
by
This comprehensive and practical guide covers the elements, style, and use of annotated bibliographies in the research and writing process for any discipline; key disciplinary conventions; and tips for working with digital sources. Written jointly by a library director and a writing center director, this book is packed with examples of individual bibliography entries and full bibliography formats for a wide range of academic needs. Online resources include sample bibliographies, relevant web links, printable versions of checklists and figures, and further resources for instructors and researchers. Writing the Annotated Bibliography is an essential resource for first-year and advanced composition classes, courses in writing across the disciplines, graduate programs, library science instruction programs, and academic libraries at the secondary level and beyond. It is suitable for both undergraduate and graduate students and for researchers at all levels.
Searching Databases
Be aware that searching databases is not like searching on Google. Google uses natural language searches like "how big do killer whales get?" or "where is the nearest thrift store?". Google results are also based on "sponsored" sites (sites that pay to come up first) and what are popular sites.
Vice versa, database results are based on relevance to the search terms you put in the search. So you will need to create what is called a search string.
You start with a subject, such as "Pop Culture". This is your subject or keyword 1.
Some keywords will have multiple possible terms. Take something like "Social Media" - you can search that or by specific apps (like Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, etc.). To search ALL of them, you would then add the word OR in between the options. So it would say "social media OR Twitter OR Facebook OR social networking". The OR tells the database that you are looking for any of those terms.
You can add multiple keywords together with the word AND. This tells the database you are looking for results with keyword(s) 1 AND keyword(s) 2. Using the social media example, your search string would then say: "social media or facebook or twitter or instagram or snapchat or tumblr or social networking AND pop culture".
Databases like Academic Search Complete are great about prompting you with possible versions of your keywords. So even if you are using the Quick Catalog search to look at multiple databases at once, you can practice building your search string in a database.
Again, if you get stuck, ask a librarian for help!
To find Databases not listed here, you will use the Database list on the SPSCC Library page. You can search either by subject or use the A-Z list if you know the specific database name.
What are Journals?
Journals are regular publications of articles that report on current research within a specific subject or area. Many journals are often academic or scholarly but there are also journals for fields like business and film.
Journal articles are written for experts by experts and so can be unfamiliar and overwhelming when you first start reading them, especially because you don't read them start to finish. The best way to read articles are to read the abstract or summary, then the introduction, then the conclusion. If you understand what those are saying, you then skim read the body of the article.
Many journals are Peer reviewed - meaning that the journals require that submissions are evaluated by other experts in the field before the article can be published. Not all articles in a peer reviewed journals have been peer reviewed. Nor does peer review mean that the article is completely correct and factual. You will still need to do your own research about the author, their credentials (traditional and non traditional), and evaluate if the source is worth including in your research.
