Women's and Gender
Studies Guide

Subscription Databases

ABI Inform (some full-text in Business topics) - Go to the tab marked Advanced Search and click there to begin. Notice that in the Recent Search link (located to the upper right of the Advanced Search form after you have done at least two searches) you can combine searches you've already completed earlier in the same session. Notice also that your search results are divided by tabs into articles from Scholarly Journals, Magazines, Trade Publications, and Newspapers. Items you place in your Marked List can be printed, emailed or exported to citation management software. You may also format Marked List items, selecting from MLA, APA, Turabian or AMA.

Across the Generations: Selected Papers from the 12th International Virginia Woolf Conference (full-text) - The complete text of 26 papers from the 12th conference.

American Civil War Letters and Diaries (full-text) Use the searches under the heading Search Texts. These will allow you to search letters, diaries or memoirs only and it will allow you to limit you searches to material written by women. The search options are unusually varied. HELP is available at all times on the upper right side of the screen.

Associations Unlimited (full-text) - Find organizations, worldwide, dedicated to any topic or field of interest. Use the Expert Search, which is located on the left menu bar. Above the Expert Search area, note that you can limit your search to National, International, Regional and IRS Exempt organizations. From your search results list, you may add up to 55 organizations to a "Keeper List." This is a list of organizations of interest to you. Once you log out of Associations Unlimited your Keeper List is deleted. You may also create unlimited mailing labels in this database, to facilitate your contact with the organizations you select.

Black Thought and Culture (full-text) Use the searches under the heading Search Texts. These will allow you to search according to gender, race and religion. The search options are unusually varied. HELP is available at all times on the upper right side of the screen.

British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries (full-text) Use the searches under the heading Search Texts. These will allow you to search letters, or diaries only and it will allow you to limit you searches to material written by women according to age and maternal status. The search options are unusually varied. HELP is available at all times on the upper right side of the screen.

Cambridge University Press Journals (mostly full-text) - The link at left will take you to the "Advanced Search" screen. If you do not want to do an Advanced Search you can use the simple search box in the upper right corner of the screen. If you want to use the Advanced Search, you probably want to set Journals to "All Journals" and Subjects to "All Catagories." Restrict search to specific article type is probably the best part of the Advanced Search. If you do not want book reviews, you can limit your search to articles only by holding down the control key and clicking to highlight only the article types you want.

Credo Reference - (full-text) Tremendous number of full-text reference volumes with many unique search options. Browse by topic, use a concept map, or an advanced search. You can also rank search results by relevancy, by results with still and moving images, and by those with sound files.

Dolley Madison Digital Edition Letters 1788 - 1836 (full-text) Searchable archive of letters to and from Dolley Madison, the fourth First Lady of the United States.

Expanded Academic Index (some full-text) - After you click on the link at left, you will go to a list of databases at Gale. Scroll down and click on Expanded Academic for a second time. If you want to search for full-text articles only, be sure to look below the yellow box and find the words Limit the current search (optional). Here you will find a small square next to the words, "to articles with text." Place a check in that square and the system will find only full-text articles for you.

Factiva - (full-text) First, you have to remember to use Internet Explorer (not Netscape) to get into Factiva. Netscape will not work. On the first screen of Factiva, ignore everything before the words Free Text, which will be on the blue/grey bar. Type your search terms in the text box by the words Free Text.

Important: The default search on Factiva is a phrase search. If you want to do a Boolean AND search, you must type the word "and."

Click on Run Search. Select an item from your list of search results. To return to your list of search results DO NOT CLICK THE BACK BUTTON. Instead, look on the upper right side of the screen. Just above the top, right corner of your article you will see the words Return to Headlines in blue. Click there to return to your list of search results. (On an Apple computer, Return to Headlines may be located on the upper left.)

If you find an article that is perfect for your research, scroll to the bottom of that article and click "More Like This," which you will see in grey letters on the lower left. This will bring a new search results list of articles similar to the one that was perfect for your topic. Factiva offers online tutorials that will help you use their powerful, but complicated, search interface here.

Gerritsen Collection: Women's History Online 1543 - 1945 - (full-text) Use the Quick Search instead of the Advanced Search, because the Advanced Search creates errors. In Quick Search you will have to use Boolean operators by typing them into the search box. For example: women and trance and religion. After you retrieve your document, you can increase the type size on the screen up to 400%. If you have a pop-up blocker, you will have to add "gerritsen.chadwyck.com" to your allowed sites before you can print or download citations to RefWorks. To print, click on View as PDF, and then on the next screen click the button marked "View as PDF." The PDF will load to a new window. From there, just click the Print button that is physically closest to the document you want to print. It will usually be located on the left, just above your document, next to an icon of a floppy disc.

JSTOR (full-text) - The Advanced Search page is the default. If you do not want to search all of the collections at JSTOR, scroll down and list one or more titles to search or check mark specific resources. Place as many checks as you like in the section marked These Discipline(s) and/or Journal(s):. If you leave them all unmarked the system will search all of them.

Printing from JSTOR is not easy. You might want to download the PDF to your computer and print it later. This is the fastest option.

If you need to print, DO NOT click on the print icon at the top of your browser window. DO NOT press control/P.

Before you print, look at the red bar at top and find the words Set Preferences and click. On the next screen select Printing. On the following screen look for the words Set Printing Preference. Below that, find Dialup Connection. Below those word you will see an option to "Choose PDF: Economy (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)." This option will allow you to print a good copy quickly. Place your radio button selection on PDF Economy and then click the button marked Set Printing Preference. The next screen will offer the option to Return to your JSTOR session. You should choose that one.

Now look for the word Print, in grey, on the left side of the screen top, just below the red bar at the top. It will be beneath the word Search. A pop-up box may appear that asks you to confirm your printing preferences. Click "ok" and a new window will load to your screen. Your PDF file will appear in this window. To print your PDF, click on the Adobe print icon. This is the one closest to your article. It will be above the article on the left, to the right of an image of a floppy disc.

NetLibrary (full-text) - is a collection of over 43,000 online books in all subjects. Search by author, title, or keyword. You may also search the full-text for specific words or phrases. The most important thing to remember about NetLibrary is that if you click on "View this eBook" that title will be locked up for 15 minutes UNLESS you "close" the eBook. Directly below the NetLibrary logo in the upper left of the browser screen you will see the words Open Items. Beneath Open Items you will see the word Current followed by the title you are viewing. To the right of the title, you will see the words, Close Item. You should always close the item when you are finished viewing it! Sweet Briar College Library shares all of our NetLibrary e-books with all of the colleges in the state. If NetLibrary tells you that an e-book is already in use, it is probably being used at another Virginia school. Wait and try that book again later.

In order to prevent problems in getting back into an eBook you are using, you should also always leave your eBook open in a separate browser window. If you need to go to other web pages while you are using an eBook, open a new browser window and do your web browsing there. Leave your eBook open in it's original window! If you need to leave the computer you are working on, it would be best for you to either "close" the eBook (if it is not checked out) OR (if the item is checked out) check the item back in before you close the browser window.

To move through sections of books in NetLibrary, click the words "Next" or "Previous" in the top right of the page. DO NOT use the greyed out arrows on the bottom of the screen. They don't work. No, we don't know why they are there. Please note that NetLibrary books cannot be downloaded due to copyright law, but individual pages can be printed. The advanced search on Net Library accepts Boolean operators. If you do not know how to do a Boolean search, see Search Techniques.

North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral Histories (full-text) Use the searches under the heading Search Texts. These will allow you to limit you searches to material written by women. The search options are unusually varied. HELP is available at all times on the upper right side of the screen.

North American Women's Drama (full-text) Use the searches under the heading Search Texts. These will allow you to limit you searches to material written by straight or lesbian women. It also allows searches based on race and nationality. The search options are unusually varied. HELP is available at all times on the upper right side of the screen.

North American Women's Letters and Diaries (full-text) Use the searches under the heading Search Texts. These will allow you to limit you searches to material written by women according to marital and maternal status. The search options are unusually varied. HELP is available at all times on the upper right side of the screen.

Opposing Viewpoints (full-text) Clicking here will take you to the homepage of our Gale datbases. Scroll down until you find Opposing Viewpoints. You can do an Advanced Search. Notice that your results are divided by tabs labeled "Viewpoints," "Reference," "Statistics," "Magazines & Newspapers," "Images," "Primary Documents," "Web Sites," and "SRC Search." Not all searches will bring up results under every one of these catagories.

Oxford University Press (full-text from 1996) - OUP Makes you work before you can search! On the first screen of OUP, scroll to the bottom and see where it says Sort By on the lower right side. Set the radio button to Newest First. Notice also that you can limit your search to just one journal or to one subject area in the middle of the search screen. After you do a search, and select an article from your search results screen, in most cases a PDF will open in a window on the left side of the screen. You can return to your search results by clicking the back button or by clicking the blue button labeled Search Result on the right side of the frame.

Project Muse (full-text) Click on Search. Use the Advanced Search to limit to specific journals and to use Boolean Operators. When your search results screen appears, you click on the title of the article to see it in HTML. If you prefer a PDF version, click on the small words, "View in PDF" which appear to the right of the title of the article.

PsycARTICLES (full-text) On the following screen, click PsycARTICLES. (If you would like to search PsycARTICLES and PsycINFO at the same time, place check marks to the left of each of those databases and then hit the button marked "Continue." But REMEMBER - PsycINFO is NOT full-text!) Enter your search terms, one search concept per box, in the spaces given. If you are using PsycARTICLES, all of your results will be in full-text.

Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Excellent place to find helpful summaries of feminist concepts. Remember to use phrase searches for two or more words you wish to find in exact order.

Scottish Women Poets of the Romatic Period (full-text) Use the searches under the heading Search Texts. These will allow you to limit you searches to material written by women according to ethnicity or occupation. The search options are unusually varied. HELP is available at all times on the upper right side of the screen.

Wilson Web (some full-text) - The Advanced Search screen automatically loads. If you do no know how to do a Boolean search, see Search Techniques. The blue Start button is on the right. Below the Start button, notice the option to Limit to Full Text. You may also use Subject Area, to limit your search to a particular area if you get too many results by searching ALL.

Women and Social Movements (full-text) The Advanced Search field allows searches by gender, age when writing, nationality, race, religion, historical events and several more. The search options are unusually varied. HELP is available at all times on the upper right side of the screen.

Women Writers Online (some full-text) - The Advanced Search screen automatically loads. If you do no know how to do a Boolean search, see Search Techniques. The blue Start button is on the right. Below the Start button, notice the option to Limit to Full Text. You may also use Subject Area, to limit your search to a particular area if you get too many results by searching ALL.

Indexes:

America: History and Life (citation only) On the next screen you will see, "Click here to access your subscription." After you click, you can select from between two databases. One is America: History and Life. The other is Historical Abstracts. Historical Abstracts is an index to international history. An Advanced Search is available. All entries are citation only.

FirstSearch (citation only) - Enter your search terms in the "Search For" field. Then select a database to search. You can only search one database at a time. For that reason, it is better to use the scroll box to select a Database rather than a Topic. Use Jump to Advanced Search if you need to search on more than one keyword at once. To order an Interlibrary Loan from any of the FirstSearch databases, scroll down to the middle of the record for the item you wish to order and click the link next to this image: .

Historical Abstracts (citation only) On the next screen you will see, "Click here to access your subscription." After you click, you can select from between two databases. One is America: History and Life. The other is Historical Abstracts. Historical Abstracts is an index to international history. An Advanced Search is available. All entries are citation only and some are in languages other than English.

Journal Finder is a list of all of the journals SBC has in full text through database subscriptions. Type in your journal title and the finder will locate the journal you need. For more journal subscriptions that are in print or on microform, connect to LION to check the SBC Library catalog for holdings information on the journals you need. If the journal is NOT held by the SBC Library, request the articles you need on Interlibrary Loan. The form is here.

Books in the Sweet Briar College Library

To find books on your topic, connect to LION and use the Subject Keyword search field. We can order books on Interlibrary Loan (ILL) from all area libraries. Please check LION before requesting an ILL book. If we have the book on campus your ILL request will not be filled. Check both LION and Journal Finder before requesting an ILL journal article. If the article is on campus or is available to you electronically through Journal Finder your ILL request will not be filled.

RefWorks

RefWorks is a database that organizes your "works cited" to create quick bibliographies for your papers. It allows you to change your entire bibliography from APA to MLA style (or many other styles) in a snap, without fussing with formats or punctuation.

Just go to RefWorks. The first time you go there you will have to "Sign up for an individual account." Once you sign up and login, click on the References tab in the upper left corner of the screen.

On the drop-down menu tool bar choose "Add New Reference." On the following screen, start by selecting your prefered bibliographic style (e.g. APA, Chicago, MLA, etc.) Then designate the type of reference you are entering (e.g. journal, book or dissertation, etc.) under Ref Type. Field names marked with a red asterisk indicate required information needed to produce an accurate bibliography for the selected output style and reference type. Click "Save" when finished.

You can Import references from selected databases. Importing allows you to bring in multiple references at one time. Check the RefWorks list of Supported Databases to see which products will allow you to export multiple references to RefWorks.

If you have any problems using RefWorks you can check out their helpful online tutorials or download the SBC Library RefWorks Handout. Please call a librarian at x6307, x6306 or x6315 for a one-on-one training session.

Women and Gender Studies On the Web

Directories
• WWWomen - "Premier Search Directory for Women Online"

Distance Learning
• 2003 Discussion on Women's Studies distance learning opportunities from WMST-L
• Athabasca University - offers a certificate in Counselling Women and an undergraduate major, or concentration, in Women's Studies.
• Eastern Oregon University - offers a Gender Studies minor
• Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science - Master of Science in Women’s Health or Certificate in Women’s Health
• University of Central Missouri - offers a graduate certificate in Women's and Gender Studies
• University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth - offers a minor in Women's Studies online
• Washington State University - offers an undergraduate degree in WST
• Western Kentucky University - offers a graduate certificate in Women's Studies

Feminist Networks and Sites
• Feminist Campus
• Feminist Majority Foundation - Dedicated to women's equality, reproductive health, and non-violence.
• Feminist Page - Useful selection of links.
• Feminist Theory Website - Created to encourage a wide range of research into feminist theory with global participation
• Feminist.com - A consciousness-raising portal that supports women's equality, self-empowerment, wellness and safety

Internships
• Americans United for Separation of Church and State
• Feminist Majority Foundation - Scroll down the red links in the middle to see internships and volunteer positions.



Magazines

• Bitch - incisive commentary on our media-driven world
• Oxygen - "for women by women"
• Skirt Magazine - "the ultimate women's resource on-line"
• Yoni Web-zine - "Gateway to the Feminine"

News & Information
• About-Face - combating negative and distorted images of women
• Aviva - up-to-date news on women's human rights issues worldwide
• NewsBank Women's History Special Report - collection of newspaper articles

Organizations
• AAUW: American Association of University Women - networking after graduation
• African Women's Media Center - an organization for African women journalists
• International Women's Media Foundation - "no press is truly free unless women share an equal voice"
• Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute - "America's Think Tank for Women"
• National Women's Studies Association
• Network of East-West Women - links women across national and regional boundaries to share resources, knowledge and skills
• NOW: National Organization for Women - offical web site for NOW
• Women Waging Peace - Advocates for the participation of women in peace processes around the world.
• World Bank GenderNet - seeks to reduce gender disparities and enhance women's participation in economic development

Reference
• Gender Inn - over 6000 records pertaining to feminist theory, feminist literary criticism and gender studies
• Gifts of Speech - "Women's Speeches From Around the World"
• Schlesinger Library - the largest library of women's history and writing in the world
• WAAND: Women Artists Archives National Directory - Archival collections of primary source materials by and about women visual artists active in the U.S. since 1945.

Resources
• Gifts of Speech - "Women's Speeches From Around the World"
• SheSource - Find female experts in any field
• Women's Learning Partnership for Rights, Development & Peace - dedicated to women's leadership and empowerment

Women in Technology
• ACM's Committee on Women in Computing - to improve the working and learning environments for women in computing
• Ada Project - A clearing house for information and resources related to women in computing
• Association for Women in Computing - promoting the advancement of women in the computing professions
• Center for Women in Information Technology - to encourage more women and girls to pursue careers in IT
• Committee on Women in Science and Engineering - for increasing the participation of women in the science and engineering workforce
• Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research - to increase the number of women participating in Computer Science and Engineering research and education at all levels
• Girl Geeks - the female side of computing
• Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology - creates technologies that have positive impacts on women around the world
• Misbahaving - Weblog about women and technology. It's a celebration of women's contributions to computing.
• Program for Gender Equity in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology - an NSF initiative
• San Francisco Women on the Web - a networking and professional development organization for women involved with the Internet, new media, and web technology
• Systers - informal organization for technical women in computing
• Tek.Xam: Technology Certification Exam - Assesing technology literacy in higher education
• Women Gamers - Women making a difference in the computer gaming industry . . . try "Find the Game for You" questionnaire
• Women in Engineering Programs and Advocates Network - to be a catalyst for change that enhances the success of women in the engineering professions
• Women in Technology International - empowering women through technology
• Women's Technology Cluster - first high tech incubator designed to help women entrepreneurs launch successful internet and IT businesses

Women's History
• American Women's History: A Research Guide
• National Women's History Project - to recognize and celebrate the diverse and historic accomplishments of women
• Sally Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture - a broad range of rare and unique primary source material
• Thin Blue Line - A history of pregnancy test kits
• Thomson Gale Women's History Resources
• Women Working - Women Working, 1870 - 1930, explores women's roles in the US economy between the Civil War and the Great Depression
• Women's Archives and Special Collections on the Web

Women's Studies
• Artemis Guide to Women's Studies in the U.S. - Regularly Revised.
• Distance Learning Programs
• Gender Inn - Over 6000 records pertaining to feminist theory, feminist literary criticism and gender studies.
• Google Scholar - Find full-text scholarly articles on the free web.
• Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture - published and unpublished materials that reflect the public and private lives of women, past and present.
• Voice of the Shuttle: Gender and Sexuality Studies - Impressive collection of quality links.
• Women's Archives - An extensive list of materials accessible through the web.
• Women's Studies Database - serves those interested in the women's studies profession and in general women's issues
• Women's Studies Links - selective, annotated, highly acclaimed listing of web information and resources
• Women's Studies Section - provides access to a wide range of resources in support of Women's Studies.

If you have comments, questions, or would like to add a site, write to me.
Lisa N. Johnston (email: lnjohnston at sbc dot edu), Associate Director/ Head of Public Services, Sweet Briar College LibraryRevised 3/08.

 
 
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