Library resources for Political Anthropology:
Classic Themes & Contemporary Concerns

Use a strategic, scholarly approach:

This tried and true method saves time and ensures that you'll find the scholarly sources your professor requires:

1. Keep a research notebook. Begin by collecting leads (authors, titles, relevant keywords or subjects, themes and concepts) from reference works (bibliographies, research guides, topical encyclopedias, etc.).
   
2. Use these leads to identify the most related and useful printed books in the stacks. What sources do they suggest?
   
3. Follow up with a narrower search for journal articles in the online indexes. Your list of leads collected prior to a journal index search means that you'll have a more targeted set of articles to consider...which saves a lot of time, especially if you're just beginning to research a topic.

You may find it useful to get started by using Reference Universe (an index to many reference sources) or Google Scholar as a guide or to get started with a list of good leads, but be sure to browse the relevant areas of the reference stacks, too (GN is the call number for Anthropology, but most topics will overlap into other areas as well). Use a GatorLink account or the Remote Logon to get the best access to online resources (Like Reference Universe, Google Scholar integrates UF Libraries' electronic holdings and provides links back into resources available only to UF faculty, students and staff). The MSL instruction & workshops page has tutorials on searching techniques that may be useful for overviews of disciplines, topics, countries, cultures, etc.

1. Begin with reference resources

Browse the Humanities & Social Sciences Reference area in Library West as well as the reference area of the Latin American Collection, depending on your topic. Africana Collection materials are located in Library West. Issues and themes (case studies, surveys of popular culture, maps, etc.) relating to your topic may be collected together in more general materials (i.e. world, Third World or developing areas, indigenous peoples' rights, labor conflicts, housing issues, urbanization). These resources (below are examples of the kinds of resources available) will lead you to more specific academic sources in the book stacks and journal literature (check the suggested readings, references cited and bibliography sections as you review relevant items). The preface and, if available, chronology sections of these resources can also be valuable starting points for your research.

Print resources in Library West Reference:

The activist's almanac: the concerned citizen's guide to the leading advocacy organizations in America. Walls, David. New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster, c1993.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) HN55.W35 1993

The activist's handbook: a primer. Shaw, Randy. Updated ed., with a new preface. Berkeley: University of California Press, c2001.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) HN65.S48x 2001. [Note: Earlier ed. available online via netLibrary].

American reform and reformers: a biographical dictionary. Miller, Randall M. and Paul A. Cimbala. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) HQ1412 .A46 1996

Child labor: a world history companion. Hobbs, Sandy, Jim McKechnie and Michael Lavalette. Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO, c1999.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) HD6231.H63 1999

Countries and their cultures. Melvin Ember and Carol R. Ember, editors. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, c2001.
LIBRARY WEST: Reference (3rd Floor) GN307 .C68 2001 [Available online via Gale Virtual Reference Library].

The civil rights movement: references and resources. Murray, Paul T. New York: G.K. Hall and Maxwell Macmillan International, 1993.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) Z1361.N39 M93 1993

Cultural anthropology: a guide to reference and information sources. JoAnn Jacoby and Josephine Z. Kibbee (editors). Westport, Conn. : Libraries Unlimited, 2007.
LIBRARY WEST: Reference (3rd Floor) GN42 .J33 2007

Documentary history of the modern civil rights movement. Levy, Peter B. New York: Greenwood Press, 1992.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) E185.61 .D64 1992

Encyclopedia of activism and social justice. Anderson, Gary L. & Kathryn G. Herr. 3 vols. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, c2007.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) HM671.E53 2007

Encyclopedia of Anthropology. Birx, H. James (editor). Thousand Oaks, Calif. : Sage, c2005.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) GN11.E63 2006 v.1 - v.5

Environmental racism and the environmental justice movement: a bibliography. Nordquist, Joan. Contemorary social issues; no. 39. Santa Cruz, CA: Reference and Research Services, 1995.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) HC110.E5 N671 1995

Gay and lesbian Americans and political participation: a reference handbook. Smith, Raymond A. and Donald P. Haider-Markel. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, c2002.
Library West First Row of Reference (3rd Floor) HQ76.3.U5 S59 2002. [Note: shelved with ANT 2301 materials].

Handbook of political theory. Gaus, Gerald F. and Chandran Kukathas. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE, 2004.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) JA71 .H313 2004

Historical dictionary of feminism. Boles, Janet K. and Diane Long Hoeveler. 2d ed. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2004.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) HQ1115 .B65 2004 [Note: 2006 ed. also available as The A to Z of feminism.]

Historical dictionary of the 1970s. Olson, James S. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) E839.H57 1999 and online via netLibrary

Historical dictionary of the 1960s. Olson, James S. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, c1999.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) E841H58 1999 and online via netLibrary

Labor conflict in the United States: an encyclopedia. Filippelli, Ronald L. New York: Garland Pub., 1990.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) HD5324.L32 1990

The 1960s: an annotated bibliography of social and political movements in the United States. Jackson, Rebecca. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1992.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) HN59 .J281 1992

Nonviolent action: a research guide. McCarthy, Ronald and Gene Sharp. New York: Garland Pub., 1997.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) HM278.M431 1997

Organizing Black America: an encyclopedia of African American associations. Mjagkij, Nina. New York: Garland, 2001.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) E185.5 .O74 2001 and online via netLibrary

The Oxford handbook of political theory. Dryzek, John S., Bonnie Honig and Anne Phillips. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) JA71.O95 2006

Protest, power, and change: an encyclopedia of nonviolent action from ACT-UP to women's suffrage. Powers, Roger S. and William B. Vogele. New York: Garland Pub., 1997.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) HM278.P76 1997

St. James encyclopedia of labor history worldwide: major events in labor history and their impact. Schlager, Neil. 2 vols. Detroit: St. James Press/Gale Group/Thomson Learning, c2004.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) HD4839.S74 2004. Also available via Gale's Virtual Reference Library; search for this publication by title.

Social movement theory and research: an annotated bibliographical guide. Garner, Roberta and John Tenuto. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. 1997.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) HN28 .G371 1997

The social sciences: a cross-disciplinary guide to selected sources. Nancy L. Herron (editor). 3rd ed. Englewood, Colo. : Libraries Unlimited, 2002. [See Chapter 7 by Joyce L. Ogburn, pp. 235-257 for suggested anthropology reference sources.
Full-text eBook in netLibrary].

Women in the Third World: an encyclopedia of contemporary issues. Stromquist, Nelly P. New York: Garland Pub., 1998.
Library West Reference (3rd Floor) HQ1870.9 .W6548 1998

2. Search the catalog for related monographs

Note alternate and related subject and keyword terms in your leads list as you peruse these sources to create an effective search strategy. Use these results to narrow your search for books and primary sources in the library catalog. Check the long or detailed view of any promising records in your results list to see the subject headings and consider alternative keywords. Pay close attention to the library location since materials for your work may be located in different branch libraries (see Overview of Collections & Services for a brief orientation). Just like in the Reference section, be sure to browse the relevant areas of the book stacks for related monographs (books on a single topic).

3. Use your leads list to search journal indexes for articles

The library's Key Resources in Anthropology page provides a number of links to journal index databases and other online resources that you may find useful in this course and in your other anthropology courses. Use your developing list of leads to search for relevant scholarly articles in the journal index databases (see the research gateway and project starters for general suggestions).

Some of the most useful databases for anthropology research include:

• Abstracts in Anthropology includes 3,000 abstracts of scholarly articles per volume.
• Academic Search Premier (EBSCO) includes many general sources (not all scholarly, but can limit search to these)
• Anthropology Plus (via FirstSearch) combines the two best known journal indexes for anthropology; for help, use the Harvard Tozzer Library's tipsheet as a guide for searching
• AnthroSource full text of AAA published journals (current articles with links to JSTOR for older ones)
• Annual Review of Anthropology organizes the field's scholarly literature with bibliographic essays
• Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA) select Social Science area to search several good databases together
• eHRAF Archaeology
• eHRAF World Cultures index & full text of many ethnographic books
• ISI Web of Knowledge advanced, full feature journal index
• JSTOR: Anthropology

Continue to apply your developing list of leads iteratively, using new terms in the research tools that you may have already used with only your initial list.