Introduction | Reference Sources | Indexes & Databases | Internet Resources | Citation Styles

For further research assistance, please contact Susie Bock(bocks@usm.maine.edu; 780-4269),Women's Studies Liaison, Glickman Library, University of Southern Maine.

In order to find books, journal titles, videos, government documents and other materials held in the University of Maine System consult URSUS, the online catalog. Because journal article citations are not individually included in URSUS use a discipline-specific index to find this information (see Resources by Subject). To find materials located elsewhere in Maine, check MaineInfonet.

To obtain materials not located at your USM campus, but located using URSUS, click on the Request button on the URSUS screen and enter your name and barcode number (found under the barcode on your USM Card, always beginning with 25022....). Your barcode will first need to be activated at the Circulation Desk.

To find a listing of Library of Congress call numbers that may contain information on women's studies, click on the social sciences call numbers and then select any of the subcategories to see more detail.

To find books, journal titles, videos, government documents and other materials not available through the University of Maine System or MaineInfoNet, please check Worldcat, which includes bibliographic records for more than 36 million items held at OCLC member libraries throughout the world and is updated daily.

If the item is not available through the University of Maine System (URSUS) or Maine InfoNet you can request it via Interlibrary Loan (Illiad)

The USM Libraries Special Collections is an excellent source of primary materials pertaining to Women's Studies.

Reference sources are useful tools to obtain background information and to develop a vocabulary of possible search terms. The following items are print resources available within the University of Southern Maine system.

Bibliographies

Women Studies Abstracts
POR Reference HQ1180 .W6647 (1979-current issue)

Women's Studies: A Recommended Bibliography, 3rd edition
POR Reference Z7963 .F44R75 2004

Encyclopedias/Dictionaries

A Glossary of Feminist Theory
POR Reference HQ1190 .A53 1997

Encyclopedia of Women and World Religion
POR Reference BL458.E53 1999
The encyclopedia covers all major world religions with emphasis on Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism.

Women in the Third World: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Issues
POR Reference HQ1870.9.W6548 1998

Encyclopedia of Women in American History
POR Reference HQ1410 .E53 2002

Encyclopedia of Women in American Politics
POR Reference HQ1236.5.U6.E53 1999

Encyclopedia of Women and Crime
POR Reference HV 6046 E56 2000

International Encyclopedia of Women and Sports
GOR Reference GV709.I58 2001
Canada and the United States are the focus of half the articles.

Supreme Court Decisions and Women's Rights: Milestones to Equality
POR Reference KF4758.A7 S87 2001

Biographical Information

A to Z of Women In World History
POR Reference CT3202 .IC84 2002

From Suffrage to the Senate: An Encyclopedia of American Women in Politics
POR Reference HQ 1236.5 .U6 S32 1999

Who's Who in American Women
Por Reference CT3260 .W5 2004-05
Previous edition are availabe in the POR stacks under the call number CT3260 .W5 (1961- 1992).

Women in World History: A Biographical Encyclopedia
POR Reference HQ 1115 W6 1999
International in scope, this work spans antiquity to present times.

Statistics

World's Women, 2000: Trends and Statistics
POR Reference HQ 1154.W95
The latest published data documenting progress for women worldwide in the areas of health, civil rights, and political decision making.

Because of the lengthy publishing cycle for a book, information in a book is not always current. Periodical articles are current sources of information. There are two main types of periodicals: scholarly and popular. Scholarly periodicals are usually referred to as journals. Articles in journals contain reports of primary research; the articles are written by experts in the field and for other researchers/scholars; use terms and language specific to that discipline; may include graphs, charts, etc. related to the topic; most often are peer reviewed via an editorial board; are published by professional organization or society, university, research centers, scholarly presses; and often include a bibliography. Popular periodical articles contain general information; are written using easily understood language that appeals to a varied audience; are usually written by journalists or others who are not experts in the field; do not include citations; has a limited or non-existent editorial review board; and may contain glossy photographs. The Finding Articles tutorial provides more information on how to find articles.

To find scholarly articles it is necessary to consult a discipline-specific electronic or print index/database. The following are electronic indexing sources available to the Unversity of Southern Maine community.

Access UN
Date coverage: 1998-present
Index to United Nations documents and publications. Provides some full-text access to publications of the General Assembly, the Security Council, and the Economic and Social Council.

America: History and Life
Date coverage: 1964-present
Index to research on the history of the United States and Canada, from prehistoric times to the present. Includes references to journal articles, books and book reviews, dissertations, and collective works. For non-U. S. history see Historical Abstracts.

The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School
Date coverage: pre-18th century-present
Contains digital documents relevant to the fields of law, history, economics, politics, diplomacy and government.

CINAHL
Date coverage: Dates vary by publication. Click here to determine coverage
Premier database for nursing and allied health literature. Includes references to journals, American Nurses' Association and National League for Nursing publications, nursing standards of practice, and critical paths.

Current Index to Legal Periodicals
Current awareness service for legal research. Provides subject indexing and tables of contents for law journals.

EconLit
Date coverage: 1969-present
Subject indexing and abstracts of journals, books, dissertations, and working papers.

ERIC
Date coverage: 1966-present
Provides access to education resources.

FactSearch
Date coverage: 1984-present
Facts and statistics on current issues. Guide to statistical statements on current social, economic, political, environmental and health issues. Includes information from Christian Science Monitor, Congressional Record, congressional hearings, White House Press briefings, and briefings from the U.S. departments of state and defense, as well as debates in the Australian, British, and Canadian Parliaments.

HeinOnline
Date coverage: dates vary be resource
Full text online access to legal journals.

IngentaConnect
Date coverage: 1988-present
Indexes 17,000 English-language periodicals. Updated daily.

Maine News Index Online
Created by the Portland Public Library, the Maine News Index Online is a database of Maine newspaper and magazine citations and abstracts. The library's Portland Room, which houses special collections, maintains a web page listing titles indexed at http://www.portlandlibrary.com/locations/portlandroom.htm#newsindex.

Medline
Date coverage: 1966-present
Index to more than 3,600 journals covering all areas of clinical and experimental medicine, nursing, dentistry and health administration. Updated weekly.

New York Times Article Archive
Date coverage: 1851-present
Provides indexing for the New York Times from 1851 to the present. Related resources: online full text and indexing of the New York Times is available through the database ProQuest Newspapers for 1999 to present; The New York Times Index (POR Reference AI21.N44) covers 1851 to 1988.

Official Documents of the United Nations
Date coverage: 1993-present and selected earlier coverage
Covers all types of official United Nations documentation. Issues pertaining to women are included.

PAIS International
Date coverage: 1972-present
Citations for articles, books, conference proceedings, government documents, and book chapters.

POPLINE
Date coverage: 1950-present
POPLINE®(POPulation information onLINE) covers reproductive health, population, family planning, and related health issues. Includes references on population law and policy, demography, maternal and child health, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, development programs, and environmental issues.

Proquest Newspapers
Date coverage: Varies according to source Full text of more than 500 U.S. and international news sources. Includes the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and the Times of London, plus hundreds of other news sources and news wires.

ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
Date coverage: 1861-present; abstracts 1980-present; thesis abstracts 1988-present
Source for current research and trends.

PsycINFO
Date coverage: 1887-present
Index to the professional and academic literature in psychology and related disciplines, including medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, and other areas.

Sociological Abstracts
Date coverage: 1974-present
Covers sociology and related disciplines including anthropology, criminology, demography, education, gerontology, mental health, minority studies, political science, public health, social psychology, social work, urban studies, welfare programs, and women's studies.

Women and Social Movements in the United States 1600-2000
A collection of documentary projects pertaining to women and social movements in the United States. Primary source materials include books, images, manuscripts, journal articles, phamplets, letters, commentaries and bibliographies, documenting the multiplicity of women's reform activities

Women's Studies International
Index to the interdisciplinary field of women's studies, this database covers material in the fields of arts and humanities, business, economics, education, history, international relations, political science, public policy, and sociology. Covers from 1972 forward, and includes journal articles, books, book chapters, and dissertations.

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Date coverage: 1975-present
This database supplies citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law and public administration/policy.

Internet Resources

There is no authority control for the Internet. In choosing Internet resources it is imperative to evaluate the authenticity of the source. Thinking Critically about Discipline-Based World Wide Web Resources (UCLA College Library) provides excellent evaluation criteria. The following selected resources have been chosen because of authenticity and comprehensiveness of coverage.

American Women (Library of Congress American Memory)
"A gateway to Library of Congress resources for the study of women's history and culture in the United States."

Center for American Women and Politics
This Center is affiliated with the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University and includes facts and findings regarding women in politics.

Division for the Advancement of Women (United Nations)
This is an excelletn site for international information and contains links to related organizations.

Librarians' Index to Internet (LII): Women
Provides links to a variety of sources on various related topics.

National Council for Research on Women (NCRW)

National Women's Studies Association (NWSA)

Selected Women and Gender Resources on the World Wide Web
A wide range of resources including internet databases of secondary material (both citations and fulltext), databases of primary material (statistics and other data), and directories of feminist organizations and academic programs. This site is maintained by the University of Wisconsin System Women's Studies Librarian.

Women's Studies Databases (University of Maryland)
Includes links to bibliographies, gender issues, other web sites, reference resources, and books.

Women's Studies: A Guide to the Collection of the New York Public Library
The Research Libraries of The New York Public Library are one of the most important resource centers for Women's Studies in the United States. The collections consist of vast retrospective holdings relating to women, including manuscript and archival material, as well as a broad range of current Women's Studies materials reflecting new trends and thought on feminist theory and scholarship."

Women's Studies (UC Berkeley Library)

Women's Studies/Women's Issues Resource Sites (University of Maryland/Baltimore County)
Created by the Founding Director of the Center for Woemn and Information technology, this award-winning site contains selected, annotated links.

lWSSLINKS: Women and Gender Studies (Association of College and Research Libraries: Women's Studies Section)
Arranged into broad topics with each topic containing selected links to other resources.

In using resources it is imperative that they be used ethically and legally. The sources listed here provide assistance in following correct citation methods.

USM has a site license for EndNote, a personal reference database program. The main functions of this program include maintenance of a database of references, downloading references from other databases, using the database to link to references in word-processed document, and generating a bibliography in the correct style for publications. See EndNote Help for further information.

Citation Style: APA

APA Documentation (University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center)

APA Style.org

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th edion
POR and GOR Reference BF76.7 .P83 2001; LEW Reserve BF76.7 .P83 2001

Online: A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources

Using American Psychlogical Association (APA) Format (Updated to 5th Edition) (Purdue University Online Writing Lab)

Citation Style: MLA

Citing Sources (MLA) (Indiana University)

MLA (University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center)

MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th edition
POR Reference LB2369 .G53 2003
Also available at Sanford Center on reserve

Online! A Reference Guide Using Internet Resources

Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Format (Purdue University Online Writing Center)

Last update: 05-02-2006 bjm