This document provides an overview of a library workshop on researching women's and gender studies topics. It introduces several databases for exploring these topics, including Historical Abstracts, MLA International Bibliography, Feminae, and Gender Studies Database. It outlines the coverage and features of each database. The document also provides tips for effective searching, such as using wildcards and limits. Groups are assigned a database to explore using guiding questions about subject coverage, accessing full text and peer-reviewed articles, and search optimization.

1. WGST 2P91
LIBRARY TIPS AND
TRICKS
Jennifer Thiessen, Liaison Librarian for Women’s and Gender
Studies
February 2013

2. Today’s Agenda
 Searching for articles
 Choosing the best database
 Historical Abstracts/America: History & Life
 MLA International Bibliography
 Feminae
 Gender Studies Database
 Group Work: Explore topic—e.g. witchcraft
 Discussion
 Writing Tips/Help

3. Group Work
 Explore your assigned database by
searching for resources on a topic of your
choosing
 Databases:
 Historical Abstracts/America:History & Life
 MLA International Bibliography
 Feminae
 Gender Studies

4. Guiding questions…
 Your task as a group: Explore your database
using the following questions to guide your
investigation.
 Ideas for searching: witchcraft, eugenics,
suffrage
 What is included in the database?
 Subject coverage? Date coverage?
 Can you get peer-reviewed articles? How?
 How can you get to the full text of an article?
 Other tips on making your search better?

5. AMERICA: HISTORY &
LIFE/HISTORICAL ABSTRACTS
 America: History & Life
 History
of Canada and the U.S.
 Coverage: prehistory – present
 Historical Abstracts
 History of all countries EXCEPT Canada and the
U.S.
 Coverage: 1450-present (i.e., won’t cover early
middle ages)
 Both databases contain journal articles

6. AMERICA: HISTORY &
LIFE/HISTORICAL ABSTRACTS

8. MLA INTERNATIONAL
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 journals, series,
books, working
papers,
conference
proceedings
 modern
language,
literature,
linguistics, and
folklore

10. FEMINAE
 covers journal articles, book reviews, and
essays in books about women, sexuality, and
gender during the Middle Ages

11. FEMINAE
Search Results
1. Record Number: 28004
Author(s): Scudieri, Novello, Check Library Catalogue
Contributor(s):
Title :A Trial for Witchcraft at Todi (1428)
Source: Medieval Italy: Texts in Translation Edited by Katherine L. Jansen, Joanna Drell, and Frances Andrews .
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009. Pages 203 - 215.
Year of Publication: 2009.
24. Record Number: 9340
Author(s): Broedel, Hans Peter.
Contributor(s):
Title :To Preserve the Manly Form from So Vile a Crime: Ecclesiastical Anti-Sodomitic Rhetoric and the Gendering
of Witchcraft in the "Malleus Maleficarum" [Broedel argues that Heinrich Krämer, the author, with the help of Jacob
Sprenger, of the "Malleus maleficarum," adopted the language and critiques of sodomy to describe witchcraft, thus
making it a crime of deviant sexuality. Since women were naturally p
Source: Essays in Medieval Studies (Full Text via Project Muse) 19 (2002): 136-148. Link Info
Year of Publication: 2002.
Click for full text

12. GENDER STUDIES
DATABASE
 Interdisciplinary
 gender-related
topics: women's
studies, men's
studies, ethnic
studies, health,
sexual diversity
 Also good for
historical topics.

14. Summary of Search Tips
 Use the * symbol to search for alternate endings (e.g.,
work* = worker, workers, working, etc.) Note: this doesn’t work in
Feminae!
 Use the ? symbol to search for different spellings (e.g.,
wom?n = women, woman) Note: this doesn’t work in Feminae!
 Pay attention to limits (e.g., peer-reviewed journals,
language, historical period)
 Narrow/focus your search by using subject
terms/descriptors

17. Questions?
 Women’s and Gender Studies Research
Guide
 http://researchguides.library.brocku.ca/WISE
 Library Help
 Help Desk
 http://brocku.ca/library/help-lib
 Jennifer Thiessen
 jthiessen@brocku.ca
Please fill out evaluation form:
http://bit.ly/WGST2p91