MESAS 102: Introduction to South Asian Civilizations

• DiscoverE :The Library's primary search engine for books and articles available through Emory -- and not through Google.
  • Try this search on the Catalog tab (searches Emory's catalog only): orientalism AND India.
    • Stable URL: It can be useful to add a stable URL to a full text item or at least to its bibliographic record into your own bibliography. Click on Actions, then Permalink, to access a stable URL for each record in the DiscoverE.
  • Compare this search with the Combined tab : orientalism AND India.
    • Remote access: Click Login and enter your Emory netID and password to enable searches of databases
  • Notice the Boolean operator "AND" in the searches above. Boolean operators can help you find more accurate search results and narrow down your topic. The key Boolean operators are:
    • AND - results will contain both keywords, e.g orientalism AND India
    • OR - results will contain one or more of the keywords, e.g. orientalism OR India
    • NOT - results won't contain the keyword, e.g. orientalism NOT India
  • You can also add search modifiers to get more accurate results. These include:
    • " " - results will contain the words between the quotation marks as an exact phrase, e.g. "South Asia"
    • * - results will contain the stem that precedes the asterisk, e.g. Jain* will cultivate results that may contain Jain, Jains, Jainism
    • ( ) - results will contain whatever is specified in the brackets and the other keywords, e.g. (Rama OR Sita) AND Ramayana
    • ? - results will contain variations on the keyword that contains the question mark, e.g. wom?n will cultivate results that contain "woman" or "women"
• WorldCat: Search thousands of library catalogs across the U.S. and other major world libraries. 
  • If you find a title here that's not at Emory, you can request it from ILL.  Note that this interface via Emory Libraries offers more features than the public WorldCat interface.

• See the Databases@Emory page for a list of available databases at Emory. Try searching for relevant databases under a subject such as "South Asian Studies" or "Religion."
• The following databases contain journal articles (and some of them, books) and digital images that will help you with your research.
  • JSTOR:
    • Try a search for "orientalism AND India" in JSTOR. You can now find books in JSTOR, as well as articles.
    • Export Citations:
      • Once you click on an article's title page, click on "Cite This Item." 
      • From here, you can copy the citation in MLA, APA, or Chicago style.
      • Alternatively, you can export the citation to Zotero or other citation management program. 
    • Stable URL: Every JSTOR record has a stable URL assigned.  It may appear below the title and publisher information, or it may appear when you click "Cite This Item."
  • Bibliography of Asian Studies (BAS)
    • Try a search for "orientalism AND Hindu*" in the BAS.
      • Note the use of boolean operator and wildcard character.
      • Narrow the results on the left side of the screen by Source Type (Academic Journals), Publication Date, or other category as needed. 
    • Citations from BAS:
      • Click on the item, then click Cite. From here, you can copy and paste the citation in the appropriate format, or you can export the citation in various formats.
      • Stable URL: You can find a permalink for each article by clicking on it and selecting "permalink" at the right.
    • The BAS indexes journals and book chapters in Asian Studies published in western languages from 1971 to the present and provides citations only, not full-text.
      • ​Please DO NOT be discouraged if the full text is not available for a citation in the BAS! It is very likely that you can access this resource via Emory Libraries. Click on the "Find It@Emory" tab on the left side of the screen. If you're still having trouble, contact the South Asian Studies librarian, Ellen Ambrosone, at ellen.ambrosone@emory.edu.
  • ArtStor 
    • Try a search for "Ramayana AND Hanuman" for art images in ArtStor.
    • Narrow your results on the left side of the screen by Collection Type, Geography, Date, or other category. 
    • Citation:
      • Click an item in search results, then click "Cite This Item" to copy/paste the citation in one of the available formats.
    • Stable URL: For each record a permalink is generated which can find on the right side of the screen.​
  • Academic Search Complete
    • Try a search for "orientalism AND Hindu*" in Academic Search Complete.
    • Limit your search results on the left side of the screen by selecting Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals or by some other category.
    • Click on the item and then click "Cite" to copy the citation in a variety of formats or to export the citation to Zotero or another bibliographic management software.

Google

• Google Scholar 
  • Try a search for Harappa OR "Indus Valley" on Google Scholar.
  • Searches scholarly articles only from public domain sources or those publishers' databases that "expose" their information to Google's bots to index. 
  • Access to the full text may be restricted when you click through, unless Emory has licensed access. 
  • Tips
    • Do you see a Find It @ Emory button in search results?  If not, follow the instructions on their Scholar Preferences page. Click on "Library Links" on the left side of the page. Search for Emory. Select "Find it @ Emory."
    • Can you use boolean operators or wildcard or truncation characters?  Check out their advanced search options here.
• Google Books
  • Try a natural language search on "Harrapa Indus Valley" in Google Books.
  • Google Books hosts books and magazines digitized in full by Google in coordination with major research libraries. 
    • Only those in public domain can be viewed in full.  Those tend to be older works published before 1923.
  • Evaluate your sources: Using Google Books requires excellent information literacy skills - that means being able to evaluate your sources.
    • Can you distinguish scholarly sources, such as an academic monograph, from popular sources like commercial monographs? For more information on the differences between scholarly and popular sources, see the excellent guide from the University of California at Berkeley: http://guides.lib.berkeley.edu/c.php?g=83917&p=539735