Neelin IB Program: Home

You can borrow up to 2 books at a time.

You can't borrow videos or journals.  You can photocopy journal articles.  Ask at the circulation desk about how to do this.

You can apply to get wireless Internet access in the library.  Ask or email Rainer (contact info is to the right of screen)

If you have any question, please feel free to ask.

You have been given topics about Revolutions in Latin America.  I suggest to do the following:

Step 1: General info

Find some basic or general information about the topic.  Where do you usually find this info?

Try:

1. Your textbook
2. Wikipedia www.wikipedia.org
3. Try the print reference book I brought to class: The international encyclopedia of revolution and protest : 1500 to the present; Reference JC491. I58 2009
4. Country Studies (created by Library of Congress Researchers they include a section of the country's history)

When you do this note:

• important information
• interesting keywords to search
• bibliographies / further reading - sources that others have used to write, for example, the wikipedia article

Using what you write down is an easy way to find more info related to your topic.

Step 2: Define your topic

Now that you know some general info about your topic, what specific information do you need to find?

Talk to your partner about what research question you want to answer.  You need to do this throughout your research - you will likely change your topic focus depending on what information you can find.

 Step 3: Find info from bibliographies / further readings

To do this you first need to figure out if you are searching for a book, journal article, newspaper, video etc.

• If it is a book or video: search for the title in the Library Catalog.
• If it is a journal article, magazine or newspaper: search for the name of the journal in the Journal List.

Journal list help:

Most journals in the journal list are not free.  To access those, you have to be in the library.

After searching for your journal name in the journal list, compare the date coverage to the date of publication of the article you are looking for. 

If that date is covered follow the link.  The link will take you to the journal, not your specific article.  Now search for your specific article.

When you find it, look for a pdf link to the article.

Step 4: Finding more info

For book or video: search for your keywords in the Library Catalog.

For journal articles on history of Revolutions in Latin America there are 3 choices (you have to be in the BU library to use these)

• JSTOR - full-text journal articles - on search page, click on Advanced Search, then scroll down and select History and Latin American Studies (you can also select Political Science)
• Ebscohost Historical Abstracts - info on world history - use subject heading or dates to help narrow search
• EbscoHost American History and Life - history of North America - will have info about how Latin American Revolutions affected North America - use subject heading or dates to help narrow search

You can search the 2 Ebscohost databases at the same time - Ask me how!

If you have any questions, please ask!