DANC 301: Dance History 1 (Meckley)

Welcome!

You have two projects that potentially need you to do some library research: your Research Project and your Final Project.  This guide is meant to provide you with options for finding useful sources. 

To use your time wisely and most efficiently, use library databases as you do research.  You can more comfortably rely on the authority and reliability of items you find through library databases.

If you have questions as you're using these library resources:

• If you need quick, immediate help: Use the Chat or Call options on the Ask a Librarian page.
• If you have a little time or a more intricate question: Email me (Susan Taylor at setaylor@bsu.edu), describing your topic and what you're having trouble with.  I'll write you back as soon as I can.

Please reach out if you have troubles!

To search like a pro, use the CHOP, DROP, and OR technique.  This works in most every library database.

CHOP your topic into the different concepts involved.

• Sample topic: cultural appropriation as it relates to hip-hop dance
• Concepts: cultural appropriation, hip-hop, dance

DROP each concept into a separate search box on an Advanced Search screen.

Then think of whether there are different spellings, synonyms, or related words for each concept and type them in (if there are), using OR between them.

• "cultural appropriation" OR "cultural misappropriation"
• hip-hop
• dance OR dancing

Here's how those terms might be put into an Advanced Search form in OneSearch.

Then, of course, you want to evaluate what you find.

• When you see a good title, that seems on-target topic-wise, read through and note if it uses different terms you could incorporate into your search.
• You may find research that leads you in a new direction with your research.  Follow it!
• Remember that library research like this can take time.  Be patient and be willing to scroll down through your list.

Because you're searching a large number of databases at the same time when you do a search in OneSearch, you will get a wide variety of results.

[For this example, we'll be working with the search from above, in the CHOP, DROP, and OR box.]

To limit results to scholarly sources:

Look on the left-hand side, under "Refine your search," and click in the "Scholarly & Peer-Review" box.

This title looks promising, though it doesn't look like dance is its focus.  Click on the "Quick Look" button to get more information about it.

To try to narrow more to discussion focusing on dance, I can place further limits.

To limit the results by discipline (or broad subject area)

Scrolling down we'll see more options on the left for refining our search.  Especially notable are "Discipline" and "Subject."

While either could be used to focus the results, "Discipline" is slightly broader, and a better choice.

Remember that not all of your sources need to directly address all the aspects of your topic.  They just need to add something to the point you're trying to make.  For example, this title seems to lack a focus on hip hop dance, but still looks like it brings in aspects of identity worth considering:

To revise the search, click on the "Advanced " link toward the top.  

Options for changing the search:

• To find more records, remove a term or remove any "Discipline" limiters.  This brings up more results.
• To find fewer records, add another search box with another set of search terms.  For example, if I want to focus on hip-hop in New York City, I could add a box with "new york city" in it.

Finding the full article

In OneSearch many articles have links to the full-text that can be read online.  Just look for the "Full Text Online" link above "Preview."  Click there to get to the full article.

If an article you want says "Citation Online" instead, click on it...

...and then choose the "Full Text Options, including Interlibrary Loan" to request that the library get an electronic copy of the article for you through a service called "Interlibrary Loan."  (Takes a few days.  More info about Interlibrary Loan.)

If you need help getting to the full article, just use one of the options on the Ask a Librarian page to reach out and get assistance.  Chat is a quick choice!

All three of the databases listed below use the same interface as Academic Search Complete, which you may already be familiar with.  Some notes:

• While the International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance nicely focuses on your field, it does not have as many scholarly sources.  It therefore may not be as useful to you.
• When searching in the history databases, understand that you'll want to choose search terms related to the cultural and/or historical aspects of your topic.
• For each of these, there's a limiter box on the left of the search results that allows you to limit to Scholarly/Peer-reviewed sources.  Make sure you use this so you find the types of sources that are required for your assignment.

• When you're trying to find the full-text of the article, if you don't see a PDF link, you may need to use Find It @ BALL STATE.  Just see the Find It @ BALL STATE box below for more information.  Questions?  Chat with us via Ask a Librarian!