Life @ Otis : Library

Example: Beginning Your Research

Using the topic of Matt Groening and the Simpsons, let's find information that provides academic viewpoints related to the cultural significance of this artist and his work.

1.
Start with the OPAC, the Library catalog, to find books.

Because this database is relatively small, try a key word
search to see the broadest range of what's available.

You'll get 16 items, a reasonable number to look through. Look carefully at each title. Some are comics written by Matt Groening, some DVDs. However, there are one or two items that will provide an academic treatment of a subject.

Leaving Springfield :The Simpsons and the Possibilities of Oppositional Culture is around #12 on the list .Click on the link to the full record for this book to find clues about its scope. Notice that the publisher is Wayne State University. Read the Table of Contents. From chapter titles, you'll easily see that this is likely a scholarly or academic source.

2.
Next, try the databases.

Click on the link to Wilson Web: Art Index.

Enter your search term in the FIND box.
LIB simpsons3

This database is much bigger than the OPAC. A keyword search on the Simpsons will result in more than 800 results.

LIB databases

3.
Look carefully at the first 40 results or so. Many are "false hits" for this topic. That is, they aren't about Matt Groening's Simpsons. They are about other people named Simpson.

Notice article #34.

Notice that there are links to the full articles in either PDF or text format.

See the icon for peer reviewed?
Peer reviewd is another way of saying that the article is considered a scholarly or academic source.

LIB simpsons4

If you click this title, you'll see that it's a link to the ABSTRACT or summary which says:

Reading the interplay between text, audience, and institutional context, this article critically examines the distinctiveness of The Simpsons. It explores how the animated series uses textual strategies that are interesting to and challenging for both (postmodern) critical theory and processes of interpretation , including existing critical writing on the program.

From this ABSTRACT you can tell that this article contains a critical or theoretical analysis of the Simpsons.

4.
Notice that you can NARROW your search by clicking on links that say FULL TEXT or narrow to a more specific SUBJECT.

Just for comparison, take a look at Wilson Omni and see the differences. You can actually search both Omni and Art Full-Text simultaneously.

First click on the Basic Search button and then the Database Selection Area and choose both.

LIB database selection

Try the same search, Simpsons with both selected.

LIB simpsons5

Why more hits?
Wilson OmniFile covers about 1500 magazines from many disciplines and is a little bigger than Art Full-Text. The Simpsons falls within the area of popular culture, a wider area than art and design. By the way, there will be some overlap because Omni also includes some arts.

NOTE: The Help area of any database will provide more instructions. But trial and error along with critical thinking about the results you get is also a great way to learn how to use the databases. Library staff are always available to assist you.

5.
Compare the results from database with what you find through Google.

Because the web is so enormous, using more terms is wise. Even so, the results are over 1.5 million hits.

Notice that a lot of fan sites come up. Most of these will not be useful for an academic paper.

Wikipedia comes up. Fine for background information, but it's really very superficial. Look at the article and compare it with the scholarly articles that were retrieved through the databases. Nothing in Wikipedia comes close to that level of writing.

The web is good for getting ideas and basic background information. But, you need more than facts for college level research papers. Books and journal articles with scholarly writing will be necessary.

LIB simpsons google