Research Guides: First Year Seminars: FYS 142-1 Rock Films and American Culture

The Research Process

Helpful Library Research Tools

Reference Sources (for finding background info)

Gale Reference eBooks This link opens in a new window
Provides a database of encyclopedias and reference sources for research. Coverage include the Arts, Business, Education, the Environment, History, Literature, Medicine, Multicultural Studies, Religion, Science and Social Science. 2000 – present.
Oxford Music Online (formerly Grove Music Online) This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text access to Grove Music Online, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, and The Oxford Companion to Music.

Article Databases

ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
Provides access to thousands of full-text scholarly journals, trade and professional titles, newspapers, magazines, dissertations, working papers, case studies, and market reports. Content covers all major subject areas, including business, health and medical, social sciences, arts and humanities, education, science and technology, and religion.
America: History and Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Provides citations to articles on American and Canadian history. Articles date from 1964 – present. Includes some full-text links.
Film and Television Literature Index with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing and abstracts for nearly 560 journals plus cover-to-cover indexing and abstracts for 270 journals. Contains more than 160 full-text journals and over 160 full-text books. Access Variety movie reviews dating back to 1914. Includes more than 63,000 images from the MPTV Image Archive.
Music Index This link opens in a new window
Covers all areas of classical and popular music (international focus). Provides indexing and abstracts for over 660 journals. Articles date from 1964-present.
RILM Abstracts of Music Literature This link opens in a new window
Provides citations and abstracts to music articles (international focus) from 1969-present, with records in over 200 languages. Indexes more than 2,000 music journals and about 11,000 journals from other disciplines.

Find Books Using MUSCAT Plus and WorldCat

MUSCAT Plus This link opens in a new window
MUSCAT Plus searches for books, journal articles, media, and more in Musselman Library and beyond.
WorldCat This link opens in a new window
Provides citations to books & other materials owned by over 10,000 libraries around the world (subject matter covers material from all time periods).

Primary Sources

Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text articles from the Baltimore Afro-American (1893-1988), Chicago Defender (1905-1975), Chicago Tribune (1858-1993), Los Angeles Times (1881-1993), New York Times (1851-2013), Philadelphia Inquirer (1860-2001), Pittsburgh Courier (1911-2002), Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (1786-2003), San Francisco Chronicle (1865-1922), Wall Street Journal (1889-Current), Washington Post (1877-2000), The Guardian (1821-2003), and The Observer (1791-2003).
Readers’ Guide Retrospective This link opens in a new window
Provides citations to articles on all subjects from approximately 375 general and popular magazines (no scholarly journals), 1890-1982.
Black Life in America This link opens in a new window
Provides comprehensive coverage of the African American experience from the early 18th century through the late 20th century. Content is sourced from more than 19,000 American and global news sources, including over 400 current and historical Black publications. Library has Series I, 1704-1877: Arrival in America through Reconstruction, and Series II, 1878-1975: Jim Crow through the Civil Rights Movement.
Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
An open access collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals produced by feminists, dissident soldiers, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press, and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.
African American Newspapers, 1827-1998, Series 1 This link opens in a new window
Explore African American history, culture and daily life in the 19th and 20th centuries. Includes 28,000 issues from more than 260 rare 19th- and 20th-century newspapers published in 36 states.

See additional newspaper and magazine archive collections on the Newspapers and Magazines research guides.

Evaluate Information Sources

Evaluating Sources

Think critically about information sources that you use. Here are a few things to consider when evaluating sources…

Who wrote it and why?

What qualifies the author(s) to write about the topic?
Who is the intended audience?
What is the purpose -- to inform / entertain / persuade / summarize / report new findings?
What is the context in which it was written?

How does it support your research question?

What do you know now that you didn’t know before reading it?
What does the source argue or demonstrate that none of your other sources do?
What questions remain or what new questions are raised when considering the information?

What makes it reliable?

What evidence did the author use to support his/her claims?
Have other people cited or referenced it?
How might someone dismiss it?
Who had to approve or review it before it could be published?

Scholarly vs. Popular Sources

For much of the research that you do at Gettysburg College, professors will request that you use scholarly articles (from peer-reviewed journals, rather than popular magazines and websites.) If you need help telling the difference, see this guide on the library website.

First Year Seminars: FYS 142-1 Rock Films and American Culture

Citation Help

Questions? Ask your librarian!

Who, What, and When?

The Research Process

Helpful Library Research Tools

Evaluate Information Sources