Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies
Librarian
University of Massachusetts
Available by appointment. I can meet via phone, Zoom, or other online venue. To request an online appointment or get any other help, please email iespinal@library.umass.edu or call:
Associate Dean for Research & Learning
W.E.B. Du Bois Library
154 Hicks Way
Amherst, MA 01003
WGSS Reads the News - A Library Research Guide
Questions for students: When it comes to topics in Women, Gender, Sexuality, how can we teach others to tell real from fake and strain the “spin” from the facts? What are the historical contexts and what critical thinking skills would you introduce? What are the key ideas, articles and analyses that you would introduce? What is vital context for understanding the topic?
Organize your research
Use a citation manager, such as Zotero to keep track of your research.
Put all your references in one place, create quick and easy bibliographies, build your knowledgebase for the rest of your career. For help, check out the online guides and webinars or Ask a Librarian.
Some tips on using Chicago notation style with Zotero.
Background research
- America: History & Life This link opens in a new windowJournal articles, dissertations, and book reviews, many in full text, relating to United States and Canadian history and prehistory, 1954-present.
- ComAbstracts This link opens in a new windowAbstracts of articles and books on communication theory, interpersonal communication, mass communication, advertising and marketing, broadcasting, journalism, public opinion, and public relations. Coverage varies - earliest is 1915-present.
- Communication and Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new windowCommunication scholarly journals and trade journals, plus articles on communication topics from related disciplines, 1915-present.
- ERIC This link opens in a new windowEducation journal articles (EJ references) and ERIC documents (ED references), 1967-present. EDs before 1997 are requestable using the Microforms Request page and usable in the Microforms Vewing Room in the LC.
- Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new windowFull-text articles from newspapers, magazines and journals of ethnic communities in the United States. In several languages, 1965-present.
- GenderWatch This link opens in a new windowArticles from magazines and scholarly journals concerning masculinity, feminism, homosexuality, and gender roles, 1970-present.
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowUse to access many UMass online journal subscriptions.
- Historical Abstracts Full Text This link opens in a new windowJournal articles, many in full text, and citations to books and dissertations on world history from 1450, published 1954-present.
- Left Index This link opens in a new windowCitations to articles in leftist periodicals, on labor, ecology & environment, race, social & cultural theory, 1982-present.
- LGBTQ+ Source This link opens in a new windowReferences, and some full text, of articles in about 120 LGBT-specific core periodicals, as well as selective articles from 1,600 more periodicals, 1950-present.
- Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new windowReferences to scholarly journal articles, dissertations, and conference papers on sociology and related disciplines, 1960-present.
- Web of Science This link opens in a new windowIndex to articles from peer-reviewed journals in all disciplines.Search by cited reference, topic, author, and more. Arts and Humanities covers 1975-present; Social Sciences 1900-present; and Science 1900-present.
- Worldwide Political Science Abstracts This link opens in a new windowThe international scholarly literature of political science, including articles, books, chapters, and reports, 1975-present.
Also check out the CQ Press databases.
Fake News resources
Check out the Fake News research guide by UMass librarian Lisa DiValentino
Finding Books
To find books at UMass, you have two options.
1. Start with the Discovery Search, the general search box on the library home page, www.library.umass.edu.
Advantages:
This search gives you access to books and articles and more.
2. Or, use the Five Colleges Library Catalog.
Advantages:
This catalog lets you search in some very specific ways, for example, by Library of Congress Subject Heading. Be as specific as possible in your searching. Start with a subject search (use keyword if subject yields no results). Search by author, title, subject, keyword, call number, journal title, etc. For materials on a specific subject, enter your term(s) into the Subject or Keyword search boxes.
Sample searches:
To find books outside the Five Colleges, try
1. WorldCat - The combined catalogs of most U.S. libraries. Material not owned by UMass Amherst can usually be borrowed through Interlibrary Loan. Click WorldCat to access the catalog, or the image below.
2. Commonwealth Catalog - Discover and request (with a UMass Amherst Libraries barcode) popular books, audio books, movies and more from a wide array of Massachusetts public and smaller academic libraries. Click Commonwealth Catalog to access the catalog, or the image below.
