Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies

General guide for library research in Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies

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 window
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Journal articles, dissertations, and book reviews, many in full text, relating to United States and Canadian history and prehistory, 1954-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
ComAbstracts This link opens in a new window
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Abstracts 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.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Communication and Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window
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Communication scholarly journals and trade journals, plus articles on communication topics from related disciplines, 1915-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
ERIC This link opens in a new window
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Education 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.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
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Full-text articles from newspapers, magazines and journals of ethnic communities in the United States. In several languages, 1965-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
GenderWatch This link opens in a new window
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Articles from magazines and scholarly journals concerning masculinity, feminism, homosexuality, and gender roles, 1970-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Use to access many UMass online journal subscriptions.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.

You can access Google Scholar with UMLinks buttons from outside the UMass Amherst IP range ("off campus") by two methods:

1. Access Google Scholar through the Library web site by using this link.
2. Go to generic Google Scholar.
a. Click on "Settings."
b. Click on Library links.
c. Type in "University of Massachusetts" or "UMass Amherst" (or a few other variations).
d. Check "University of Massachusetts Amherst - UMass Check for Full Text" and Save.
e. You will be asked to authenticate somewhere along the way to full text.
Historical Abstracts Full Text This link opens in a new window
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Journal articles, many in full text, and citations to books and dissertations on world history from 1450, published 1954-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Left Index This link opens in a new window
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Citations to articles in leftist periodicals, on labor, ecology & environment, race, social & cultural theory, 1982-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
LGBTQ+ Source This link opens in a new window
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References, 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.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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References to scholarly journal articles, dissertations, and conference papers on sociology and related disciplines, 1960-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Web of Science This link opens in a new window
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Index 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.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts This link opens in a new window
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The international scholarly literature of political science, including articles, books, chapters, and reports, 1975-present.
Available on campus to all, or off-campus to UMass Amherst students, staff and faculty with an UMass Amherst IT NetID (user name) and password.

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:

African American Women -- History

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.