Anthropology & Archaeology

This and other research guides are on the ACC Library web page under
Research Guides & Tutorials: http://library.sunyacc.edu

Adirondack Community College, 640 Bay Road, Queensbury, NY 12804
(518) 743-2260

Books | Reference books | Articles | Web sites

At any point in your research, please consult a reference librarian. Librarians are available whenever the library is open at (518) 743-2200 ext. 2462. Library hours are listed on the ACC Library's home page: http://library.sunyacc.edu.

Finding Books:

To find books or multimedia items, search the ACC book catalog (ACC Library web page > Finding Books > Catalog):

• Reference books, on the library’s main floor, don’t leave the library, so are always available.
• Circulating books, on the upper level of the library, may be checked out for four weeks.
• Videos, DVDs and music CDs may be borrowed by faculty. Students may use equipment near the video/DVD shelves.

Search tip: Start with a keyword search. When you find an interesting book, look for the subject headings in the book's online description. Click on any that refine your search best. Here are some subject headings to consider using:

To find books on two overlapping topics, use the word and, with keyword search mode: “Middle East and antiquities,” for instance. This technique is called Boolean logic.

To find videos, select Advanced Search and limit your search by collection to Media-Videotape or Media-DVD. 

Reference Books:

Reference books, on the main floor, can help you select a research topic. They also offer quick background information and overviews on subjects.

Gale Virtual Reference Library:

You can search thousands of full-text chapters from more than 250 reference books published by Gale Cengage Learning. The ACC Library owns many of these books in printed format also. The Document Title search will search for your term in the chapter titles, giving you full-text chapters from the reference books. The content is the exactly the same as the original printed books. Find this database with these links: ACC Library Web page > Finding Books > Reference > Gale Virtual Reference Library. (Note: This is a subscription database. ACC students, faculty and staff may log in from off-campus with their campus network user names and passwords.)

Finding Articles:

Journal articles offer current and specific information and research. Search for journal articles by subject through any of the ACC Library's dozens of article databases. Many but not all offer full-text links to articles. (If needed, ask a reference librarian about finding an article though another database, print sources or interlibrary loan if it's not full-text.).

Article databases are subscription-only products. ACC students and faculty may search these from home by following screen directions. To get your ACC student username and password, see Lookup Account and Password on the Student Portal page. For a full list of journals ACC Library receives, see the online Periodicals at ACC list or check the card file at the Circulation Desk.

From the ACC Library Web page, go to Finding Articles. Then, choose either:

• General Databases to find articles on a current, popular or multidisciplinary topic and need a mix of newspapers, magazines and scholarly journals; or
• Subject Databases to find specialized articles on one subject only, such as business, science, literature, nursing, etc.

Among the General Databases are:
● EBSCO's Academic Search Premier: Over 8000 journals; about half are full-text.
● JSTOR: full-text; 117 journals covering the arts, sciences and social sciences.
● New York Times: Current (1980-present) and historical editions (1851-2003).
● WilsonSelectPlus: Completely full-text; 1+ million articles from 1400 journals.
● New York State Newspapers: includes New York Times full-text.
● Opposing Viewpoints, CQ Researcher, more.

Use online article databases to locate articles written within the last 20 years or so. The ACC Library subscribes to dozens of databases, offering citations, abstracts, or full-text articles.

AnthroSource:
Under Subject Databases is this online database, an electronic archive of 100 years of scholarly journals from the American Anthropological Association (AAA). It includes: current issues for 15 of the AAA's peer-reviewed publications through the present, including American Anthropologist, American Ethnologist, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, and Medical Anthropology Quarterly.

Print indexes:                        
To find articles over 20 years old, you may want to use an index such as these to find article citations:

The ACC Library has the New York Times newspaper on microfilm back to the mid-1800s.

The ACC Library receives these journals in printed form at the library:

Citing information with SAA style:
Visit the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) site for citation details: http://www.saa.org/Publications/StyleGuide/styframe.html
Remember that articles from an electronic source are cited differently than articles from print journals.

Web sites:

Here are some recommended Web sites. Of the billions of Web sites in the world, these are more appropriate for college-level research.

• Society for American Archaeology. Click on Site Map for overview: http://www.saa.org

• ArchNet, Virtual Library for Archaeology, from Arizona State University: http://archnet.asu.edu/

• ARCHAEOLOGY Magazine, official publication of the Archaeological Institute of America:
http://www.archaeological.org

• Anthropology in the News by Texas A&M: http://anthropology.tamu.edu/news.htm

• Anthropology Resources on the Internet: http://www.anthropologie.net/

• Archaeology site at About.com: http://archaeology.about.com

• National Park Service’s History & Culture site: http://www.nps.gov/history

• Univ. of California Santa Barbara Department of Anthropology: http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/

• Ancient Mesoamerican Civilizations from U. of Minnesota of Anthropology Dept., sites and sounds of Maya, Mixtec, Zapotec, and Aztec cultures: http://www.angelfire.com/ca/humanorigins/index.html

• Zeno's Forensic Site: Comprehensive site for forensic sciences: http://forensic.to/forensic.html

• American Anthropological Association: http://www.aaanet.org/

• Univ. at Albany Library’ Anthropology page: http://library.albany.edu/subject/anthropology_main.html

For more information:

Consult a reference librarian at any point in your research. You may also want to see other online ACC Library research guides.

Updated June 2008/JM/FS