Urban Studies Library Guide

Barnard College Library Research Guide

V3545: JUNIOR COLLOQUIUM IN URBAN STUDIES:
THE SHAPING OF THE MODERN CITY
Professor Thorin Tritter

Librarian: Lois Coleman

Lower Manhattan, Thomas James Delbridge
© Smithsonian American Art Museum

CLIO and Other Library Catalogs | Databases | Primary Sources Online | Guides to Web Sites | EndNote

Reference Books
Use for:

an overview of a topic
background information
bibliographies

Here are some examples:

Title	Barnard Reference Call Number
Encyclopedia of New York	F128.3 .E75 1995
Encyclopedia of the City	HT108.5 E63 2005
Encyclopedia of Urban America: the Cities and Suburbs	HT123 .E5 1998
Encyclopedia of Urban Cultures	HT108.5 E53 2002
The Urban Politics Dictionary	JS48 .S65 1990
Urban Sprawl	HT384 U5 W55 2000

Searching CLIO
CLIO (Columbia Libraries Information Online) is the on-line catalog for materials added to the Columbia University Libraries since 1981.

For a Keyword search, you must use Boolean searching - that is, use and, or or not between the terms, and quotes for a phrase
For a Keyword or Title search, you can limit to books in the Barnard library using the Pre-select Limits or the Post Limit options
To find primary materials in CLIO, look for these subdivisions in the subject field:
     --ARCHIVES
     --BIOGRAPHY (this includes autobiographies)
     --CORRESPONDENCE
     --DIARIES
     --INTERVIEWS
     --SOURCES
For example:
     NIXON RICHARD M RICHARD MILHOUS 1913--CORRESPONDENCE
     WOMEN--UNITED STATES--SOCIAL CONDITIONS--SOURCES
For primary documents, you can also use the Quick limit or the Library Location limit "Archival Collections" to find materials in CLIO located in the Avery Drawings and Archives Department, the Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Oral History Research Office, the Lehman Suite, the Barnard Archives, the Columbia University Archives, or the Burke Library Archives. For more help, consult the page Looking for Archives and Manuscripts?

Other Library Catalogs
Library users with a Columbia ID have access to Teachers’ College Library and Columbia Law Library, but they are not included in CLIO.
Use the "Search all CU Catalogs" button in CLIO to search them simultaneously and obtain information about which libraries hold which titles.
For more complete information about holdings, you need to search the catalogs individually; use the Catalogs list on CU LibraryWeb, or the following links:

EDUCAT for Teachers’ College Library

Pegasus for Columbia Law Library

Other local libraries to which you have access:

Bobcat for NYU (Washington Square South)

CATNYP for New York Public Library research branches (Humanities and Social Sciences Library, 5th Ave. and 42nd St., 212-930-0830)

LEO for New York Public Library local branch libraries (Morningside Heights Branch, Broadway and 113th Street, 212-864-2530)

You can also use WorldCat, a composite catalog of thousands of libraries worldwide, which can help you to decide whether you need to request an item on Interlibrary Loan or BorrowDirect

Databases
These databases/indexes are all on the Databases list on the Barnard Library homepage or the Columbia Libraries Home Page.

Finding articles using an index or database is a two-step process:
1. Find relevant citations in the index;
2. Find the article itself, by a) clicking on "e-link" to find the full-text article, if we have it, or b) searching CLIO for the title of the journal.

America: History and Life

Citations and abstracts for articles on U.S. and Canadian history
Use quotes for a phrase, and * for truncation

Avery Index

Citations for articles on architecture, historic preservation, interior design, landscape architecture and urban planning, dating from the 19th century to the present
For truncation use ?

JSTOR

Full-text articles from more than 600 scholarly journals, from the first issue of each journal (including some started in the late nineteenth century) up to 3 to 5 years ago

Most of the articles have no abstract, so searching in the title is the most direct search; a full text search will often find too many irrelevant articles

Lexis-Nexis

Full-text coverage of general news, business, legal, governmental and other topics; includes some professional journals as well as newspapers and general interest magazines
Includes Primary Sources in U.S. History
A phrase is understood even if you don’t enclose it in quotes; for truncation use !

ProQuest

Full-text articles and abstracts from newspapers and periodicals in many disciplines, including international affairs, law, psychology, public affairs, sociology, women's studies, etc.
Includes major newspapers in the Historical Newspapers collection
Two words together are treated as a phrase; for longer phrases use quotes
Use ? for truncation

Social Sciences Citation Index

Cited references and bibliographic information for the social sciences, with links to full-text articles.
Useful for tracing who cited a given article or book, or for tracing an idea.
To search for article citations, click on "General Search"
Two words together are searched as a phrase
For truncation, use *

Social Sciences Full Text

Citations and abstracts for articles, book reviews, etc. in social science journals

Use quotes for a phrase, * to truncate

Other Indexes and Databases

Since this is an interdisciplinary area of study, you need to be flexible and creative in thinking about which indexes and databases will be useful to you. Here are some others you might need; all are on the Databases list on the Barnard Library home page or Columbia LibraryWeb.

Alternative Press Index

Contemporary Women's Issues

Dissertation Abstracts

EBSCO (full-text journal articles)

EconLit (citations for articles in economics journals)

ERIC (citations for articles in education periodicals)

Ethnic NewsWatch

Factiva (full-text database of nearly newswires, newspapers, magazines and trade journals

FactSearch (Facts and statistics about current social, economic, environmental, and political issues)

GPO Access (full-text of U.S. government publications)

Index to Current Urban Documents

Ingenta (full-text journal articles)

International Bibliography of the Social Sciences

International Political Science Abstracts

PAIS International (citations and abstracts for publications related to public affairs)

Science Direct (full-text articles from science and social science journals)

Sociological Abstracts

STAT-USA (business and economic information and statistics)

Women's Studies International

Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

Primary Sources Online

If you are researching the recent past, you may be able to find primary documents like newspaper and magazine articles in the above online databases and indexes. However, for older primary materials the following databases are useful:

American Memory A collection of primary source materials relating to U.S. history and culture compiled by the Library of Congress National Digital Library Program.
Archives and Manuscript Collections This is a guide developed at Columbia listing resources you can use to try to find relevant archival collections outside Columbia. The page also provides links to many archival collections' home pages.
Gerritsen Collection: Women's History Online, 1543-1945 A full-text collection of books and periodicals covering the history of women from 1543 to 1945, with the bulk being from 1880-1920.
HarpWeek Full text and page images of the popular illustrated 19th-century American periodical Harper's Weekly.
LexisNexis: Primary Sources in U.S. History
ProQuest Historical Newspapers Full-text articles from the New York Times from 1851 to the present and the Wall Street Journal from 1889 to 1985
The RLIN Archives and Manuscript Collections (AMC) File Database of archives in the United States, searchable by author and subject.
RLG Cultural Materials Digital versions of materials, including maps, manuscripts, handwritten letters, drawings and paintings, contributed by archives, libraries and museums around the world.

Guides to Web Sites

The Barnard Library homepage has a list of Subject Guides, including one for Politics and Government, and the Columbia Libraries Home Page provides a list of Subject Guides on various topics, for example, U.S. Politics: Information Resources, Statistical Sources, and U.S. Government Documents: the Legislative Process. These make a good place to start with finding information on the World Wide Web.
The Oral History Research Office provides a guide to the collection of the Oral History Research Office at Columbia, as well as links to other oral history internet resources.
Exploring New York City is the Columbia E-Guide to New York City resources online
Links and Research Resources is provided by the Barnard Urban Studies Department
Columbia University Archives and Columbiana Library describes the Columbia Archives and Columbiana collection, and provides contact information

EndNote

EndNote, a program that helps you to organize and use references from databases and catalogs, is available for downloading, free of charge, to all current Barnard and Columbia students from the AcIS software server at http://www.columbia.edu/acis/software/endnote. The page "EndNote Bibliographic Software at Barnard and Columbia" gives an introduction to the use of EndNote.

For Further Help

Click here to complete a form you can e-mail to the library requesting a consultation on your research, or come to the Reference Desk on the second floor. We'll be happy to help you find additional information.
Contact a reference librarian: e-mail refdesk@barnard.edu or call 212-854-3953.

You can also chat online with a Columbia or Barnard librarian between 1 and 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, by clicking on Ask Us Now.

Updated Sept.22, 2005
Lois Coleman, Reference Librarian