Today's Hours
This is a brief Research Guide to accompany Heritage of the Spanish Antilles.
The tabs in the left column offer links to the databases discussed in class, a list of books, as well as a link to the slides for the session.
A plethora of writing exists about the region throughout history. The databases respond directly to the words typed into search but the terms that we choose are not always searchable. Surprisingly, searching the words "Caribbean and Colonial" (10,458 results) is more productive in OneSearch than the phrase "Spanish Antilles" (34 results). The same goes for the databases. This may be the result of modern word choice or the established nomenclature in the scholarship.
Be mindful of spelling and search terms, especially for words that use accent marks such as Taíno - the term for the indigenous people of the Caribbean region.
Take advantage of the multiple fields available in the Advanced Search option to stack your search terms. Most article and book records in the databases include lists of subject terms that can be useful. Once you find a good article - look for "related" lists in the search environment and review the references listed in that article to find what the author found useful.
Communicate with your classmates about their search successes and reach out to your professor or a Librarian for assistance.
Once you have identified some Subject Terms to go with your main subject, plug that information into OneSearch.
Watch the 6 minute video below to review how OneSearch works.
