Asia
Insights : General references
Accessing
Information on Asia
The
course is an introduction to the basic handbooks and standard works
on contemporary Asia . It also provides the participants with a
basic knowledge of where to search for literature and facts, research
perspectives on sources and source evaluation especially on the
Internet.
The
course includes an introduction to:
Asia
oriented link collections
. Search
engines and directories
. Country specific information sources
. Libraries and databases
. Journals and magazines
. News agencies and services
. Research institutions, universities and organizations
Databases
.
Books
. Grey literature
. Bibliographies
Journals
.
Print journals
. E-journals
. Databases
Statistical
sources
Persons
Evaluation
of sources
Research
needs and requirements vary with each assignment, project, or paper.
But while there is no single right or absolute way
to conduct research, there are methods and skills that can help
make your research efforts more efficient and effective.
This
tutorial serves as a simple step-by-step guide to the information
search process - offering instructions and suggestions on how to
best identify, access, evaluate, and document information sources.
By connecting you to relevant information throughout the Library
Gateway, the tutorial is designed to acquaint you with the abundant
and varied resources inside Asian studies. It is an introduction
to books, handbooks, and journals and how to search for literature,
information and facts about contemporary Asia (in the social sciences
and in Western languages)
Even
though that Asian Studies is a very old discipline it is still also
a developing research discipline group. The major focus of the research
conducted within the area has shifted from classical and languages
studies to contemporary social, cultural, religious and political
issues as in terrorist and women's studies.
However,
they all recognize the international importance of Asia and the
need to gain an understanding of the languages, societies, histories,
politics and economies of the region.
Starting
your research can be simple: I have or a client/user has a need
for information - it can be as simple as that! My experience tells
me that almost all information needs can be boiled down to the following
five statements:
I
need an overview of a topic
I
need to find books on a topic
I
need journal articles on a topic
I
need definitions of terms
I
need to find information about a person
One
basis assumption is:
DO
NOT TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER (unless it is the answer you are looking
for!)
Always
assume that what you want exists. If you assume that what you want
is there somewhere, you will be more persistent, and your question
becomes how to phrase your search better so you can retrieve it.
There are always alternative routes to your information; if searching
the databases doesn't work try the Internet and vice versa. It may
be that your search is too broad or too narrow. You may not have
thought of all the words that could describe your topic. You may
not have thought how to link the elements of the topic together.
You need to be good at word games, to be able to understand and
use Boolean operators (and, or, not) and subsequently to develop
effective search techniques. But what is most important you need
a good knowledge of your primary sources.
Library
is the word for a place to study! so use the library and if all
else fails ask a librarian
(better
yet, ask a librarian before you've wasted a lot of time!)
Asia
oriented link collections
ELIN@NIAS
Access
to journals and databases in the NIAS collection
 Resources
on the Net
to-day
the web is often the first chose to search for information, resources,
articles it's a very useful but also problematic source.
Search
engines and directories
Search
engines and indexes
The
most important search engines on Asia is to be found at Ciolek's
ASIAN
STUDIES SEARCH ENGINES
Academic
Info: Asian Studies
Asiaco
A
country directory and search engine
Asia
Resources on the WWW
This
extensive list of online resources has been compiled since July
1996 by Raymond Lum, for publication in the Asian Studies Newsletter
Asia
resources on the world wide web
Organized
by regions & countries
AsianInfo
"your
complete resource on Asia " - news, country profiles, and search
engine
Asian
Studies WWW Virtual Library
Asian
Studies WWW Virtual Library: Search Engines
SAARC
- The South Asian Search Engine
South
Asia Resources
University of Virginia
SARAI
South
Asia Resource
Access on the Internet
South
Asia Research Institutions on the Internet
University
of Getting
Country specific information sources
Country
bibliographies
Library
of Congress Country Studies
World
Bibliographical Service
To
specific countries
Reference
Works for Chinese Studies -
An
annotated bibliography and research guide
(Leif
Littrup, Department of History, University of Copenhagen , Copenhagen
, Denmark )
Online
bibliographies in Chinese Studies from Heidelberg
Asia
Pacific in Figures
United
Nations - country files viewable as HTML or Excel documents
Permanent
missions to the United Nations
Asia-Links:
country directory
Area
Studies - by country
Asian
Governments on the WWW
CIA
World Fact book
Countries
& regions: US Department of State
Country
Reports - searchable by keyword or country
Country
Studies - searchable by keyword or country
Country
Watch: Asia & the Pacific
Economist:
country briefings
Eldis:
regional and country profiles
Eldis
is an internet based information service: filtering, structuring
and presenting development information via the web and email. It
maintains an ever-growing library of editorially selected and abstracted
online documents, and an organizational directory of development-related
internet services.
Elections
and electoral systems around the world
Footnotes
to history
"Forgotten
nations, past and present"
Guide
to law online: nations of the world
Country
by country links to constitutions, judiciaries, legal guides, etc
Human
Rights Reports 2004: East Asia & the Pacific
US
Department of State
Human
Rights Reports 2004: South Asia
US
Department of State
The
Keele Guide to Asian Government and Politics on the Internet
Strategic
Asia
Libraries
Libraries
It
is also possible to search in the different library catalogues.
Many western university or research libraries have extensive databases
in the social science, but also development and peace research institutions
have very good databases
Mapping
Asia in UK Libraries
South
Asia Library CONSORTIA
British
Library Oriental & India Office Collections
About
the British Library's Asia , Pacific & Africa collections
About
the India Office Records
Search
the British Library's integrated online catalogue
Search
OIOC's 19th Century Indian holdings (via DSAL)
Berlin
, Staatsbibliothek:
About
Orientabteilung
Search
Union
Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts in German Collections (KOHD)
Cambridge
University
Centre of
South Asian Studies
About
the CSAS library
About
the Cambridge University Library Oriental Collections
Search
the
Cambridge University Library online catalog ( Newton )
Columbia
University
About
the South Asia collections
Search
CLIO ( Columbia 's online catalog)
Current
Information Sources (at Lehman Library, Columbia )
Cornell
University
About
Cornell's South Asia collections
Search
the Cornell University online catalog (vt100 text-only
version)
Search
the Cornell University online catalog (full-featured
web-catalog)
Harvard
Search
Harvard's HOLLIS (Harvard OnLine Library Information
System)
Leiden
University
( Netherlands )
Search
the Leiden online catalog at the login, type: popc
- to get to English menus, type: ENG
Library
of Congress, Southern Asia Section
About
the Library of Congress Southern Asia Section
About
the Library of Congress Asian Reading Room South Asia
collection
Search
Library of Congress Online Catalog
National
Library of Australia
About
Australia 's national South Asia Collections
Search
NLA's online catalog
Oxford
University
About
the Indian Institute Library (of the Bodleian Library)
Search
Oxford 's OLIS (online catalog)
School
of Oriental & African Studies - SOAS ( University of London
)
About
SOAS' South Asia Collections
Search
SOAS' online catalog at the username prompt, type: library
The
Australian Union Catalogue of South Asian Library Resources
South
Asia Resources Database :
(via
Curtin University ) (About 250,000 indexed bibliographic records
from two files: main file of South Asia holdings in Australian libraries,
and MARC records from National Library of Australia which don't
have Australian locations. Site includes simple search as well as
advanced Boolean searching capabilities.)
The
Wellcome Library, London
About
the library's collections (incl. oriental holdings &
special collections) About
the library's South Asian Iconographic Collections
About
the library's Oriental Manuscripts & Printed Books
Search
the library's online library catalog (via telnet) at
the logon prompt, type: library
Search
the library's experimental web-based catalog
University
of Washington Libraries (East Asia Library)
offers a list of links to East Asian titles in original script and
transliteration and further links to predominantly Chinese online
resources
Homepage
of the UW Library's South Asia Section
About
University of Washington 's South Asia collections
Search
University of Washington 's online catalog
Sundarayya
Vignana Kendram ( Hyderabad , India )
News
agencies and services
News
sources
You
will find the most updated information about a country in newspapers
and journals (either online or printed)
EIU
Country Reports and
Keesing's Records of World Events is examples of records
and registered events.
World
News Connection WNC Translated news
IRIN
Integrated
Regional Information
Newswires
Asia-Pacific
News
BBC
News: Asia-Pacific
BBC
News: South Asia
China
View - Xinhua News Agency
CNN:
Asia News
Go
Asia Pacific - ABC news service
Jane's
Asia-Pacific News
Time:
Asia
WorldNewsAsia
Newspapers
ABYZ
news links: Asia
Asian
news archives on the web
Inkpot:
Asia
provides
links to online titles from all parts of the world with good coverage
in each Asian region
Kiosken
NewsDirectory:
Asia
Newspapers.Com:
Asia
Research
institutions, universities and organizations
Links
to organizations at NIAS website
ADB
ASEAN
ASEF
World
Bank
Discussion
Groups and networks
H-Asia
Online
discussion group page, plus topical resources and internet directory
Nordic
Networks
Nordic
Associations in Asian Studies
Databases
NIAS
links to databases
Bibliography
of Asian Studies
The
most important database
Asia
House Library
Focus
on Southeast and East Asia
Asian
databases
Searchable
list of over 500 online databases with Asian content, many of which
are open access
Asian
law online
Bibliographic
database [from the Asian Law Centre, University of Melbourne ]
Australian
dissertations on Asia, 1999-2002
Pacific
Studies Literature database
Centre
for Pacific & Asian Studies ( University of Nijmegen ) - searches
journal article literature on Oceania
FIRST
(Facts on International Relations and Security Trends)
Select
a country and match it against one (or more) of the categories -
categories include Military expenditure, Multilateral peace missions,
Nuclear missile programs, Disarmament agreements, etc
SEAsite:
Southeast Asia Picture Database
Photos
on many subjects from Southeast Asian countries
South
and Southeast Asia Video Archive
Videos
produced by Asians for Asians
Subject
databases
An
important type of bibliographic databases is the subject oriented
/commercial databases
NIAS
own subject bibliographies
Asian/Pacific
Studies Subject-Oriented Bibliographies from Asian Studies
WWW Virtual Library
South
Asian Women's Studies Bibliography
Dialog's
World News Online
Sociological
Abstracts
Econlit
Political
Science Abstracts
Expanded
academic ASAP an interdisciplinary index covering approximately
1500 current journals, many of which have full text on-line.
Academic
Search Elite
Full
text for more than 1,850 scholarly journals, covering every area
of academic study, Academic Search Elite offers full text information
dating as far back as 1985.
Project
Muse. Gives access to University Press and other scholarly electronic
journals in the social sciences, humanities and mathematics from
about 1998-
JSTOR is
a collection of the digitized versions of the backfiles of over
600 core scholarly journals from their first issue until 3-5-years
ago. Full text online.
Ingenta
(pay per view)
Academic
Index
Francis
/ Social Science
Geobase
Anthropology
Historical
Abstracts
Agris
Current
Contents and Science Citations
Web
of science citation database
Much more than science! Includes the Social Sciences citation
index and the Arts and Humanities citation index
Scholar
Google
It
is my experience that it is necessary to use several sources; the
actual overlap is very little.
Books
Publisher
and bookshops
(
Amazon,
Dawson, local bookshops)
Handbooks
/ Yearbooks
Asia
Yearbook (Far Eastern economic review)
Encyclopedia of modern Asia , David Levinson ed. 6 vols.
2002
Encyclopedia of Asian history, ed. Ainslie T. Embree. 4 vols. 1988
Encyclopedia of Asian Civilizations. L. Frederic. 10 vols. 1977-1984
Encyclopedia of Asian culture, ed. P.N. Chopra 1999
Encyclopedia
of Asian Nations and Civilizations
Taiwan
Yearbook
Chinese
Review
Encyclopedia
Britannica
CIA's
World Fact Book
Background
notes from the US State Department
Political
Handbook of the Word
ADB
and the World Bank
Elections
around the World Encyclopedia of the World's nations.
Another
type is The Economist Intelligence Unit Country Profiles as a supplement
to their Country Reports.
Library
of Congress publishes their Country Studies Series (primarily
target group is the US-military, but the books are very good!)
Grey literature
NIAS:
Mapping Asia in the Nordic Countries
Eldis
SocSic
Bibliographies
Basic
bibliographies and bibliographic databases; Research guides and
subject bibliographies.
Although
most of the bibliographical works that index books and journals
articles on Asia are stored in databases, there still remain a few
especially older very good bibliographical sources on Asia to be
found on the library shelf.
Examples
of Index publications:
Deutsches
Übersee-Institute in Hamburg : Bibliography of Chinese Studies and
Dokumentationsdienst Asien und Südpazifik - Ausgewählte neuere Literatur
Ausgewählte
neuere Literature: Asia and South Pacific Documentation Service.
Asien:
Deutsche Zeitschrift für Politik, Wirtschaft und Kultur. Has
subject bibliographies on a regularly basis.
Chinaaktuell:
Dokumentation
World
Affairs Online
China
Academic Journals (CAJ)
Asia
Intelligence Service (AsiaInt)
ELDIS
Subject
bibliographies
Asian/Pacific
Studies Subject-Oriented Bibliographies from Asian Studies
WWW Virtual Library
South
Asian Women's Studies Bibliography
NIAS
subject bibliographies
Bibliographies
in books
An
important bibliographical sources exists in books. Check the sections
variously referred to as bibliography, selected bibliography or
further reading to locate either specific or a wider range of works
on a subject.
Journals
Print
journals
To
look for journal articles
References
to articles are to be found in many of the mentioned bibliographies
and databases.
NIAS
has more than 1500 journals, where as 450 is active. A list
of and access to the journals can be found at NIAS website
TDNet
Journals in the NIAS Library
& Information Centre - a list of journals and newsletters
in NIAS LINC's collection with links to online editions and table
of contents.
This
website gives access to all journals and newsletters in the NIAS
LINC collection. Many titles are available as full text issues online,
for the other titles you have access to table of contents. You can
.
search or browse for journal or newsletter titles via the alphabetical
list
.
search articles or journal titles by clicking the Search TDNet button
in the top menu
.
define personal profiles and receive e-mail alerts about new issues
of selected journals or newsletters by clicking the My TDNet button
in the top menu
E-journals
Databases
Statistical
sources
http://www.niaslinc.dk/gateway_to_asia/Asia_Insights/subjects/statistics.asp
Persons
The
web
IIAS
Asianists
search
in databases
Head
of States
Persons
Persons
/ People
The
web
IIAS
Asianists
search
in databases
Head
of States
When
to search; quality checks and criticism of sources
Evaluating
the quality of information provided on a Web site involves more
than determining its authenticity. An author may write with genuine
passionate belief in that which he says, but the facts may not support
his contention. Examine, for example, this
document , alleging that aspartame causes multiple sclerosis.
While inaccurate, and perhaps irresponsible, it is not necessarily
a fake.
Credibility
|
trustworthy
source, author's credentials, evidence of quality control,
known or respected authority, organizational support. Goal:
an authoritative source, a source that supplies some good
evidence that allows you to trust it. |
Accuracy
|
up
to date, factual, detailed, exact, comprehensive, audience
and purpose reflect intentions of completeness and accuracy.
Goal: a source that is correct today (not yesterday), a source
that gives the whole truth. |
Reasonableness
|
fair,
balanced, objective, reasoned, no conflict of interest, absence
of fallacies or slanted tone. Goal: a source that engages
the subject thoughtfully and reasonably, concerned with the
truth. |
Support
|
listed
sources, contact information, available corroboration, claims
supported, documentation supplied. Goal: a source that provides
convincing evidence for the claims made, a source you can
triangulate (find at least two other sources that support
it). |
Source:
http://www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.htm
|
