Ethnography: Finding ethnographies - Franklin, etc.

ANSS, the Anthropology & Sociology Section of the Association of College & Research Libraries, hosts an informative FAQ, Cataloging Questions & Answers. These examples address common questions about finding ethnographies in library catalogs.

Sure, it might be easy to find a book on your topic. But how do you know it's solid work? Or how it fits into the current research community? And what if you're overwhelmed by your Franklin searching ... and all you want is a good book on your topic? These suggestions will help you to answer these questions.

SEARCH HINT!  In a fulltext database - JSTOR, and MegaFILE, for example - overwhelming results can be winnowed by adding this synonym set to your search:

(recommended OR excellent OR outstanding OR "must read" OR important OR landmark*)

Even if the review's subject book is not great, perhaps the review will mention a book that shouldn't be missed!

If your Franklin:Catalog search results are overwhelming, there are some subject heading phrases that might help you maintain control. Plug these into your Keyword Expert searching with ... AND ....

Conditions and aspects

Methodologies and sources

Representations

There are two basic ways to search for ethnographic monographs in Franklin Catalog.

1. Search for the cultural group. Library of Congress subject headings use three patterns for cultural groups.

2. Search for the country where the cultural group lives, and add these two subject heading phrases: "Ethnology", "Social life and customs"

Keyword expert = subject:(nigeria) AND subject:(ethnology OR "social life")

Keyword expert = subject:(switzerland) AND subject:(ethnology OR "social life")

Keyword expert = subject:("new jersey") AND subject:(ethnology OR "social life")

If your search results are overwhelming, then try adding subject heading phrases or replacing the "ethnology ..." phrase with a topic in which you're interested. Relevant subject heading phrases include these:

Example search:

Keyword expert = subject:("navajo indians") AND subject:(religio* OR rites)

Searching Franklin Catalog for cultural groups within the U.S. and other western countries can be tricky. The ANSS librarians have written a few helpful FAQs on how library catalogs describe race and ethnic groups:

• "What is the correct subject heading to use for people of African descent?
• "What subject headings does the Library of Congress use for “multiracial” groups in the United States? "
• "How are Indian tribes listed in the MARC record?"
• "Class vs. Ethnicity"

There are two subject heading patterns to watch for:

• "African Americans"/"Asian Americans".
• "Africans--United States"/"Asians--United States".

The subject phrase "xxxx Americans" is used in Franklin Catalog for works generally about people of xxxx ancestry, that is groups of people who are bound together by common ties of xxxx ancestry and culture. "xxxx--United States" is used for works about people born outside the United States in a specific world region or country who now live in the United States. Both subject heading patterns can accept country names:

You can use Keyword Expert searching in Franklin:Catalog to pull together several of these terms for a more inclusive search result:

Keyword Expert = subject:("asian americans" OR "east asian americans" OR "chinese americans" OR "japanese americans" OR "taiwanese americans" OR "korean americans" OR "southeast asian americans" OR "filipino americans" OR "indonesian americans" OR "vietnamese americans" OR "laotian americans" OR "hmong americans" OR "cambodian americans" OR "thai americans" OR "burmese americans" OR "south asian americans" OR "bangladeshi americans" OR "east indian americans" OR "pakistani americans" OR "sri lankan americans" OR "nepali americans" OR "tibetan americans" OR "afghan americans")

And you can add several subject terms to narrow down to an ethnic group and your research topic:

Keyword Expert = subject:("african americans") AND subject:("mass media")
Keyword Expert = subject:("korean americans") AND subject:(adopt*)
Keyword Expert = subject:("east indians united states") AND subject:(emigr*)

The pattern "Asian American" is also used as an adjective to describe categories of people and literature genres:

Keyword Expert = subject:("east indian american women" OR "south asian women")
Keyword Expert = subject:("asian american teenagers" OR "chinese american teenagers" OR "japanese american teenagers" OR "korean american teenagers")
Keyword Expert = subject:("asian american" OR "chinese american" OR "korean american" OR "south asian american" OR "east indian american") AND subject:("college students")

Franklin Catalog, the Penn Library's online catalog, lists the millions of books, journal titles, videos, and other materials held in Penn's campus libraries or available online to Penn readers.

Franklin Catalog uses a large array of Library of Congress subjects headings to describe books on race and ethnicity. You can search Franklin using these subject headings in several ways:

• See the subject heading's subdivisions:

Subject Heading Browse (LCSH) = asian americans

• Combine two different concepts:

Subject Heading Keyword = "asian americans" identity relations

• Build and combine synonym sets:

Keyword Expert = subject:(asians OR chinese OR japanese OR koreans) AND subject:("united states") AND subject:(assimilation OR americanization OR acculturation OR "cultural fusion" OR socialization)

Here's a large selection of relevant Library of Congress Subject Headings and subject heading subdivisions to use in Franklin:Catalog "Keyword Expert" searches: