FYSM 1210

You may find this book about doing library research useful:

• The Oxford Guide to Library Research / Thomas Mann (2015)

Subject guides are a good place to get started. They will give you an overview of the topic.

• Philosophy
• Gender Studies
• Indigenous Studies

Reference Sources

Use reference materials for background information for your topic. These are bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, guides, indexes and abstracts. You can also use reference materials to find good keywords to use when searching in databases.

To find reference materials in Omni, perform a KEYWORD or SUBJECT search
Example - KEYWORD search: woman AND philosophy AND encyclopedias
SUBJECT search: ethics -- handbooks

Databases

• Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
  

Suggested Reference Sources

• Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy /Simon Blackburn (2016) (Online) (2008 : Online) (2006 : Online)
• A Dictionary of Philosophical Terms and Names
• The Blackwell Dictionary of Western Philosophy / Nicholas Bunnin ; Jiyuan Yu (2004) (Online) (Online)
• The Blackwell Dictionary of Modern Social Thought / William Outhwaite (2008 Online) (2003: Online)
  (2003: Online) (2006: Online)
• Critical Reasoning & Philosophy: a Concise Guide to Reading, Evaluating, and Writing Philosophical Works / Mark Holowchak (2011) (Online) (Online) (Online)
• Guidelines on Reading Philosophy (Jim Pryor)
  
  
  
  
  

Book Borrowing Information:

• Undergraduate students may borrow an item for 120 days (with unlimited renewals subject to recall when another student places a hold)
• You can also borrow books from the University of Ottawa
• If a book you want is checked out, you can use the Hold/Request button to request it
• To renew your books, place requests, connect to e-books, journals, & databases from off-campus you only need your MyCarletonOne login and password

Search Tool

The library has Omni, a search tool that lets you do just one search to find books, newspaper articles, journal articles, etc. You can use our various journal article databases to find journal articles. This search tool gives you another option that lets you do both at the same time.

1. Click on Advanced Search and key in your search statement.
2. When you get your results, use the filters on the left side of the screen to further refine your results.
Find relevant books, eBooks and chapters within books in our library, or journal articles, etc.

If something is available in paper copy in the library, this search interface will give you the floor location and the call number (which you need in order to find the item on the shelf). If something is available online, click on the "Full-text online" link.

Search Tips

Only the titles of journals are included in the search tool: use the databases to search for individual article titles.

• If you know the title of the item you seek, perform a TITLE search.
• If you know the author, perform an AUTHOR search. Enter the author's name with the surname first.
• Otherwise, try a KEYWORD/SUBJECT TERM search:
• Use keywords only, do not search using a full sentence.
• Combine keywords for different ideas with AND

  Example: ethics AND identity

• Combine synonyms or similar words for an idea with OR
  Example: philosophy AND (film* OR "motion pictures")
  
• Use the truncation symbol * when you want to allow for several spellings or variations on a word
  Example: (women OR feminis*) AND islam

Keyword Searching

When keyword searching, if a keyword exists in the subject heading or in the title, the resource is much more likely to be about that topic. You can construct sophisticated searches by specifying that your search terms must exist in particular fields of the record.

When you find a relevant title, scroll down to see the subject headings.

Example: Political Philosophy

Other subject headings

• Identity (Philosophical concept)
• Race, Philosophy

A few book titles:

• Writing Beyond Race : Living Theory and Practice / bell hooks (2013) (Online) (2012 : Online)
• Stamped from the Beginning : the Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America / Ibram X. Kendi (2016)
• Racism in America : a Reader / Annette Gordon-Reed (2020)

To find documentaries, try a keyword search but restrict the Material Type to Video/Film, or Resource Type to Videos.

For more information on searching, check this page, Omni Search Tips.

eBooks

To find eBooks search by author, title, keyword/subject terms.
Do a search and then limit your search to retrieve only eBooks by Content type.

• Ebook Central
• eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)

If you know which journal you would like to consult, search under Title and limited by JOURNAL under Material Type, in Omni. If you do not have a particular journal in mind, you should consult a database.

If you know which database you would like to search, you can select it by title on the library web site.

If you do not know which database to use, go to databases by subject.

General Searching in the Databases

If you are looking for articles by a particular author, select AUTHOR from the drop-down list.
If you are searching for a particular article, enter the title and select TITLE from the drop-down list.
For KEYWORD or key phrase searching, most database search engines encourage you to put your related terms (OR searching) in the same row, and your unrelated concepts (AND searching) in separate rows. See Omni Search Tips for other helpful hints.

Tip: Most databases provide a way to restrict the results of a search to peer-reviewed or academic articles. This may be done differently from database to database: check the help pages for more information.

Recommended Databases

• PhilPapers: philosophical research online
• JSTOR
• Loeb Classical Library

• SWIP: The Society for Women in Philosophy
  This is the Home page for the Society for Women in Philosophy. The web site contains discussion lists
  and resources related to philosophy and women.
• PLATO: Philosophy, Learning and Teaching Organization
  Can search and browse site by historical category, philosopher and subject. Check under Resources,
  hen select Library to access journals, papers, electronic texts, Early Modern texts and more.
• Feminist Philosophers (Archived)
• MAP: Minorities and Philosophy

Grassroots Organizations

• Black Lives Matter
• Hands Up United
  • The Mirror Casket
    - A protest art piece, created by a Ferguson artist-activists.
    
  • Ferguson Voices
    "Disrupting the Disrupting the Frame is a multimedia storytelling project created by the University of Dayton Human Rights Center and the non-profit organization PROOF: Media for Social Justice. "
• The Black Lives Matter Media Playlist
• BLM on Twitter

• Idle No More
  ""Idle No More calls on all people to join in a peaceful revolution, to honour Indigenous sovereignty, and to protect the land and water"
• INM on Twitter
• iPortal (University of Saskatchewan)
  Indigenous studies portal research tool

• The Great Divide: How Westerners and Muslims View Each Other
• 
  

Writing Guides

Listed below are a few book titles. For additional books on writing a Philosophy paper, see the Internet Archive. To borrow a book from the Internet Archive, simply sign up. Registration is free. You can check books out for 1 hour.

• A Student's Writing Guide How to Plan and Write Successful Essays / Gordon Taylor (2009)
• "Appendix : Three Hints for Writing Philosophy Papers" / Malcolm Murray ; Nebojsa Kujundzic in
  Critical Reflection 2005-04-26
• Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper (MIT)
• Guidelines on Writing a Philosophy Paper (Jim Pryor)
  
• Introductions, Body Paragraphs, and Conclusions for an Argument Paper (Purdue University)
• The Rhetoric of Reason : Writing and the Attractions of Argument / James Crosswhite (1996) (Online) (Online at HathiTrust)
• Writing Essays a Guide for Students in English and the Humanities / Richard Marggraf Turley (2016)
• Writing Philosophy Papers / Zachary Seech (2000) (Internet Archive)
  

Need help with writing? Book an appointment with the Writing Services.

Citation Guides

Need help with citation? Contact Research Help.

• The Chicago Manual of Style / University of Chicago Press (2017) 17th ed.
• Carleton Library Citation Guides
• Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)