History 145: History of Asia  

1) Identify topic of interest--based on reserve readings

2) Identify information retrieval tools in subject area

3) Learn how to search these tools efficiently and effectively.

4) Retrieve articles

5) Manage information using such tools as MyEbscoHost, MyJSTOR

For the next hour or so we are going to explore the bibliography of Asia. Our main objective will be to learn how to effectively and efficiently retrieve scholarly articles on topics related to the history of Asia.

Professor Stierman will introduce students to library resources on Asian history and show them ways to search for potential outside sources (i.e., sources outside of the required readings) for their critical reading paper. At the end of the session, students are required to submit to Prof. Pamonag a bibliographic list of their potential outside sources. Bibliographic entries must follow the following format:

For book: Author’s last name, First name. Book Title. Place of publication: Publisher, date of publication.

For journal article: Author’s last name, First name. “Article Title.” Journal Title x, no. x (year): pages.

For article in a book: Article Author’s last name, First name. “Article Title.” In Book title, edited by author, pages X-pages Y. Place of publication: Publisher, date of publication.

Critical Reading Paper

Each student must choose one of the assigned readings listed in column 4, pp. 6-8 of the syllabus (choose one of the assigned readings from Murphey, EReserve, the Good Earth, or When My Name Was Keoko; you can choose a primary or a secondary source). In a 3- to 4-page paper, analyze your chosen material using the methods taught in class. Your paper must:
a.    Identify the major themes/issues addressed by the author;
b.    Identify the author’s main argument, the purpose of the document, and intended audience;
c.    Assess the author’s use of evidence (and biases, if any) and how s/he accomplished his/her purpose;
d.    Evaluate the overall historical value of the reading (i.e., identify the strengths and weaknesses of the material as a historical source);
e.    Use at least one relevant outside source (i.e., scholarly book/journal article not included in the course readings) to enrich your analysis of the assigned reading.

We honor the historical record, but understand that its interpretation constantly evolves as historians analyze primary documents in light of the ever-expanding body of secondary literature that places those documents in a larger context. By "documents," historians typically mean all forms of evidence-not just written texts, but artifacts, images, statistics, oral recollections, the built and natural environment, and many other things-that have survived as records of former times. By "secondary literature," we typically mean all subsequent interpretations of those former times based on the evidence contained in primary documents. This distinction between primary and secondary sources is among the most fundamental that historians make. Drawing the boundary between them is a good deal more complicated than it might seem, since determining whether a document is primary or secondary largely depends on the questions one asks of it. At the most basic level, though, the professional practice of history means respecting the integrity of primary and secondary sources while subjecting them to critical scrutiny and contributing in a fair-minded way to ongoing scholarly and public debates over what those sources tell us about the past. [from the AHA's Statement of Standards]