Get Help San Diego City College LIBRARY Home Page

For simple questions about the library, email us at citylib@sdccd.edu

Get help finding the books and articles you need via 24/ chat with a librarian then scroll down in the left column.

Learn how to do research.  From the Library's homepage, click on Research Guides and then scroll down to

• Research Step-By-Step  or
• Information Literacy: Basic Research Skills (a free OER text book)

When open, come by the City College Library (R Building) and discuss what you need with a faculty-librarian at the Information Desk (reference).  Or call us at 619-388-3288.

This applies when you are looking for books, articles, websites, or anytime you are using a database.  The words (search terms) you type in when you are searching for information on your topic are critical to finding what you need.  Obviously if you are interested in the education of immigrants, you would not type in the word banana.  That is not what I mean.  Consider two things:

1. The information you get (in books, articles, and so on) may not be using the same words you are using even if they are on the same topic.  For example if you ARE interested in bananas, perhaps articles or books are using the terms tropical fruit or plantains (a narrower terms since it is a type of banana) and you would need to type in tropical fruit or plantains to find them.
2. The information you get on your topic may be in books, articles and so on that are partly or even mainly on a topic that is narrower or broader than your  own.

Because of these likely scenarios, do several searches first using your topic terms and then more searches using alternative terms.  For example, if you are interested in

• kinship, consider also searching parents, parent-child relationship, siblings
• biological anthropology consider searching for physical anthropology, dental anthropology, forensic anthropology
• evolution consider searching human evolution, primate evolution
• archaeology, consider searching for antiquities, prehistoric, excavations, human remains
• belief systems, consider searching for religion, myth, mythology, theology
• ethnography, ethnographies, 
• music, consider searching musicology, ethnomusicology

For more details on choosing and using terms, 

• Research Step-By-Step  or
• Information Literacy: Basic Research Skills (a free OER text book)

E-Books from our Databases

From our database page, scroll down to Gale e-Books and you will be able to search many quality encyclopedias all at once or individually including but NOT LIMITED TO

• Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology
• Countries and their Cultures 
• Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History 
• Encyclopedia of Food and Culture
• Encyclopedia of Irish History and Culture 
• Encyclopedia of Religions
• Encyclopedia of world Culture
• St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture 
• Tobacco in History and Culture
• Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life
• Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices

E-Books from our Library catalog

To search for e-books in City College Library Catalog, start on our home page.

• Click Advanced Search
• Click SDCCD Books+
• Type in your search term(s) like alcoholism
• Press SEARCH
• Now Refine your Search Results appears in the left column
• Click on Available Online

NOTES

• Do NOT refine your search by clicking on City College.  This seems to omit many books to which you have access
• FYI your username is your 10 digit ID number and your password is your last name.

For City College Students: Access databases containing articles from newspapers, magazines, and peer-reviewed scholarly journals through our home page.

• Click on A-Z Databases
• Scroll down for a quick look at the topics in each database. Ebsco’s Academic Search Complete is a robust database with articles on just about everything and is often a good place to start.
• Some databases include articles from journals magazines and newspapers as well as books.  If you are unsure what kind of resource you have, ask us on 24/7 chat on our home page or ask your instructor.
• The databases that say they include “scholarly or peer reviewed” resources may also contain popular resources.  If so, it is likely you will find a way to limit to either the scholarly/peer reviewed sources or the popular sources.
• Choose a database and use its Advance Search
• Use your topic terms and alternative terms when searching.  See box above.

Websites

Associations

• American Anthropology Association
• Society for American Archaeology
• American Association of Physical Anthropologists

Miscelaneous

• Links to free online anthropology journals.  Be sure and evaluate information from this and any website.  Don't neglect the free databases we have at City College.
• Occupational Outlook Handbook will describe the kind of employment there is for anthropologist and archaeologists.  Once on this site, do a search on other professions like forensic technicians, archivists, curators, museums

Glossary / Vocabulary

• Definition of Anthropological terms from Oregon State
• Kinship terms and concepts from the University of Alabama

Videos and Clips

Access to City College FREE streaming videos is through our home page.

• Click on A-Z Databases
• Scroll down to Films on Demand or Swank
• Films on Demand provides access to video collection for over 38,500 full-length videos and 310,000+ video clips in a variety of subject areas.  Search using specific terms like “addiction” or “opioids”.
• Swank provides access to over 290 feature films from major Hollywood studios and producers.
• If on campus, you may view DVDs in the Library.  Find the DVD you want via our catalog, SDCCD Books+, on the home page.  Pick up the DVD from the Circulation Counter and take it to R105 (downstairs) to view