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Women's and Gender Studies

A research guide for Women's and Gender Studies from West Chester University Libraries.

Contact Information

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Rachel McMullin
Contact:
F.H. Green Library, Room 209

Interlibrary Loan

Interlibrary Loan

When searching the library's databases, you may find articles you want that we do not have access to.  You can get them for free through a service called interlibrary loan, and it usually only takes one or two days. 

From a database:

1.  Instead of a link to a PDF below the article, you will see a link called check availability.

2.  If we have the full text,the page that opens will provide a link under the "View It" heading. 

3.  If we don't own the full text, you can access our interlibrary loan system for articles, called ILLiad, by logging into the system using your WCU email address and password.  Look for the link on the yellow bar in the middle of the page.

4. Once you log in, you will see the link to go to ILLiad.

5. If it is your first time logging into the system, it may ask you some questions about your delivery preferences.

6. The system will try to fill in the required blanks with the relevant information about the article.  Double check to make sure that all the required blanks are filled.  If not, go back to the tab with the article info to cut and paste the other required info.

 

From Library Search:

Step 1: Women's and Gender Studies Scholarly Sources

You need some sources from Women's and Gender Studies journals.  These will help ground your argument/analysis in the Women's and Gender Studies perspectives. 

Tip:  Not all databases have the full text of every article.  If you don't see full text, look for the "check availability" link.  If we do have the full text article in another database, it will link you to it.  If not, follow the directions on the left to request the article through interlibrary loan (free service for students).

Step 2:  Scholarly Sources from Other Disciplines

These databases were selected based on the topics we had time to discuss in class.  It isn't an exhaustive list.

Tip: For research at this level, I prefer using specialized databases because they allow you a lot of control over your search.  However, if you aren't having any luck, or your topic covers multiple disciplines, you can also try the Library Search tool (at the bottom of the list).

 

Tip:  If using Library Search for scholarly sources, look for the link to limit to just Scholarly/Peer Reviewed Journals in the column to the left.

Step 3:  Don't Forget Books

Don't forget to look for books!  This is especially true if your topic is based more in the humanities (literature, history, philosophy, religion, pop culture) or arts (art, music), because book publishing is a big part of scholarship in these fields.

Tip: If you aren't sure if a book is scholarly, ask either Professor Huebner or me to take a look at it.

This box is set to search just the library catalog.

Step 4:  Non-scholarly Sources

While the core of your research will be scholarly sources, you may want to supplement them with non-scholarly sources.  Some of those may be non-library sources like social media posts or blogs.  But the library has access to tons of newspaper and magazine articles, as well as a host of literary and historical primary sources. You can start your search for these using the Library Search tool.

Tip: Look at the column on the left for ways to limit your search by date and by source type (like newspaper articles).

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