To locate ethnographies, start with OneSearch on the Library homepage. Locating ethnographies in OneSearch is not always clear-cut, but the following tips can help:
- There is not a specific Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) for ethnographies in OneSearch. Try searching with the following phrases to locate ethnographies: "Social life and customs" | "case studies" | "ethnology" | "ethnograph*" (the asterisk will search for ethnography, ethnographic)
- Identify the subject heading for the name of the group or culture you are researching. For example, the subject heading for American Indians is "Indians of North America," and "Navajo Indians" is the correct Library of Congress Subject Heading (essentially a classification system like hashtags), not Navajos or Navajo People.
- Once you have the name of the group, culture, or subject you're researching, build your search with that name plus the phrase "social life or customs" (or "case studies" or "ethnology)
- For many books you will likely have to at least look at the author and summary to determine whether it is an ethnography, if not the book itself. One thing you can do is Google the author to see if they are an anthropologist. When in doubt, ask a librarian or your professor.
- You can also start from Google to find anthropologists researching in an area that aligns with your own research. Go to Google and type in site:.edu anthropology [your topic] - for example - site:.edu anthropology southeast Asia - This search will return results from only .edu addresses (as many anthropologists work at universities where the webpage will have a .edu link) and will likely pull from the department of anthropology at that institution and make sure southeast Asia shows up. Then, you can look at their CV to see if they have published an ethnography in that region.
The information above has been paraphrased by Samantha McClellan at Sacramento State University Library from information provided by Jennifer Bowers at the University of Denver University Libraries . More information can be accessed at their finding ethnographies guide linked below:
