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HIST 100-01: Africa as an Idea (Spring 2023)

Databases

W&M Libraries subscribes to Hundreds of subject databases, each with a special focus & purpose. We have databases for film studies, history, psyc, Chemistry... every major, minor, and concentration at WM had specialized resources designed specifically for that discipline. 

The Library's main catalog, often called PRIMO, is also an excellent database because it searches many databases at once, which is great for interdisciplinary projects like this one.

For this specific assignment, I suggest looking in PRIMO (limited to peer-reviewed articles) and the Film Studies database Communication & Mass Media Complete.

Boolean (again!)

Because this so important, I want to Add this again:

 

Be sure to use Caps for AND, OR, NOT when searching.

AND - searches for books and articles containing both terms. Example: Wakandan AND film

OR - searches for one of the words. Example: Film OR movie

NOT - exclude a term. Example:  Film NOT comic

Parenthetical notes () - excellent for OR or NOT searches. Like a math equation, the database will do this part first.
Example: (Film OR "Motion Picture") AND "Black Panther" = search for Black Panther film or Black Panther movie.
Example: ("Black Panther"  NOT "the Black Panthers" ) AND "Motion Picture" = search for motion pictures about Black Panther, not the Black Panthers.

Quotation Marks ""- Links words together in the search. Works best for phrases or proper names.
Example: "black panther"
Example: "motion picture"
Warning: You might exclude results. A search for "depiction of Africa" will exclude all results for "depictions of Africa"

Asterisk * - Allows you to search several word endings at once, without using OR.
Example: Africa* will cover Africa, African, Africans, Africana 
Example: film* will cover film, films
Warning: You may get unexpected results. Brit* will also yield Brittany, Britons, and Britches. Virginia* will bring up articles on the Didelphis virginiana (Virginia opossum)