University of Washington
Library Orientation
Scandinavian Women Writers

Objectives in today’s orientation:

When you have finished today's orientation, please go to the on-line exercise to check your skills in utilizing the libraries' resources or return to Jerry Anderson's home page for more information.

Establishing a research strategy:
Before starting any research project, it is important for you to establish a strategy to determine not only how to find the materials that you will use, but also whether the Libraries’ collections contain sufficient materials for you to complete your research successfully.

What kinds of materials will you need?
Books, periodical articles, statistics, etc.?
How do you find them?
Where are they located?

In using the on-line catalog and databases, it is especially important to establish your strategies for finding needed materials, whether they are books or articles. The system designed by UW librarians in conjunction with the UW Computing Services greatly facilitate your searches, as we shall see in the on-line demonstration.

Books:

Below are some suggestions of the possible headings and subheadings which might be of use to you. They are only examples. There are many more which you might use.  The various subject headings for women are myriad.  Try looking in the LCSH under “Women” to get an idea:

Women
Women--Sweden
Women--Sweden--Social Conditions
Women--Sweden--History--20th Century

Women--Scandinavia--History
Women--Scandinavia--Statistics

Women Authors--Swedish
Women Authors--Scandinavian

Women-in-politics--Finland
Women-in-politics--Scandinavia

Women -- Legal-status-laws-etc -- Sweden -- History
Women-prime-ministers -- Norway -- Biography
Womens-rights -- Scandinavia -- Congresses
Women--Employment--Scandinavia--Congresses

Topical headings:
(These, and other subject headings, can be subdivided by country and period, and also “Women” can be used as a sub-heading)

Feminism--Sweden--History
Sex-discrimination-against-women--Scandinavia
World-War-1939-1945--Women--Scandinavia

The principle behind subject cataloging is to give the most specific heading to a work. Thus, if a work pertains to three countries or less, a specific heading will be given for each country. If the work is about more than three countries, the subject heading will be more inclusive, e.g.:

Social policy
Social policy--Denmark
Social policy--Scandinavia
Social policy--Europe

Remember also to look for bibliographies and bibliographical references in relevant books and articles. The LC subject heading “Bibliography” is a subheading which can lead you to useful sources and shorted the time you use for your literature search.

Periodicals:

The strategy for finding periodical literature is much the same as that for books, except that you will need to use periodical indexes and abstracts. The indexes and abstracts which are listed in the section “Reference Area” below are useful for finding most of the periodical literature in the field of Scandinavian Studies.

On-line catalogs and databases:
UW Libraries Information Gateway

Selected on-line databases pertinent to Scandinavian Studies. (What does UW restricted mean?)
Anthropological Literature - UW restricted
Expanded Academic Index - UW restricted
Historical abstracts on disc - UW restricted
MLA Bibliography - UW restricted
National Newspaper Index - UW restricted
OCLC WorldCat - UW restricted
PAIS International - UW restricted
Social sciences citation index - UW restricted

Printed indexes. (In Reference Index/Abstract area, unless otherwise noted.)
Contemporary Authors [Z1224 .C622] (Shelf 18)
Historical abstracts. Part A: Modern history abstracts, 1450-1914 [D1 .H192]
Historical abstracts. Part B: Twentieth century abstracts, 1914- [D1 .H193]
Index nordicus  [DL1 .K85]  (Reference Stacks)
PAIS: Public Affairs Information Service Bulletin [Z7163 .P9]
Scandinavian biographical archive [microform] Microforms Newspapers
(Microfiche M-2798  CHECK THE SHELVES  847 microfiches)
Social sciences citation index [Z7161 .S65]
Studies on women abstracts [HQ1180 .S78]
Women studies abstracts [Z7962 .W65]

WEB sites:
Yahoo sites for Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and  Swedish Authors.
These sites will lead you to other web sites concerning Nordic
literature and individual Nordic authors.

BRIEF TOUR/ORIENTATION TO SUZZALLO/ALLEN LIBRARIES

Reference Area
Index/Abstract Area:

Reference Stacks:

National Bibliographies:

Reference works: Bibliographies: Encyclopedia area: General Stacks:

Nordisk kvindelitteraturhistorie PT7074 .N67 1993
Kvinnornas litteraturhistoria / PT9299.W6 K84 1983 v.2
Norwegian women's writing, 1850-1990 / Janet Garton / PT8415 .G37 1993
Swedish women's writing,  1850-1995 / Helena Forsås-Scott / PT9315 .F67 1997

SEARCH ALSO:

Tour of Suzzallo/Allen Libraries

1. Cashier/Circulation
2. Microforms/Newspapers

3.  Government Publications 4. Periodicals  (All Nordic periodicals found here.)
5. Suzzallo/Allen Stacks Other UW Libraries

1. Odegaard Undergraduate Library

2. Drama Library 3. Social Work Library
4. Art Library
5. Music Library
6. Architecture Library

A. Gerald Anderson, Nordic Area Librarian
Reference and Research Services Division, Suzallo Library
University of Washington Libraries, Box 352900
Seattle, WA 98195-2900
Telephone: (206) 685-1433
FAX: (206) 685-8049
E-mail: aga@u.washington.edu
URL:  http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/Nordic/nordspecialist/index.html