Black Death Project, April 2019 (Global Patterns I, Fay): Home

When doing research, we strongly recommend that you always start with authoritative sources and library resources (our print collection and/or our library databases). 

We have put books on a cart for you to use for this project, however, if you had to start research on your own without a cart of books to look at, here's how you would proceed:

1)  Think of some keywords that describe what you're researching (describe your topic).  Use those keywords for your search. 

2)  Search the online catalog and library databases

• Do not use complete sentences in your search. Use a single keyword, or if you're using more than one keyword, connect the keywords with the word "and".
• If you're searching for a phrase, put the phrase in quotation marks, so it searches for all the words together.  If the phrase is not in quotations, your results will include every place the first word is found, and every place the second word is found, and the results won't be as useful.

Example of some searches:

plague and Europe

"Black Death"

3) After searching the online catalog, find the books on the shelf (or cart).  For this project, begin by looking at the books on the pink cart that we've put aside for this project. 

• Look at the index of the book for your topic, or in the table of contents if there isn't an index, to locate information in the book.
• If you are having problems finding information in a book, you can search the online catalog using the search box on the right hand side of this page to see what books have your topic, then look for the books on the cart.

4) Look for information in the library databases. See below for a list of suggested databases to use.

5)  If you aren't finding enough information, or what you're finding isn't useful, consider the keywords you are using to search.  You might need to change them, or think of a broader term.  You can also talk to Ms. Jewell or Ms. Burke and they can assist you.

There will be a cart of books in the library with books that might be useful for you to use.  You can look in the index of the book or at the table of contents in the book to help find the information in the book.  

If you are having difficulties finding information in the books on a cart, (or can't locate a book) you can 1) check to see if another student is using the book, and ask to share it, or 2) speak with Ms. Jewell for assistance. 

Suggested books:

Byrne, Joseph P. Daily Life During the Black Death.  Call Number: 614.5 BYR

Cantor, Norman F. In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World It Made. Call Number: 614.5 CAN

Giblin, James Cross. When Plague Strikes: The Black Death, Smallpox, AIDS. Call Number: 614.5 GIB

Martin, Sean. The Black Death. Call Number: 614.5 MAR

Nardo, Don. The Black Death. Call Number: 614.5 NAR

Herlihy, David. The Black Death and the Transformation of the West. Call Number: 940.192 HER

1) Searching library databases

When you search library databases, don't search in complete sentences.  Databases are not like Google.  

• Use a couple of keywords, combined with the word AND  
  • Plague and spread
• Don't put more than three keywords together in the same search 
• If you want to search for a phrase, it sometimes helps to put quotation marks around it:
  • "Black Death"

2) Recommended library databases

Below is a list of library databases that may be helpful, depending on your topic.

• EBSCO Discovery Search: searches almost all of our library databases at once. This can retrieve an overwhelming amount of results, so if you have problems finding useful information via the EBSCO Discovery Search, try searching a single database instead 
   
• The ABC-Clio History databases 
  • Note: for better results, put quotation marks around phrases when searching
  • ABC-Clio is the publisher name, not the name of the database; each of the 8 databases within that have their own name. The information in these databases are original content to the database, and not published in print​
     
• EBSCO Ebooks Academic edition (ebooks)
   
• JSTOR (scholarly journal articles)
   
• Gale Virtual Reference Library (reference books in electronic format)
   
• Artstor (images for a poster, presentation or visual)
   
• Britannica Image Quest (images for a poster, presentation or visual)

If you use an image for this project: you do not need to fill out a MLA Template for each image.   

Instead, you will find and copy the EXACT URL for the image you selected, and put all of the URLs in one document, which you will attach to your poster, or add to the final slide of a presentation, or hand in with whatever visual aid you create.  

If you create a poster, each individual photo will be numbered on the front, and on the document, you will include the corresponding URL for the webpage you found the image on for each number.

If you create a PowerPoint/Google Slide presentation, each individual photo will have a small number by it, and at the end of the presentation (or at the bottom of each slide), the URLs will be included, with the number that matches the photo in front of the URL. 

For whichever visual aid you create, you will need the complete and exact URL for the website the image is on, not a general URL such as www.visi.org. (So if you use three photos from the same database, you need the exact URL for each of the 3 images).

If you find an image in a book, you will give the image a number on the poster/presentation.  On the document, all you need to do is write the title of the book you used, and the page number the image was found.

You always need to cite what sources you used in your research, to give credit for any idea that is not yours.  You will be filling out the MLA Template to create a citation for each book or library database you used for this project. Your photos for your posters will be cited differently for this project.  

When citing information from books, you usually provide the following information:

• author of the source
• the title of the source if you are citing an article from a reference book, or a collection of essays
• the title of the container
• any other contributors to the source (editors, translators, etc.)
• an edition (if there is one) or a volume/issue (if there is one)
• the publisher of the source
• the date it was published (most recent date given)
• page numbers (if the book is a reference book or a book made up of essays by different authors). Don't use page numbers if you're citing a book by a single author  

Students often have a difficult time finding this information.  For each of the books you use for this project, you will photocopy the following portions of the book:

• Title page of the book (NOT the cover!)
• The back of the title page (called the verso of the title page)
• If you are using an article from a reference book or a book of essays where each chapter has a different author, you will also photocopy the first page of the article, and the very last page of the article (making sure you can read the page numbers!)

After you have made the photocopies, you will look at the photocopied pages and label the required information on the pages that you need to fill out the MLA Template.  For example, on the title page, you would circle the title of the book, and label it title.  You will find and circle the author's name and label it author, or the editor's name, and label it other contributors.  You will find and circle the publisher of the book, and label it publisher, and so forth. 

After labeling the photocopies, write all of these labeled pieces in their correct spot on the MLA Template. 

When you are done, staple the photocopies to the completed MLA Template.  You will hand in these packets to Mrs. Croston.

Blank copies of the MLA Template are in the library. You can also download a copy of the MLA Template to your computer using a link at the right hand side of this page.

Below are two examples of a MLA Template and the labeled pages so you can see what a completed MLA Template and labeled pages would look like.  

If you use a library database in your research to find print information, you also have to include information about the library database in the template.  

When citing a library database that has print information, you include the information about the database in Container 2.  There are 4 pieces of info you usually put in Container 2 of the MLA Template:

• Title of database (title of container)
• Publisher of the database
• Date of the database (if given)
• URL of the database (do not include http:// in the URL, and only go up to the .com or .org)

There are two databases that will not have information in Container 2.  These databases are Britannica School, and all of the databases published by ABC-CLIO.  Information in these databases were never originally published in print, so all the information about the database is listed in Container 1.

Below is an example of the same article from a reference source that I provided above, but this time, instead of finding the article in the reference book on the cart, I used a library database to find it.  There is also an example of citation for an electronic book (ebook) found in a library database, and an example of a citation for an article from the library database Britannica School.