The resources available for researching a country and its culture or cultures are many and varied.  This research guide will point out many resources available at Grace Library and some that are available on the World Wide Web. All books located in the Reference Collection and on the Ready Reference Shelves will have the abbreviation Ref. printed on their spine above the call number.

General Country Information Sources

Reference Books

• CultureGrams World Edition 2005. Lindon, UT: ProQuest, 2004.

  CALL NUMBER: GT150 C85 2004 v.1-4 located on the Ready Reference Shelves

• Ember, Melvin & Ember, Carol R., eds. Countries and Their Cultures. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2001.

CALL NUMBER: GN307 C68 2001 v.1-4 located on the Ready Reference Shelves

• Gall, Timothy L., ed. Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life. Detroit: Gale, 1998.

CALL NUMBER: GN333 W67 1998 v.1-4 located on the Ready Reference Shelves

 

• Gannon, Martin J. Understanding Global Cultures: Metaphorical Journeys Through 23 Nations, 2nd ed. Thousand

Oaks, CA: Sage, 2001.

CALL NUMBER: GN345.7 G36 2001 located on the Ready Reference Shelves

• Turner, Barry, ed. The Statesman's Yearbook. 139th ed. New York: Macmillan Reference, 2003.

CALL NUMBER: JA51 .S79 located in the Reference Collection

• Encyclopedia of World Cultures on CD-ROM - This is an excellent source for an overview of a particular culture. One important thing to note: It does not take a country approach, rather the articles are on particular ethnic groups. This CD-ROM is available on the “Pink” PC on the 2nd Level of Grace Library.
  
• Encyclopedias
  A good place to find basic information about a country and its people is a general encyclopedia. We have three different print encyclopedias in Grace Library. They are located near the Reference Desk on the 2nd Level.
  
  Collier's Encyclopedia
  Encyclopedia Americana
  Encyclopaedia Britannica

We also have access to two electronic encyclopedias:

• The 2000 Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia - on the “Pink” PC on the 2nd Level of Grace Library.
• Britannica Online -available through the library’s home page. Click on the Find Articles link and then click on the Britannica Online link.

Web Sites
Two excellent sources of information on countries and their people are available through the World Wide Web:

• Country Studies: These are created and published by the Library of Congress. They are book length, in-depth treatments of the historical, political, economic, and social aspects of a country. The web address for them is <http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cshome.html>. We also own print editions of a number of these.
  
  
• Background Notes: Created by the U.S. Department of State, these are much shorter than the Country Studies, but they are still excellent presentations of basic information about countries. They are available at this web address <http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/>.

Circulating Books
Books on many aspects of a country and its culture may be found in the Online Library Catalog. Once the online catalog window has opened, enter in the country name into the Quick Search box, select subject from the drop down menu and click on the search button. 

The subject will probably be alphabetically subdivided in many useful ways. This is only a partial list of the most likely headings.  Consult the Library of Congress Subject Headings for others.

              examples            India--Economic aspects

India--Social conditions

                                          Japan--Commerce

                                          Japan--Social life and customs

Other aspects of a country's culture can be found in the catalog by using an appropriate subject heading and looking for the name of the culture as a subdivision:

              example             Family--India

If Grace Library does not have books on the topic you are interested in, you can usually order the book through the E-Z Borrow service. Sometimes travel books such as those published by Fodor or Lonely Planet may contain useful information. The librarian can discuss with you how to obtain books from other libraries.

Social Life

• Adler, Leonore, ed. International Handbook on Gender Roles. Westport: Greenwood, 1993.

  CALL NUMBER: HQ1075 I58 1993 located on the Ready Reference Shelves

• Broude, Gwen J. Growing Up: A Cross-cultural Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1995.

CALL NUMBER: HQ767.84 B761995 located on the Ready Reference Shelves

• Ponzetti, John J., Jr., ed. International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family, 2nd ed. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2003.

CALL NUMBER: HQ9 E52 2003 v.1-4. located on the Ready Reference Shelves

• Taylor, Richard P. Death and the Afterlife: A Cultural Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2000.

CALL NUMBER: GT3150 T25 2000 located in the Reference Collection

Education

• Marlow-Ferguson, Rebecca, ed. World Education Encyclopedia, 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale. 2002.
  CALL NUMBER: LB43 I584 1995 located on the Ready Reference Shelves

Business

• Mole, John. Mind Your Manners: Managing Business Cultures in the New Global Europe, 3rd ed. London: Nicholas Brealey, 2003.
  CALL NUMBER: HD70 E8 M653 2003 located on the Ready Reference Shelves

Health

• Levinson, David, and Laura Gaccione. Health and Illness: A Cross-cultural Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 1997.
  CALL NUMBER: R733 L477 1997 located on the Ready Reference Shelves
  
• Purnell, Larry D., and Betty J. Paulanka. Transcultural Health Care: A Culturally Competent Approach. Philadelphia: Davis, 1998.
  CALL NUMBER:RA418.5 T73 T73 1998 located on the Ready Reference Shelves

Periodical Indexes
Among the many periodical indexes available at Grace Library, there are a few electronic indexes that stand out as particularly useful for to research the culture of a country this assignment:

Academic Search Elite (EBSCOhost)
Business Source Elite (EBSCOhost)
Sociological Collection (EBSCOhost)

These EBSCOhost indexes contain the full-text of many articles and are available by clicking on the link for Find Articles on the Grace Library home page.

07/08

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