Ancient Greek & Roman Studies

In ANTH-AHCL 1200H you're given a series of three Library Assignments.  This guide will help you through any sections where you get stuck.

Take the time to complete the Library Instruction 2020-21 course in Blackboard BEFORE you start this assignment. The information in it will help you understand library systems and processes.

• Without the knowledge they contain, you'll take longer than necessary and become quite frustrated. 
• Find the course in the course list on your Blackboard dashboard. 
• If you don't see it listed in your Blackboard courses, contact library@trentu.ca.

Read the instructions on your Assignment! 

• They give you plenty of useful information and guidance.

The assignments require you to follow the formatting guidelines from the American Journal of Archaeology.  Learning them now will save you a great deal of trouble later in the course. 

American Journal of Archaeology (AJA)

Consult the sections: "Sample references to ..." for this assignment.

Search

Use Omni to locate articles available through the Trent Library.

1. Enter search terms. Use any search terms you think are appropriate. Omni doesn't require any special logic. 
   • The term "Homer" alone may be too vague, so adding another term to narrow it down is recommended.
2. Filter your results to "Peer-Reviewed Journals" under "Availability".
3. Filter your results further to "Articles", under "Resource Type"..
4. Under "Publication Date", enter "1991" as the starting date, so you only see those published since 1990.

You should find plenty of articles; pick one.

Cite It

Use the information provided in the AJA guide to write a complete citation for the article.

Do not provide a link in your citation. Your instructions say to cite it as though you read it in hard copy. This is because you're reading exactly the same as the printed version - it's not just a website!

Omni helps you out with citations. Click the book title or the ... menu to open the citation option ("). 

• Look down the list for the American Journal of Archaeology style and click it.
• Copy the citation provided.
• CHECK THE CITATION FOR DETAILS!
  • It's machine-generated and could have errors. 
  • It's your job to make sure it's correct, and you're being graded on your ability to cite it correctly!

Alternate Databases

Omni is good at finding material that used to be discoverable only through specific databases, so you may find all you need in Omni. However, should you wish to expand your search, we have access to other databases that are particularly well designed for Classics topic. 

The databases you need are listed on this Guide, under "Articles".

• Read the description of each database if you want to know more about it - each one is unique. Pick one and try it.
• If there are no links in the database to locate the article, search Omni for the journal, then navigate to the article.

L'Annee Philologique:

• This is a very scholarly database, designed specifically for classicists.  You'll need to read the information carefully, because the search engine doesn't do any narrowing for you.
• Connect to the database from the link under "Articles" on this guide, or under Databases A-Z on the library homepage.
  • Hint: leave L' off the beginning of the title (it just means "the" in French).
• Enter your search term(s).
  • Try to keep your search terms simple.
  • Look over your results; click on a title to see more information.
    • Check to see if it's a journal article.
      • The top of the description indicates Type: Article in journal.
      • A journal article shows a volume and issue number, as well as an ISSN (standard serial number).
      • The list displays different icons for journal articles and books/book chapters.
      • Fun fact: if the title of the article is NOT in English, it's likely the article isn't in English, either.
  • Find a relevant description (citation), then click on to locate the article.

TOCS-IN:

• Connect to the database and select SEARCH (Toronto).
• Enter search terms, keeping it as simple as possible.
• You'll get a list of citations to articles.
• The citation provides the details about the journal in which it was published: title, volume, issue, date, pages.
• The titles are abbreviated, so click on the List of journal abbreviations (at the top of the list) to see the full title of the journal.
• Look up the full journal title in Omni to see if we have it.
  • Once you find the journal, navigate to the volume, year, issue, and page number of the article.

JSTOR:

• Search the database to find citations (descriptions)  of articles.
  • You may wish to use an Advanced Search, and look for your terms in the title or abstract, rather than the full text, to limit the number you find to those that are more specific.
  • Limit your results to Journals on the results page.
  • You can also limit your findings to "Classical Studies" using the Subject option on your results page.
• All articles are available in full text, if you leave "only content I can access" (the default) selected.
• Clicking on a title brings up the article a page at a time; click the Download PDF link to get the full article.

Search

Use Omni to locate ebooks available through the Trent Library.

1. Enter search terms. Use any search terms you think are appropriate. Omni doesn't require any special logic.
2. Filter your results to "Books & eBooks" under "Resource Type".
   • You probably need to click "Show More" to find the option, because only the top three show by default.
3. Filter your results further to "Available Online".
4. Under "Publication Date", enter the date after which your book must have been published (1991 or 1981, depending on which question it is).

You'll find over a thousand with search terms like:

• greek archaeology 
• greece archaeology
• ancient greek archaeology

Pick one.

Cite It

Use the information provided in the AJA guide to write a complete citation for the book.

Omni offers help with citations. Click the book title or the ... menu to open a citation option ("). 

• Look down the list for the American Journal of Archaeology style and click it.
• Copy the citation provided.
• CHECK THE CITATION FOR DETAILS!
  • It's machine-generated and could have errors. 
  • It's your job to make sure it's correct, and you're being graded on your ability to cite it correctly!

**Pay particular attention to whether the edited volumes are cited as such! Omni can't always tell if a a book is edited or authored.**

Grab the Link

IF the book you find is an ebook, there's no call number, so provide a link to the book. Luckily, Omni provides a "Permalink" to everything it finds. 

Click the dots (...) or the book title for this option.

Copy the permalink and past it in your assignment. 

Specific Books

Assignment 2 requires you to find and cite specific types of authored books. You learned how to recognize these types of citations in the Library Instruction course; now you'll put that knowledge to work.

You'll need to find a book with a single author, a book with several authors, and an edited book.

Process:

• Search Omni for your subject.
• Limit to "Books & eBooks" and the "Publication Date".
• The rest is up to you. Look through the citations to see how they're authored. Omni can't filter this for you, so you need to use your skills to look at the author(s)/editor(s) for each book.
• Click on a book's title to open the full display and see all the author information.

Multi-Authored Volume

• Look for more than one name in the author section.
• Check to be sure it's not actually an edited book - that's what you need for the next question. Sometimes you must actually look at the book to see if it's edited or authored. Ebooks are your best bet for this; look at the title page or check the chapters to see if an author is listed. If chapters have authors, it's an edited book.

Edited Volume

Unfortunately, Omni doesn't search for editors very accurately. They're often just listed as authors. You'll need to look closely for hints.

• Look for the word "Editor" or "Ed." after an author's name.
• Look for several authors 
• If you're not having luck, try adding the search term: editor (i.e. greek archaeology editor). This may help you narrow it down.
• It's possible Omni won't show that it's edited at all, and you need to actually link to the ebook to find out.

The map you need for Assignment 1, Question 4) will be posted in the course.  Ask your instructor, if you can't find it.

You should be able to answer Questions 4) and 5)  with the help of Google, an atlas, or a reading from your course. Look carefully at what's already available to you.

You can also try searching Omni for an atlas in the Library.

You probably need to read the Iliad to answer the characters question.

In Assignment 3 you'll learn how to request items that aren't available from the library, through a service called "Interlibrary Loan". 

Use the "First Time Users" help page and the other webpages connected to RACER to get started. If you have trouble, email library@trentu.ca for assistance, or ask at the Service Desk in the library.

Do NOT go so far as to hit "REQUEST" when you're doing this exercise, because that will start a chain of events involving multiple libraries. For this assignment simply print the screen that's presented before ordering.

The items you're locating are found in the Bibliography section of the article listed: 

Morris, Ian. 1986. “The Use and Abuse of Homer.” Classical Antiquity 5.1: 81-138.

Find this article using Omni, download the .PDF, and move to the Bibliography at the end (p.130). Choose the items you wish to almost-order from this list.