PLEASE NOTE: The class on using library resources and the tour of Widener Library will take place on Thursday, June 26, 2008 at 3:30pm. We'll meet on the front steps of Lamont Library.
Libraries and Collections at Harvard
There are more than ninety libraries supporting research throughout Harvard University. The Harvard Libraries site is a gateway to the resources in these libraries and archives, as well as to the thousands of electronic resources to which the Harvard Libraries subscribe.
Widener Library: The single largest library at Harvard holds one of the world's most comprehensive research collections in the humanities and social sciences and is a key resource for study in history and literature.
Fung Library: This library includes The Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies collection, which is comprised of books and periodicals related to the field of Russian and Eurasian studies, particularly in the social sciences (political science, economics, sociology, and history).
Lamont Library: For government documents, politics, and political theory.
Law School Library: Collection contains foreign, international and comparative legal materials in the International Legal Studies section.
Kennedy School of Government Library: Focus of the collection is mainly on U.S. politics but also includes coverage of international affairs.
Ukrainian Research Institute Library: The library holds a substantial Ukrainian reference collection; complete works of major authors; offprints and conference papers of contemporary scholarship on Ukrainian and works of Ukrainian scholars in all disciplines. Special collections include manuscript collections of various Ukrainian civic and political leaders, composers, educators, journalists, musicologists, and writers, as well as the archives of several Ukrainian cultural institutions. Other special collections include photographs, postcards, maps, vertical files, and audio tapes.
For additional library information and locations, consult the Harvard University Library Map/Guide. For the hours of the libraries, see the hours page.
To get most books and journal articles in any of these libraries, you will need to find the call number (also known as the classification number) for each book or journal and then locate it in the library stacks. You can find the call number for almost all books and journals owned by Harvard libraries in HOLLIS, the online library catalog (see Finding Books and Finding Articles below for details). For information on locating books and journals on the shelves in Widener Library, please consult How to find books in the stacks.
To find what you need in a hurry, schedule a consultation!
Getting a Harvard PIN (Personal Identification Number)
It is important to have a Harvard PIN or Personal Identification number, in order to use the library and its resources.
One reason you will need a PIN is for requesting library materials from the Harvard Depository. The Harvard Depository is a storage facility located 20 miles from Harvard Yard. When you look for a book in HOLLIS, the availability screen will tell you if a book is in the Harvard Depository. If it is, then you can click the "request" link, enter your Harvard ID number and PIN, click send request and then the book will be delivered to the Circulation Desk for pick-up by the next business day.
Another reason a PIN is necessary is that some networked electronic library resources are available to you only through a subscription paid for by the Harvard libraries. When you use these resources outside a Harvard library, you will be asked to enter your Harvard ID number and PIN.
If you do not yet have a Harvard PIN and would like to use these library resources outside of a library, go to the Harvard University PIN Administration Site.
Transliteration Tables
All the books and other materials that are received by the Harvard University Libraries in non-Roman character-based languages are transliterated into Roman characters according to guidelines produced by the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. These guidelines are available online at:
ALA-LC Romanization Tables: Transliteration Schemes for Non-Roman Scripts
Use these guidelines when you are trying to find a title or author and you are not sure how it would be spelled using roman characters. If you have any trouble, please contact Elizabeth McKeigue.
Language Learning Resources
Whether your native language is English or Ukrainian (or something else!) Widener Library has the dictionaries and other languages learning materials to help you.
Dictionaries for Translation
Ukrainian-English
Location: Widener Library Loker Reading Room RR 2561.15English-Ukrainian
Location: Widener Library Loker Reading Room RR 2561.12.5Popov, IE.F. and M.I. Balla. Comprehensive Ukrainian-English Dictionary: Over 150,000 Words and Expressions. Kyiv: Chumatskyi shliakh, 2001.
Location: Widener Library Stacks WID-LC PG3891.P76 2001
Dictionaries of the Ukrainian Languages
Bilodid, I.K. Slovnyk ukrainskoi movy. Kyiv: Naukova dumka, 1970-. 11 vols.
Location: Widener Library Stacks 3285.122.30
Online Dictionaries
Finding Books
HOLLIS Catalog: To find books in the Harvard libraries, go to the HOLLIS
Catalog. The HOLLIS Catalog is also accessible via the Harvard
Libraries site: click on 
in the upper-left. Once you're in HOLLIS,
we suggest the following basic ways to search:
Choose the Search Type: Title Beginning with... if you
know the exact title or the beginning of the title.
For example: perestroika to independence
or choose the Search Type: Author (last name first) if
you know at least the author's last name and first initial.
For example: szporluk, r
Choose the SEARCH TYPE: Keywords anywhere if you are
looking for a topic but don't know an exact subject heading
For example: postmodernism ukrainian literature
or if you are looking for a specific work and know the topic but not the
exact title
For example: ukraine state institution building
or if you are looking for a specific work and know the author's last name
and what it is about
For example: wilson ukrainian nationalism
or if you know the last names of two or more authors or editors of a work
For example: aslund de menil
Tips for using the HOLLIS catalog
- Use ? to truncate search words: postmodern?
- Put “” around words to search them as a phrase: “ukrainian nationalism”.
- Click on Save/Mail when you are looking at a record to e-mail search results to yourself.
- When you find a relevant book in HOLLIS click on any SUBJECTS listed on the screen to find more books on that topic.
WorldCat: To find books in libraries beyond Harvard (throughout North America and in many major European libararies) try searching WorldCat.
Finding Articles
To find journal articles, you'll need to consult journal indexes and databases. The first step is to determine which databases or databases to use. Some databases are subject specific and some have general resources. The databases listed below are among those that might be most useful to you. The list below has just a few selected titles, so to find additional databases that Harvard subscribes to, go to the Find E-Resources page.
ABSEES (American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies): Indexes articles etc., in publications on East-Central Europe and the former Soviet Union published in the United States and Canada.
Academic Search Premier (ASP): Offers magazine, newspaper, and journal articles, often in full-text, on a variety of topics from over 4,500 scholarly publications.
Tip: ABSEES and ASP are part of a group of databases hosted by EBSCO Host, can be searched together with just one search. From the ABSEES or ASP search page, click the
tab at the top of the page. Check the boxes next to the databases you want to search and click Continue.
Search example: Choose ABSEES, and ASP. Search: socialist realism and ukrain*
Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO): A source for theory and research in international affairs.
Declassified Documents Reference System Online: This collection of now-declassifed documents comes from Presidential libraries, the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and a host of other U.S. government agencies.
East View Universal Databases: The East View UDBs are a set of full-text journal databases on the subjects of politics, government, and social sciences in the former Soviet republics. You can also search only the Ukrainian Publications.
Historical Abstracts: Covers scholarship on the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada, which are covered in America: History and Life).
JSTOR: Slavic Studies: A full-text database which includes a number of journals, including the following: Europe-Asia Studies (1993-2002), Soviet Studies (1949-1992), Russian Review (1941-2000), and Slavic and East European Journal (1957-2003).
Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies: Covers material in the humanities and social sciences published in the Commonwealth of Independent States, in Eastern European countries, and elsewhere, including periodicals, books, and manuscripts.
ABSEES (American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies)
Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO)
Declassified Documents Reference System Online
East View Universal Databases: The East View UDBs are a set of full-text journal databases on the subjects of politics, government, and social sciences in the former Soviet republics. You can also search only the Ukrainian Publications.
International Political Science Abstracts: Provides abstracts of political science articles published in scholarly journals and yearbooks worldwide.
PAIS (Public Affairs Information Service International): Indexes public policy literature, with emphasis on contemporary issues and the making and evaluating of public policy.
PolicyFile: Provides convenient, efficient, online access to public policy research and analysis from think tanks, university research programs, research organizations, and publishers.
Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies
WorldWide Political Science Abstracts: Indexes international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration/policy.
ABSEES (American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies)
East View Social Sciences and Humanities Periodicals: The East View Social Sciences and Humanities Periodicals UDB is a fulltext journal database of major Russian journals in the social sciences and humanities. You can also search only the Ukrainian Publications.
Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts (LLBA): Provides citations with abstracts for journal articles from over 1200 journals in all areas of language and linguistics.
MLA International Bibliography: Offers bibliographic records pertaining to literature, language, linguistics, and folklore.
Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies
Locating Books and Journals in the Libraries
Once you've found a record in HOLLIS for a book that you want to look at, follow these steps:
Locating Books
1) Click on the "Availability"
link to make sure the book is "Not checked out." (If the book
is checked out, you can recall it by clicking on the "Request"
link. The person who has the book will be asked to return in within a
week or so.)
2) Back on the Full View of the record, click on the![[Library Info]](../../2007summer/info.gif){kind=small}
icon to find out where the library is located and what its hours are.
3) Write down (or print out, or email) the call number.
The call number follows the
icon on the Full View of the record.
4) Once you're in the library, look for a chart that
shows you where each call number is shelved.
5) If you have any questions, ask for help at a reference
desk.
Locating Journals
Once you've found a record in HOLLIS for a journal that you want to look at, follow these steps:
1) Click on "Holdings" to find
out if the library owns the issue you need.
2) Back on the Full View of the record in HOLLIS, click
on the
icon to find out where the library is located and what its hours are.
3) Determine where in the library your journal is shelved.
At most libraries, recent issues (published in the past year or so) are
shelved separately from older issues.
- At Lamont: Recent issues can be found in the Reference Room on the 3rd floor, and older issues are shelved by title on the 2nd floor.
- At Widener: Recent issues can be found in the Periodicals Reading Room on the 1st floor, and older are shelved by call number in the Stacks. So, be sure to note the call number for journals at Widener.
4) Once you're in the library, if you have any questions, ask for help at a reference desk.
When You Have a Citation to an Article
When you already have a citation to a journal article, either from a bibliography or from a Harvard Libraries e-resource such as ABSEES, look for the full text of the article by following these instructions:
1. Open a new browser window. From the HOLLIS
catalog, choose the Citation
Linker (Find It) link in the red bar at the bottom of the page.
2. Enter as much of the article's citation information
as you have (e.g. journal title, date, volume number, etc.), then click
on 
.
3. A new screen will open that provides a link to an
electronic version of your article, if available. If there is no link
to an electronic version of your article then follow the link to the
HOLLIS Catalog, which will show you which Harvard libraries own a paper
copy (see Locating Journals for instructions
on how to locate the paper copy in a library).
If the
Citation Linker page does not bring you to either an electronic version
of your article or a HOLLIS Catalog record, then:
1. Go to the Harvard
Libraries site and click on
in the upper left-hand corner.
2. Once you're in HOLLIS, select the "Journals
Titles " tab.
3. Enter the title of the journal in which the article
appeared in the search box.
4. Select the matching title in the Browse List.
5. If more than one title is displayed, select the
one that is the closest match. The record for that title will show you
which Harvard libraries own paper copies of the journal you need.
6. See Locating Journals
for instructions on how to locate the paper copy in a library.
Useful Web Sites
Slavic and Eurasian Studies: A Research Guide
Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies Research Portal
Index
of Harvard Ukrainian Studies: The Journal of the Harvard Ukrainian
Research Institute
(volumes 1-20, 1977-1996)
Threading the Maze: An Introductory Library Guide for Doing Research at Harvard
Here are a few additional tips and resources for conducting research in the Harvard College Library.
- As you gather sources for your assignment, it is important to evaluate each for its quality and appropriateness for your paper. This is particularly true for material found on the Web where there are fewer controls over what is presented. Evaluating Web Sites on the Harvard College Library site describes basic criteria to apply to each source.
- For help with citing your sources see: Cite your sources, a section of Threading the Maze.
Questions? Contact Us!
Schedule a follow-up consultation:
Elizabeth McKeigue, Widener Library Research Services, 617-496-4023, e-mail
Olha Aleksic, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute Library and Widener Slavic Division, 617-496-5891, e-mail
Or drop by during Elizabeth's desk reference "office hours": (until July 25th)
Widener Reference Desk: Tuesdays, 1pm - 4pm
Or chat live with Elizabeth: If Elizabeth is offline, try the “Ask Us Live” chat service which is available Sunday through Thursday 3pm – 10pm