This informational guide is intended to provide an introduction to the Harvard Libraries for graduate students and visiting researchers in the REECA program. It includes selective lists of reference resources, both online and in print, which will lead to books, articles, reviews, media, and websites.
Overview of the Harvard Libraries
The "Harvard University Library" is actually more than ninety libraries supporting research throughout Harvard University. The "Harvard College Library" is one component of the University Library, and it is really nine separate libraries supporting research among the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. At which of these libraries will you end up doing most of your work? The answer to this question will vary depending on your needs.
Widener Library is the single largest library at Harvard. It holds one of the world's most comprehensive research collections in the humanities and social sciences. The Fung Library serves the Government department as well as the international and regional studies centers, including the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.
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 location and call number for almost all books and journals owned by Harvard libraries in HOLLIS, the online library catalog.
Transliteration Tables Online
ALA-LC
Romanization Tables: Transliteration Schemes for Non-Roman Scripts
Standard transliteration tables for Ukrainian, Russian, Belarusian, and
other languages. If you don't see the language you are looking for in
the list, try clicking on the link for "Non-Slavic Languages in Cyrillic"
for a list of additional Eurasian languages.
Finding Books
To find books in the Harvard libraries, go to the HOLLIS Catalog. Once you're in HOLLIS, we suggest the following basic ways to search:
Do a BROWSE search if:
- You know the exact title or the beginning of the title
For example: postsocialism ideals ideology - You know at least the author's last name and first initial
For example: colton, t
Do a KEYWORD search if:
- You are looking for a topic but don't know an exact subject heading
For example: elections Bulgaria - You are looking for a specific work and know the topic but not the
exact title
For example: russian state institution building - You are looking for a specific work and know the author's last name
and what it is about
For example: martin soviet nationalism - You know the last names of two or more authors or editors of a work
For example: Arbatov Kaiser
Tips
- Use ? to truncate search words: democra?
- Put " "around words to search them as a phrase: “russian 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.
Finding Journal Articles and Book Reviews
To find journal articles, you'll need to consult journal indexes and databases. Below is a list of some of the journal indexes and databases that may be useful to you. Remember that if you are outside of a library, you will need to use your Harvard ID number and PIN number to access these resources.
ABSEES (American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies): A database of journal articles on all subject areas relating to the republics of East-Central Europe and of the former Soviet Union published in the United States and Canada.
Academic Search Premier (ASP): A multi-disciplinary database that includes citations and abstracts from over 4,500 English-language scholarly journals, magazines and newspapers.
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 main 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: oil and russia*
To expand the search, type the words or energy in the first box, after the word oil
To search within those results, construct a more specific search. To the last box, add the word, Putin or click on the subject heading listed in the left-hand column.
Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO): A comprehensive source for theory and research in international affairs.
Declassified Documents Reference System Online: A collection of documents from Presidential libraries, the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and other U.S. government agencies.
East View Universal Databases: A set of full-text journal databases on the subjects of politics, government, and social sciences in the Commonwealth of Independent Statesthe Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, with chief emphasis on Russia.
Historical Abstracts: A database that offers annotated citations to journal articles on topics from the Renaissance to the present. All abstracts are written in English. In addition to articles, Historical Abstracts includes citations to historical books and to abstracts of dissertations completed worldwide of particular interest for historical research.
International Political Science Abstracts: A database that 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. International in scope. PAIS indexes publications in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
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: This database 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.
WorldWide Political Science Abstracts: This database indexes the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law, and public administration / policy. Abstracts are provided for most citations.
When You Have a Citation to an Article
When you have a citation to a journal article look for the full text of the article by following these instructions:
-
If you're in a Harvard Libraries e-resource and see a
button, click on it. 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. -
If you're not in a Harvard Libraries e-resource:
1. Open a browser window and go to HOLLIS. At the bottom of the screen, click on the link for Citation Linker.
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.
If the
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, click on "Journals"
in the menu at the top of the screen.
3. Search for the title of the journal in which the
article appeared:
a) In the "Browse an Alphabetical List" menu, click on "Journal title beginning with..."
b) Type the title of the journal in the search window, then click on the "Browse" button.
c) Select the matching title in the Browse List.
d) 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.
e) 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
Threading the Maze: A Guide to the Harvard Libraries for Students
Russian and East European Studies Virtual Library, University of Pittsburgh
Citing Sources
Citation Management Tools
Style Manuals
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly
Publishing. 2nd ed. New York: Modern Language Association
of America, 1998.
Widener Loker Reading Room RR 2117.7.5
Lamont Reference Room PN147.G444 1998
Lamont PN 147 .G444 1998
Lamont Reference Room Ready Reference PN147.G444 1998
Publication manual of the American Psychological Association.
5th ed. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2001.
Widener Loker Reading Room RR 2117.10
Lamont Library REFERENCE BF 76.7 .P83 2001
For more locations, see the HOLLIS Record for
this book.
Citing Electronic Resources
Walker, Janice R. The Columbia Guide to Online Style.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.
Widener Loker Reading Room RR 2117.45.10
Lamont Reference Room PN 171.F56 W35 1998
Columbia
Guide to Online Style
This site has excerpts from the print edition and other
information about the Guide.
Online:
a Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources
From Bedford St Martin's, detailed advice for citing online sources. “Citation
styles” gives links to descriptions of MLA, APA, Chicago and CBE
styles as well as citation styles for WWW sites, e-mail messages, listservs,
newsgroups, etc.
Contacts for Further Research Assistance
To schedule a research consultation, please contact:
- Elizabeth McKeigue, Research Librarian, Library Liaison to the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Widener Library, via e-mail or 617-496-4023.