If you're looking for background information on a women's studies topic, reference books are a great place to start. Below you'll find a sample of the type of material available in the reference collection. You will find many more titles by visiting the reference collection on the first floor of Langsdale Library. Many of the women's studies related reference books are between the call numbers HQ1101 and HQ2030.

Adamson, L. G. (1998). Notable women in world history: A guide to recommended biographies and autobiographies. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. (XHQ 1122 .A28)

Cullen-DuPont, K. (1996). The encyclopedia of women's history in America. New York: Facts on File. (XHQ 1410 .C85 1996)

Gelb, J., & Palley, M. L. (2009). Women and politics around the world: A comparative history and survey . Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO. (HQ1236.W5876 2009)

Hepburn, S., & Simon, R. J. (2006). Women's roles and statuses the world over . Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. (HQ1236.H46 2006)

Heywood, L. (2006). The women's movement today: An encyclopedia of third-wave feminism . Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. (HQ1115.W644 2006)

Howard, A. M., & Kavenik, F. M. (Eds.). (2000). Handbook of American women's history (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. (XHQ 1410 .H36 2000)

Kinnear, K. L. (1997). Women in the Third World: A reference handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. (XHQ1870.9 .K58 1997).

Olsen, K. (1994). Chronology of women's history. Westport, CT: Greenwood. (XHQ 1121 .O47 1994)

Scanlon, J. (Ed.). (1999). Significant contemporary American feminists: A biographical sourcebook. Westport, CT: Greenwood. (XHQ1412 .S56 1999)

Tierney, H. (Ed.). (1991). Women's studies encyclopedia (Vols. 1-3). New York: Greenwood. (XHQ1115 .W645)

Ware, S. (Ed.). (2004). Notable American women: A biographical dictionary completing the twentieth century Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. (XCT3260 .N5725 2004)

You may find articles on specific aspects of women (women's health, women in business, etc) in a variety of periodical databases. Choose the database depending on the field of interest (e.g., health & medicine, business, arts, etc). If you're not sure where to start, try one of the databases listed below for women's studies related information:

Academic Search Premier  [on-campus] [help]
Coverage: 1990 - present. Provides full-text for over 3,400 scholarly journals covering the social sciences, humanities, education, sciences, and more. Funded by the Maryland Digital Library (MDL). Need help? Read the Academic Search Premier Visual Guide.

Soc Index with full text (Ebsco) [on-campus]
This index features more than 1,300,000 records with subject headings from a 15,600 term sociology-specific thesaurus designed by expert lexicographers. This product also contains informative abstracts for more than 620 "core" coverage journals dating back to 1895. In addition, this file provides data mined from more than 500 "priority" coverage journals as well as over 1,390 "selective" coverage journals. Further, extensive indexing for books, monographs, conference papers, and other sources is included.

The following journals offer articles specifically on women's studies. These journals are available in full-text from one of the library's databases. To locate the full text, paste the name of the journal into the library's journal finder. For more information about using the journal finder, watch the tutorial.

Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies. Available since 1997.

Feminist Studies. Available since 1990.

Frontiers: A Journal of Women's Studies. Available since 2001.

Gender Issues. Available since 1998.

Journal of women's history. Available since 1992.

Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism. Available since 2003.

Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies and Gender Issues. Available since 2004.

off our backs: A Women's News Journal. Available since 2001.

Psychology of Women Quarterly. Available since 1976.

Signs: Journal of women in culture and society. Available since 1990.

Women & Therapy. Available since 2001.

Women's Review of Books. Available since 1996.

Books on various women's issues may be found in a number of areas in the library. For broad coverage of women's studies, you may want to search fortitles under the following subject headings:

Women's studies
Women's rights

To find books on women in particular fields or professions you might try using women preceding the profession:

Women authors
Women political candidates
Women psychologists

Catalog USMAI [help]
Books, journals, government documents and other materials in the University System of Maryland, including UB.

Digital Dissertations (Dissertation Abstracts from Proquest) [on-campus]
Coverage 1861 – present. Indexes U.S., Canadian, British, and other European dissertations and theses; dissertations abstracted since 1980, theses abstracted since 1988. A 24 page preview of dissertations published since 1997 is available. The full text of dissertations may be obtained by clicking the free download button.

NetLibrary [on-campus] [help]
Coverage: Varies. A collection of E-texts covering specifically chosen by Maryland Academic Libraries. Funded by the Maryland Digital Library (MDL).

WorldCat [on-campus] [help]
Coverage: Varies. International database of collections (including books, journals , dissertations, documents, and other materials) held by libraries worldwide. Maryland libraries that own copies of the items display at the top of the list of libraries so you can easily determine if local libraries own the material needed. Records of any type of material cataloged by OCLC member libraries. Includes manuscripts written as early as the 12th century.

Statistical abstract of the United States (1941 to present). Washington: Government Printing Office. (DOCS C3.134: [yr.]) (LATEST ED., READY REFERENCE)

Status of women in the states.
The Institute for Women's Policy Research offers state-by-state statistics on the status and opportunities of women. Use the side bar navigation in the site to find more information - from http://www.iwpr.org/States2004/SWS2004/about.htm

Statistics and indicators on women and men.
This site, from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs includes statistics about population, health, education, families etc. from - http://unstats.un.org/unsd/demographic/products/indwm/indwm2.htm

Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering
This report from the National Science Foundation, provides information and statistics on the empoyment and education of women, minorities and persons with disabilities in science and engineering. The report is updated every two years - from http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/

SAWNET (South Asian Women's Network).
"A forum for and about women from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka" - from http://www.sawnet.org/

Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture
This site "preserves and makes available to a large population of researchers published and unpublished materials that reflect the public and private lives of women, past and present." - from http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/women/wwwsites.html

Women and social movements in the United States, 1600-2000.
This valuable resource includes historical, primary sources. While not everything is available in full text, many resources are. To find more primary sources, please contact a librarian - from http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/projectmap.htm

Women's studies online resources
This site "will help you find information-rich, high-quality web sites focusing on women's studies or women's issues" - from http://www.research.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/

Voice of the Shuttle - Gender and Sexuality Studies
The University of California, Santa Barbara English Department website offers a list of useful links including information about Feminist Theory, Queer Studies and Men's Movements - from http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2711

Women in politics: Bibliographic database.
"This database contains bibliographic references on books and articles dealing with women in politics" - from http://www.ipu.org/bdf-e/Bdfsearch.asp

WSSLINKS: Women and Gender Studies Web Sites. Maintained by the Women's Studies Section of the Association of College & Resource Libraries, this site's aim is "to provide access to a wide range of resources in support of Women's Studies" - from: http://libr.org/wss/WSSLinks/index.html

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