Cultural Studies in the Pacific: Research Strategies

Suggested keyword searches:

Pacific literature
Pacific cultural studies

Use these subject headings to narrow your search in Voyager, via a "Subject Browse" in Basic search mode.

 Islands of the Pacific--In literature

Oceania -- in literature

Pacific Island literature--History and criticism

Pacific Island literature (English)

The Hawaiian and Pacific Collections both have numerous photograph and manuscript collections. To get a browsable list of them, go to Voyager and in the basic search mode, select Call number, (DVDs, CDs, VHS, etc.) from the "search by" list. Use the following bolded text to search for each type of material:

• Hawaiian P (for Hawaiian photograph collections)
• Pacific P (for Pacific photograph collections)
• Hawaiian M (for Hawaiian manuscript collections)
• Pacific M (for Pacific manuscript collections)

Remember also that both collections have a wealth of photos and other images online. To view a complete list of online photo collections, click here.

• The Hawaiian & Pacific Collections are "closed shelf" collections, meaning that you cannot wander through the stacks and pull books off the shelf as you see them. Instead, you need to search for them within the Voyager online catalog and request them using "Get This Item." (For instructions on requesting books, click here). Once items have been requested they will be available for pick-up at our fifth floor circulation counter in roughly 10 minutes.

• Our hours are different from the rest of the library (9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday-Friday). Some of our materials can only be used in the library. It's therefore important to budget your time wisely when working on projects. Whenever possible, try to do your Voyager searches and requests before you come to the library, so that your materials will be waiting for you when you arrive. Find out which materials can only be used in the library -- you might want to photocopy or scan portions of these texts to take with you. (The Hawaiian & Pacific Collections have two photocopy machines and one scanner; photocopies are 9 cents per page with a copy card or 10 cents per page without one; scanning is free.)

Generally speaking, all Hawaiʻi- and Pacific-related library research follows the same steps, in this order: 1) Search Voyager; 2) Search the Hawaii-Pacific Journal Index (HPJI); 3) search databases specific to your topic. The below outlines an overview process meant to get you started; in this context, Google Scholar and Google Books can be powerful supplements to Voyager and HPJI; however, when it comes time to doing a literature search for a Masterʻs Thesis or Doctoral Dissertation, be aware that Google Scholar/Books donʻt capture everything there is -- particularly in the realm of Hawaiʻi and the broader Pacific, where a huge portion of the relevant material has not yet been digitized (and may never be).

1. Voyager

• Voyager should be your first stop whenever beginning a new research project. It holds the record for every item (books, journals, newspapers, microfilms, videos, audio recordings, manuscript collections and etc.) in every library in the UH system, from Hilo to Kauaʻi. Generally speaking, Voyager allows you to search for materials by title, author, publisher and subject. It does NOT generally allow you to search for the titles of articles within journals or the titles / authors of chapters within books (there are other strategies for these kinds of searches ... see below). There are occasional exceptions to this rule -- some book contents are listed in Voyager records; some journal articles have been cataloged separately in Voyager by title -- but as a rule of thumb when starting your research, assume that you are going to be searching for title, author or subject.

• Before you start searching, it's a good idea to log into the Voyager system, which you can do by clicking on the "Login to your account" link in the upper right hand of the Voyager search screen. This will not only save you a step when you begin requesting books, but also allows you to save your search results for future reference (very important when it comes time to cite your references in a paper).

• The simplest way to begin searching is via a keyword search. In the "Basic" mode, simply type some words that you think might describe your needs (for instance, Pacific literature) and hit search. This will give you a broad sampling of materials, some of which should be related to your topic. When you find something that is of interest, look at the "Subjects" field -- you can click on these links to find other materials that are on the same topic.

• Subject searching is a more focused means of navigating in Voyager. Because it is a "controlled vocabulary" it is also less forgiving than keyword searching. If you already know your subject headings, use them in the Basic Search mode, as a "Subject Browse" search. (See the box at left for a list of useful subject headings dealing with Hawaiʻi and Pacific literature). If you are unsure of the exact subject heading, go to Advanced Search mode and use the "Subject Keyword" search -- this search will bring up all titles with the subject headings that contain the keywords you use. (Note that a basic keyword search will also search all subject headings; by using a subject keyword search you are essentially narrowing down the basic keyword search by limiting it strictly to the subject headings field.)

2. Hawaii-Pacific Journal Index (HPJI)

• As mentioned above, Voyager searches for the titles of journals, but it does not generally search for titles of articles within journals. Hawaii-Pacific Journal Index is one way to "look inside" journals. It is not a full-text database, but it does allows you to search the contents of more than 130 scholarly journals and "popular press" magazines published in or about Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. Most of these are not indexed anywhere else in the world. All of the searching in HPJI is by keyword, and covers the article title, journal title, author, journal date, and an abstract/summary of each article.

• The three most useful searches in HPJI are Keyword Anywhere, Author Name and Journal Name. In most cases, it is best to use the "advanced search" mode, rather than the "basic search," which is less flexible.
   
• With a few exceptions, most of the magazines and journals indexed in the HJPI are only available in print; all are held by the Hawaiʻi and Pacific Collections in UHM library. Once you find an article in HPJI, look at the holdings information -- if there is an electronic version available (such as for Contemporary Pacific or the Journal of the Polynesian Society) a link should appear in the HPJI record. Otherwise, you will need to go back into the Voyager database, search for the journal title in basic search mode, and then use "Get This Item" to request the specific journal the article appears in.
   
• When working in HPJI, it's a good idea to have two windows open so that you can run HPJI and Voyager simultaneously; once you've found something in HPJI, you can then jump to Voyager to request the journal. Remember to save the publishing information (article title, journal title, issue date, page numbers) for all items you request: A year's worth of journals are often bound together; if you don't have this information with you when you come to look at the journal, you will waste a lot of time flipping through hundreds of pages looking for your article.

3. Google Scholar

• Google Scholar is another useful means of searching inside scholarly journals, and you will often find material here that is not indexed in HPJI (because Hawaiʻi and Pacific scholars will sometimes publish articles in journals that are not specifically about Hawaiʻi or the Pacific).Be cautioned however that the opposite is also true: Many of the journals indexed in HPJI have not been scanned by Google -- don't skip HPJI thinking that Google Scholar will find everything, or you will miss some important resources.

• Although you can reach Google Scholar on the open internet, it is best to log in through the library's electronic resources portal (use the link above) -- this is because the library's version of Google Scholar automatically recognizes articles that the library has paid for through its database subscriptions, and so you can immediately get the articles for free in full text. If you were to find the same articles using the open Internet version, you would be required to pay for access to the articles.

• If you find an article in Google Scholar that the library doesn't subscribe to electronically, be sure to search in the Voyager catalog to see if we subscribe to the print version.

4. Google Books

• Google Books can at times be a useful tool for searching within the contents of books: It searches the full text of books that have been scanned by Google. If a book is out of copyright or if Google has made arrangements with a copyrighted book's publisher, you will often be able to look at full-text on screen. In other cases, you will be able to see a small "snippet" of the text.

• When full text is not available online (or even if it is, but you prefer to read the printed version), keep in mind that virtually all of the books you find on Google Books will be available in print in the UH library. So you can also use Google Books as a supplement to our Voyager catalog: Search the contents of the books using Google, then search Voyager for the title.

Mouse over link for database description. See also the Pacific Collection's "Selected Databases" page for other heavily used sources of Hawaiʻi/Pacific information.