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Russian 121: Russian Pop Culture

Librarian/Curator for Slavic, Eastern European and Eurasian Studies

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Alena Aissing
Contact:
A1540 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095
310-206-0324

Start Here: Catalogs, Search Engines, and Other Finding Aids

Transliteration and Typing

Databases

UIUC Slavic Reference Service

Free year-round service of the University of Illinois Slavic and East European Library. The Slavic Reference Service handles bibliographic and reference questions in the humanities and social sciences from individuals and libraries. Great for highly specialized queries and locating difficult-to-find resources.

From the SRS website:

What We Do

Answer information queries. If you are in need of a specific piece of information, we will be glad to try to answer your query. We will use print and online resources in our searches. We also assist patrons with their questions on the use of East European and Cyrillic fonts and keyboards on the Internet.

Identify and lend materials in our collection. Identify libraries that hold materials you need. We will search to find libraries in the U.S. and Western Europe that can lend or copy the title you need if it is not in our collection.

Correct citations. Oftentimes, titles are not fully or correctly cited in the existing bibliographic literature. Our staff are trained to search for the correct form of the citation, ensuring that you get the material you need.

Order materials. If you need a specific title and it is not held in the United States, we will order a microfilm copy. When the film is received, we will notify you. You will then be able to borrow the film or order a copy to be made.

Offer a free federally funded service that acts as a clearing house for people seeking information on the Slavic world in the areas of the social sciences and humanities.

Suggest reference materials you might find relevant for your work. Unfortunately, we cannot be held responsible for the completeness or accuracy of Internet information. We do not compile bibliographies on specific topics (see below).

What We Don't Do

Charge a fee. The Slavic Reference Service is a federally funded agency. There is no charge for our reference services. However, we are not a document delivery service. Should you need a copy of some material from our collection you will be directed to our Interlibrary Loan Department for further information.

Obtain certain kinds of materials, specifically archival materials and full text of dissertations. Dissertation abstracts can be obtained.

Recommend particular books on a topic. We are all reference librarians with subject expertise in a variety of areas. None of us are experts in all areas. Our expertise lies in our familiarity with bibliographic material. Therefore, we are not qualified to suggest a specific book in a subject area over some other work.

Supply detailed genealogical information. Our library is not equipped to handle detailed genealogical requests. We will be happy to identify place names, try to identify maps.

Other Helpful Guides

Zotero Citation Manager

Zotero is a free, open-source bibliography platform where you can store data and then export it in any bibliographical format you need. If you download the web browser plugin, you can add sources directly from the UCLA online catalog (and many others). Tutorials and documentation are available through the Zotero website, and you can also contact me for an in-person consultation on using it for your research.

Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] helps you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources. It lives right where you do your work—in the web browser itself. Zotero automatically senses content, allowing you to add it to your personal library with a single click. Whether you're searching for a preprint on arXiv.org, a journal article from JSTOR, a news story from the New York Times, or a book from your university library catalog, Zotero has you covered with support for thousands of sites. Zotero collects all your research in a single, searchable interface. You can add PDFs, images, audio and video files, snapshots of web pages, and really anything else. Zotero automatically indexes the full-text content of your library, enabling you to find exactly what you're looking for with just a few keystrokes.

It's supported by the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.