Getting materials not at BU
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Interlibrary Loan. Interlibrary Loan services allow current BU faculty, staff, and students to request books, articles, book chapters, and other materials that our ILL staff will obtain from other libraries. Books generally take 1-3 weeks to arrive; articles are generally delivered electronically within 1-2 days.
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ILL online request forms for all patrons except those affiliated with the Schools of Law and Medicine
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Law Library's interlibrary loan page for Law School affiliates
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Alumni Medical Library’s ILL form for Medical School affilliates
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For general inquires to the Interlibrary Loan office, please call (617) 353-3706 or email ILLMML@bu.edu.
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- BLC Cards. A Boston Library Consortium Card allows the bearer to borrow—in person—circulating material from a member library, just as you would from a BU library. Boston University faculty, staff, and students on the Charles River Campus may obtain a Consortium Card by filling out an application form. Medical Campus affiliates apply at the Alumni Medical Library. Students, faculty, and staff may borrow books from Boston College, Brandeis University, and Northeastern University with their Boston University ID's.
Featured books & ebooks
Click on book jackets to read the following e-books:
Feasts and Celebrations in Northern America by Part one: Colonialism and festivals: the art of resistance. Pinkster festival, 1776-1811: an African-American celebration / Geneviève Fabre -- Public rituals and the cultural making of the New York African-American community / Alessandra Lorini -- The Mexican/Chicano pastorela: toward a theory of the evolution of a folk play / María Herrera-Sobek -- Los Matachines de la Santa Cruz de la Ladrillera: notes toward a socio-literary analysis / Norma E. Cantú -- Part two: Rituals of renewal and return. El Santuario de Chimayo: a syncretic shine in New Mexico / Ramón A. Gutiérrez -- 'First you feed them, then you clothe them, then you save them': the hungry and homeless and the Sunday feast at a Pentecostal storefront church in East Harlem / Anna Lou Dehavneon -- The Celebration of life in New Orleans jazz funerals / Sybil Kein -- Part three: Celebrations and the creation of identities. Celebratin Rizal Day: the emergence of a Filipino tradition in twentieth-century Chicago / Roland L. Guyotte and Barbara M. Posadas -- Harvest celebrations in the rural south and the challenge of mass culture, 1865-1920 / Ted Ownby -- Imagining culture: New York City's village Halloween parade / Jack Kugelmass -- The 'Caribbeanization' of New York City: West Indian carnival in Brooklyn / Remco van Capelleveen.
Location: Mugar Stacks GT4803.A2 F43 1995ISBN: :9780826315939Publication Date: 1995-03-01
Immigration and American Popular Culture by
A unique study that hones in on the cross-section and interdependency of immigration and American cultural production How does a 'national' popular culture form and grow over time in a nation comprised of immigrants? How have immigrants used popular culture in America, and how has it used them? Immigration and American Popular Culture looks at the relationship between American immigrants and the popular culture industry in the twentieth century. Through a series of case studies, Rachel Rubin and Jeffrey Melnick uncover how specific trends in popular culture--such as portrayals of European immigrants as gangsters in 1930s cinema, the zoot suits of the 1940s, the influence of Jamaican Americans on rap in the 1970s, and cyberpunk and Asian American zines in the1990s--have their roots in the complex socio-political nature of immigration in America. Supplemented by a timeline of key events and extensive suggestions for further reading, Immigration and American Popular Culture offers at once a unique history of twentieth century U.S. immigration and an essential introduction to the major approaches to the study of popular culture. Melnick and Rubin go further to demonstrate how completely and complexly the processes of immigration and cultural production have been intertwined, and how we cannot understand one without the other.
Location: Mugar Stacks JV6465 .R83 2007ISBN: 9780814775530Publication Date: 2006-12-06
Accidental Immigrants and the Search for Home by
The effect of immigration on individual lives is not short lived. Those who stay in an adopted country permanently go through a continual process of adjustment and learning both about their new country-and about themselves. The four women profiled in Carol Kelley's poignant "Accidental Immigrants and the Search for Home" challenge immigrant stereotypes as their lives are transformed by moving to new countries for reasons of marriage, education, or career--not economics or politics. The intimate stories of these accidental immigrants broaden conventional notions of home. From a Maori woman who moves to Norway to the daughter of an Iranian diplomat now living in France, Kelley weaves together these stories of the personal and emotional effects of immigration with interdisciplinary discussions drawn from anthropology and psychology. Ultimately, she reveals how the lifelong process of immigration affects each woman's sense of identity and belonging and contributes to better understanding today's globalized society. a
Location: Mugar Stacks JV6342 .K45 2013ISBN: 9781439909454Publication Date: 2013-01-25
The Changing Face of Home by
The children of immigrants account for the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population under eighteen years old--one out of every five children in the United States. Will this generation of immigrant children follow the path of earlier waves of immigrants and gradually assimilate into mainstream American life, or does the global nature of the contemporary world mean that the trajectory of today's immigrants will be fundamentally different? Rather than severing their ties to their home countries, many immigrants today sustain economic, political, and religious ties to their homelands, even as they work, vote, and pray in the countries that receive them. The Changing Face of Home is the first book to examine the extent to which the children of immigrants engage in such transnational practices. Because most second generation immigrants are still young, there is much debate among immigration scholars about the extent to which these children will engage in transnational practices in the future. While the contributors to this volume find some evidence of transnationalism among the children of immigrants, they disagree over whether these activities will have any long-term effects. Part I of the volume explores how the practice and consequences of transnationalism vary among different groups. Contributors Philip Kasinitz, Mary Waters, and John Mollenkopf use findings from their large study of immigrant communities in New York City to show how both distance and politics play important roles in determining levels of transnational activity. For example, many Latin American and Caribbean immigrants are "circular migrants" spending much time in both their home countries and the United States, while Russian Jews and Chinese immigrants have far less contact of any kind with their homelands. In Part II, the contributors comment on these findings, offering suggestions for reconceptualizing the issue and bridging analytical differences. In her chapter, Nancy Foner makes valuable comparisons with past waves of immigrants as a way of understanding the conditions that may foster or mitigate transnationalism among today's immigrants. The final set of chapters examines how home and host country value systems shape how second generation immigrants construct their identities, and the economic, social, and political communities to which they ultimately express allegiance. The Changing Face of Home presents an important first round of research and dialogue on the activities and identities of the second generation vis-a-vis their ancestral homelands, and raises important questions for future research.
Location: JV6455 .C434 2002ISBN: 9780871545176Publication Date: 2002-12-12
Haitians in New York City by
Pierre-Louis offers a new perspective on the strategies Haitian immigrants used to adapt to life in the United States and to shield themselves from the harsh discrimination they faced as a minority. Struggling to assimilate while continuing to maintain ties to their homeland, they transformed themselves from Third World exiles into transnational citizens. For the laborers and political refugees who left Haiti in the last half-century, class had always been more important than skin color as a barometer of social standing. To cope with the racial and cultural tensions they encountered, they established structures that allowed them to live a dual life and to preserve an ethnic identity distinct from that of African Americans. The groups they formed - ""hometown associations"" - emphasized their entrepreneurial spirit, cultural and linguistic heritage, and Haiti's glorious past as the first black republic. At the same time the associations offered them practical training, technical assistance, and networking opportunities. While the immigrants created a political identity in New York City, they also learned to access public resources and compete successfully with other ethnic and minority groups for recognition. In fact, Pierre-Louis shows, the hometown associations encouraged their desire to participate in New York City politics, a finding that turns much of the current literature on transnational politics on its head. The book also presents a background of Haitian migration into the United States, the Haitian government's contribution to that diaspora in the 1960s, and the history of such Haitian American neighborhoods as the West Side of Manhattan and the East Flatbush area in Brooklyn.
Location: Mugar Stacks F128.9.H27 P54 2006ISBN: 9780813029368Publication Date: 2006-03-30
Preserving Ethnicity Through Religion in America by
2012 Honorable Mention Award, Sociology of Religion Section, presented by the American Sociological Association 2011 Honorable Mention for the American Sociological Association International Migration Section's Thomas and Znaniecki Best Book Preserving Ethnicity through Religion in America explores the factors that may lead to greater success in ethnic preservation. Pyong Gap Min compares Indian Americans and Korean Americans, two of the most significant ethnic groups in New York, and examines the different ways in which they preserve their ethnicity through their faith. Does someone feel more "Indian" because they practice Hinduism? Does membership in a Korean Protestant church aid in maintaining ties to Korean culture? Pushing beyond sociological research on religion and ethnicity which has tended to focus on whites or on a single immigrant group or on a single generation, Min also takes actual religious practice and theology seriously, rather than gauging religiosity based primarily on belonging to a congregation. Fascinating and provocative voices of informants from two generations combine with telephone survey data to help readers understand overall patterns of religious practices for each group under consideration. Preserving Ethnicity through Religion in America is remarkable in its scope, its theoretical significance, and its methodological sophistication.
Location: Mugar Stacks BL65.E75 M56 2010ISBN: 9780814795859Publication Date: 2010-04-05
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Browse/Search for Articles
Key Journals
- Diaspora: a journal of transnational studies
- Journal of ethnic & cultural studies
- National identities
- Studies in ethnicity & nationalism
History
- Humanities Full Text / Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective This link opens in a new window These combined databases provide access to journal articles, book reviews, performance reviews, interviews, bibliographies and more from a broad range of humanities and social sciences journals.
Search across disciplines
- BU Libraries Search This link opens in a new window BU Libraries Search provides a single place to search for a wide variety of research material provided by the library. Resources covered by the search includes books and eBooks, journals, scores and sheet music, video and audio recordings, and other physical and electronic items held by the library. Coverage encompasses materials relating to the prehistoric and antique world through to the present.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window This database provides full text access to the back issues of core scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Book reviews are included as well as journal articles. Abstracts are available for some of the articles.
- Project Muse This link opens in a new window Project Muse provides digital access to scholarly journals and books in the humanities and social sciences. The scholarly content comes from non-profit scholarly publishers, including university presses and societies. The full text resources include journal articles, book reviews and book chapters.
- ProQuest Dissertations & Theses This link opens in a new window This database contains indexing and abstracts of American doctoral dissertations accepted at accredited institutions since 1861 and a selection from other countries. Masters level theses are included selectively.
Social Sciences
- Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window Full text articles from newspapers and periodicals published by ethnic, minority and native presses in the U.S. Includes both historic publications, starting in 1959, as well as current ones.
- eHRAF World Cultures This link opens in a new window A systematically organized collection of thousands of books and articles on cultures from all regions of the world; provides information on particular cultures, ethnic groups, or immigrant groups, their beliefs and superstitions, or subjects such as political structure, architecture, kinship units, or settlement patterns. The information is organized by cultures and ethnic groups and the full-text documents are subject-indexed at the paragraph level. It currently consists of 290 cultures.
- Social Sciences Full Text This link opens in a new window Social Sciences Full Text provides access to hundreds of English language journals in the social sciences. About two-thirds of the journals are peer-reviewed.
- Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window Sociological Abstracts indexes and abstracts the international literature of sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. The database provides abstracts of journal articles and citations to book reviews. It also provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers. Forty percent of the content is published outside of North America.
- APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window Provides access to articles, books and book chapters, and dissertations that cover the scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences. Includes material of relevance to psychologists and professionals in related fields such as psychiatry, management, business, education, social science, neuroscience, law, medicine, and social work.
- Communication & Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window CMMC indexes journals covering communication, mass media, linguistics, discourse, rhetoric, sociolinguistics, communication theory, language, logic, organizational communication and other closely related fields of study.
BU Libraries Search
You can use the BU Libraries Search box to look for print and electronic resources available thru the Boston University Libraries. These resources include print books and journals available in the library stacks, as well as e-books and full-text journal articles.
For search tips or questions regarding the search function: see the Search Help page.
For physical items, you will need the call number and library location to locate the books or journals in the stacks. See the location chart (available by the elevators and at the research center) to help you find the floor by call number range.
Browse/Search for Films
- Ethnographic Video Online, Volume IV: Festivals and Archives This link opens in a new window Contains award-winning titles from contemporary ethnographic film festivals. The collection also includes field recordings and edited films by students and faculty from universities and institutions around the world, including Berkeley Media and Manchester's Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology.
Searchable catalogs & databases for films:
- Academic Video OnlineAcademic Video Online is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary video subscription that supports the entire range of curriculum, from anthropology to zoology. It includes a variety of video material available with curricular relevance: documentaries, interviews, feature films, performances, news programs and newsreels, and demonstrations. Patrons will find thousands of award-winning films, including Academy®, Emmy®, and Peabody® winners. Academic institutions will find frequently used films for classroom instruction, plus newly released films and previously unavailable archival material.
- Kanopy This link opens in a new window
Kanopy is a provider of documentaries, training films, and theatrical releases available as streaming video. Clips from the videos can be embedded in presentations or shown in class. Films in the Boston University Libraries catalog are licensed to Boston University for educational and research use only, for BU students, faculty, and staff.
