• Finding Information about Your Gendered Object
  • Finding Product and Industry Information
  • Finding Books

• Citing and Writing
• Research Help

Finding Information on Your Object

For this project, you'll need to consult a variety of sources, including industry reports, newspaper and journal articles, books, and websites.

Finding Product and Industry Information

• Annual Reports.
  Using your favorite search engine, search for the company and annual report. For example, type: apple "annual report." Finding annual reports of the product's parent company will provide you with a sense of the company's history, structure, culture, as well as some product information.Some reports will be more technical, or more glossy than others. Annual reports can provide good clues about the company's desired image of itself--how it aims to represent itself to staff, employees, shareholders, and the public. Remember that this information comes from the manufacturing company. Company information can, however, give you a sense of the company's culture, or the image it aims to create.
  • Questions to ask yourself as you evaluate internet sources.


• Business Source Complete is a good resource for finding Industry reports and company profiles. Remember to find the parent corporation when searching for company-specific information. Other business databases are available via LBIS's All Databases list, under "B."


• Academic Universe/Lexis Nexis will also be helpful in finding business and general news articles on your object. Try using the index terms to find more precise results. Remember to use the help feature!


• Gender Watch is a full-text database focusing on gender and its impact on a broad range of subjects. Try using the topics feature.


• Use Academic Search Complete to find more general articles in both popular and scholarly publications.


• Federal Regulatory Agencies. Regulations are the "means of implementing laws enacted by Congress."** Federal or Independent Agencies implement legislation by writing rules, or regulations. These rules appear in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). When searching online, it is best to search by agency, in quotation marks: "food and drug administration."
  **Robinson, Judith Schiek. Tapping the Government Grapevine: The User-Friendly Guide to U.S. Government Information Sources. Third Edition. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1998.
  • We also have the CFR in print. Find the appropriate volume by doing a title search in CONSORT.
  • Depending on the information you need, it might be easiest to go straight to the agency's website. LSU's library maintains a comprehensive directory of federal agencies.
  • More information on government documents is available on the lbis website.
  • For statistical information on manufacturing, the Economic Census Industry Series Reports in Manufacturing may be useful.

Finding Books

You can search for books about or related to your object in CONSORT, OhioLINK, and WorldCAT.

The CONSORT catalog can be used to locate books, government documents, microforms, video and sound recordings, and special collections materials available in the Kenyon, Denison, Ohio Wesleyan and Wooster libraries.

CONSORT also provides access to OhioLINK, which indicates the holdings of 85 libraries throughout Ohio. You may borrow books and documents directly from either CONSORT or OhioLINK. Requested materials typically arrive at Kenyon 2 to 3 working days after the request is made, but delivery may take longer depending upon the time of year -- especially near midterms and finals -- so plan ahead.

WorldCat is a catalog of library holdings throughout the country and world. Contains records for any type of materials: books, sound recordings, video recordings, manuscripts, etc. Click the ILL button from within WorldCat to request an item be sent to you at Kenyon, or request the item using the page. Delivery time will vary depending on where an item is coming from. You can also access the Interlibrary Loan page on the LBIS website, under Services.

Research Strategies

• Use the sources you already have. Look up sources from the bibliographies of secondary sources you have in hand.
• Begin searching in the library catalog and databases using keywords, and then find relevant subject terms. For example, the subject term for "Sony" is Soni Kabushiki Kaisha.

Citing and Writing

Don't forget to cite your sources, using MLA or the Chicago Manual of Style, both of which are available at the Information Desk. You can also use online citation creators, such as the Citation Machine.

For Additional Research Help, Contact:

Nina Clements

Librarian & Technology Consultant

740.427.5668