Please ask a reference librarian for assistance at any time. We will be glad to help!
Use reference sources for background information, broad overviews and summaries. The reference collection includes general and subject dictionaries and encyclopedias, biographies, directories, almanacs, atlases, etc. Many also contain bibliographies for further research. Reference books cannot be checked out from the library but may be photocopied.
There are several excellent social history reference materials at the LPC library. Here are just a few examples of subject specific materials that you will find of use.
America in the 20th Century. Ref E169.1.A471872
1995
American Chronicle: Six Decades in American Life, 1920
-1980. Ref E169.1.G665 1987
American Decades: 1900-1990. Ref E169.12 1996
Art of the 20th Century: The History of Art Year by Year from 1900 to 1999. Ref N6490.F45 1999
Bowling, Beatniks, and Bell-Bottoms: Pop Culture of 20th-CenturyRef E169.1.B7825 2002, v. 1-5
Chronicle of America.Ref E174.5.C55 1995
Chronicle of the Cinema. Ref PN1993.5.A1
Contemporary Fashion. Ref TT505.A1.C66
Encyclopedia of American Social History. Ref
HN57 E58 1993
Encyclopedia of Family Life. Ref HQ534.E53
1999
Encyclopedia of Television. Ref PN1992.18.E5
1997
Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century. Ref
E169.1.E626 2001
Great Events from History: Arts & Culture. Ref
NX456.G72 1993
The Mythical West: An Encyclopedia of Legend, Lore, and
Popular Culture. Ref GR109.S53
2001. New Grove Dictionary of American Music. Ref ML101.U6.N48
1986 vol. 1-4
St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture. Ref E169.1.S764
War and American Popular Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Ref
E181.W26 1999
Use the online catalog to find materials in the library. This will show you all the books and audiovisual materials LPC Library owns. You can search for a book or video by the author, title, subject, or keyword. A subject search allows you to find books about a topic or a person. You may also ADD LIMITS to your search, such as "audiovisual" to find only videorecordings and DVDs OR "CD" to find only CDs.
Popular culture and United States
United States and Social life and customs
Popular music and United States
Minorities in motion pictures
Television broadcasting and social aspects
Age of the Bachelor: Creating an American Subculture. HQ800.3.C58
1999
American Culture American Tastes: Social Change in the E169.04.K35 1999
American Pickup Truck. TL230.5 P46 M84
Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America,
and How We Can Take It Back. HE5623.K36 1997
Barbie Chronicles. NK4894.3.B37.B373 1999
Beauty and Business: Commerce, Gender, and Culture in
Modern America. HF3031.B42 2000
Big World, Small Screen: the Role of Television in American
Society. HQ52. B54 1992
Black Superheroes, Milestone Comics, and their Fans. PN6725
B76 2001
Blonde like Me: The Roots of the Blonde Myth in Our Culture. GT6737.I58
2000
Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls. HQ798.B724
1997
Brought to You By: Postwar Television Advertising and
the American Dream. HF6146.T42.S25 2001
Bug: The Strange Mutations of the World's Most Famous
Automobile. TL215.V6.P38 2002.
Champion Pig: Great Moments in Everyday Life. TR654.N63
Consuming Desires: Consumption, Culture, and the Pursuit
of Happiness. HC110.C6.C586 1999
Dancing in the Distraction Factory: Music Television
and Popular Culture. PN1992.8.M87.G66 1992
Deadly Persuasion: Why Women and Girls Must Fight the
Addictive Power of Advertising. HF5823.K363
1999
Diners, Bowling Alleys, and Trailer Parks: Chasing the
American Dream in Postwar Consumer Culture. HC110.C6.H87
2001
Fast Food Nation: the Dark Side of the All-American Meal. TX715.S2968
2001
Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age. TX945.J35
1999
Financing the American Dream: A Cultural History of Consumer
Credit. HG3756.U54.C35 1999
The Girl on the Magazine Cover: The Origins of Visual
Stereotypes in American Mass Media. P94.5.W652.U655
2001
High and Mighty: SUVs - The World's Most Dangerous Vehicles
and How They Got That Way. TL230.5.S66.B73
Hippies and American Values. HQ799.7 M55
1991
History of Recreation: American Learns to Play. E161.D852
1965
Hot Air: All Talk, All the Time. PN1992.8.T3.K87
1996
Jaws Log. PN1997.J343.G68 2001
Lead Us Into Temptation: The Triumph of American Materialism. HC110.C6.T89
1999
Movie-Made America: A Social History of American Movies. PN1993.5.U6.S53
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in Boom-time America. HD4918.E375
2001
The 1910s. Call lNumber: E169.1.B634 2002 Populuxe. NK404.H54
1986
Saturday Night. E169.04.O8 1990
Short History of Rudeness: Manners, Morals, and Misbehavior
in Modern America. BJ1853.C23 1999
The Strange Mutations of the World's Most famus Automobile. TL215.V6.P38
2002
Stylin': African American Expressive Culture from its
Beginnings to the Zoot Suit. E185.86.W4388
1998
Suburbia. E169.04.O95 1999
This Fabulous Century. E161.T55 vol. 1-8
Toy Bop: Kid Classics of the 50's & 60's. NK9505.65.U6.F74
1994
Unknown World of the Mobile Home. HD7289.62.U6.H37
2002
What It Felt Like: Living in the American Century. E169.A393
2000
Working at Play: A History of Vacations in the United
States. E161.A75 1999
America's Music: Jazz Dixieland. MV21717+
American Cinema. MV22934 pt. 1-5
At the Jazz Band Ball. MV22118
The Century. MV22796+
Civilization. MV22567 pt. 1+
Does T.V. Kill? MV22474
Dreamworlds II: Desire, Sex, and Power in Music Video. MV23070
Headline Stories of the 20th Century. MV23019+
I'll Buy That. MV21809
Jazz. MV23222 pt. 1+
Making of Television News. MV22042
Making Sense of the Sixties. MV22061
On the Radio. MV22741
Psycho-Sell: Advertising and Persuasion. MV22173
Rhythm & Blues. MV21698+
Slim Hopes. MV22464
Periodicals provide in-depth analyses of events and trends,
research studies on particular subjects, and professional literature.
When conducting research in the social sciences it is important
to know the difference between "popular" periodical
literature and more scholarly publications. A good guide to
identifying whether your source is from a popular magazine
or scholarly journal can be found at LPC Library's guide, Scholarly
Journals or Popular Magazines: What Are the Differences?
Las Positas College subscribes to several excellent journals in the fields
of sociology, history, and the arts as well as some popular magazines that
may report on research that is of interest to you. Please consult the Periodicals
Holdings List at the Reference Desk or ask a librarian for assistance.
In addition, you may want to find articles by using a database in LPC's electronic
print resources. These electronic databases can be accessed in the LPC Library
or from home at the LPC Library Homepage using your "W" ID number.
Academic Search Premier (EBSCO) - Provides full
text for more than 4,600 scholarly publications, including
full text for more than 3,500 peer-reviewed journals. Coverage
spans virtually every area of academic study and offers information
dating as far back as 1975.
Under Search Options you can also limit your search in order
to retrieve materials from peer-reviewed journals or full-text.
If you are looking for something from a specific publication
you can limit your search by entering the name of the magazine
or journal.
You may also choose from many different EBSCO databases
and search several of them at the same time by checking them
before clicking continue.
America's Newspapers (NewsBank) - Contains full-text articles from newspapers: San
Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury, Valley Times, New York
Times, Washington Post, and many others.
You may want to explore some Internet resources to supplement or enhance your research. Always be cautious of information you find on the Web since the quality of sources varies tremendously on the Internet. It is always a good idea to check the information against another source. As with all information resources, whether in print or on the Internet, you evaluate its quality based on the following criteria:
Tarlton
Law Library-Law in Popular Culture - Includes
an excellent list of links to General Popular Culture Sites.
Use the Librarians' Internet Index to search for other
recommended sites.
You must cite the sources that you use. All direct quotes must be cited; all ideas or facts taken from some other writer, even though in your own words, must be cited. It is PLAGIARISM if you copy another's words without quoting or if you paraphrase another's ideas or words without giving credit to the author.
Keep printouts of your sources, or write out all pertinent information on author, title, publisher, date, or Internet address to identify where you got the information. Follow the format recommended by your instructor or ask a librarian to show you a "style manual." There are links to these instructions on the LPC Library web page: Citation Style Guides, as well as to the online resource, NoodbleBib, a bibliography composer.
Email
a Librarian
Library Telephone: 925.424.1150
Library Fax: 925.606.7249