School of Information Management & Systems.
142  Access to American Cultural Heritages. Buckland. Fall 1997.

Assignment 1: Finding "Culture". Due Sept 4.

We use the words "culture" and "cultural" quite freely and satisfactorily in everyday conversation. But suppose we try to be a bit more rigorous in defining what the word "culture" means. This assignment is not to attempt to define "culture", but to take a look at how others have fared in attempting to explain what culture is.

1. Examine a variety of dictionaries, encyclopedias, or other sources to see what they say about "culture".
2. Take a look at at least one large general dictionary and at least one large general encyclopedia.
3. Look at one or more specialized dictionaries or encyclopedias in the social sciences, humanities, whatever.
4. Prepare a short summary (two or three pages, single-spaced) of what you found. Feel free to add your own comments. For each source mentioned, give enough of a citation for us to be able to identify which source and which page.

Plan on two hours collecting the material.
Where to look? This is a very good exercise for using the Humanities and Area Studies room (formerly the Reference and Bibliography Room) of the MAIN Library and the Moffitt Library reference collection. It is most unfortunate that both of these two services have been shut down simultaneously for construction work. As a poor substitute it is necessary to use an improvised collection of reference works in the "Information Center", the room with many terminals immediately to the left as one enters the monumental north entrance to the MAIN library. Use this collection and any other large or appropriate specialized library, such as the Anthropology Library in Kroeber Hall.
Suggestion: Start with a large general dictionary, and at some stage check the Oxford English Dictionary, many large blue volumes, at PE . General encyclopedias are classified at AE. General English dictionaries are at PE 1625 (also AG).
In libraries dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference works (e.g. bibliographies) on any particular topic are assigned the same classification numbers as other books on the same topic, but usually with a suffix to indicate that they are a dictionary or whatever. They usually come at or near the beginning of a subject section. Not all are located in a library's reference section. So, within the reference collections, try BL-BX for religious encyclopedias, H for Social Sciences, P87-P96 for Mass Media, etc. See what you can find on the Internet also, if you wish, but in addition to, not instead of browsing reference works on paper.