User:Ozzie W.

Anthropological Literature (AL) is an online database of citations to journal articles and articles in edited volumes and symposia held by the Tozzer Library, the anthropology library at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Tozzer is part of the Harvard College Library and one of the more than 80 libraries that form the Harvard library system. The AL database offers access to articles and essays on social and cultural anthropology, Old and New World archaeology, physical anthropology and anthropological aspects of related subjects emphasizing Mesoamerican, Native American and Andean archaeology and ethnology.

Over 700 journals and series are currently indexed, in more than 50 European and Slavic languages. The database does include articles from journals and series that have ceased publication or are no longer indexed as well as older articles of some journals not chosen for current indexing. There are some 4,370 sources represented in the database. Approximately 10,000 citations are added annually, in quarterly updates. As of 2008, AL contained some 570,000 citations that cover articles published from the early 19th century to the present.

Subscriptions: Access to Anthropological Literature online is by subscription, from OCLC Library Services in Dublin, Ohio. Subscriptions are available to AL itself, or, as Anthropology Plus, a joint interface with Anthropological Index Online which is produced by the Royal Anthropological Institute in London, England. For subscription information, contact OCLC Library Services at 800-848-5878 or libservices@oclc.org.

History:  The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology began its book collection soon after its founding in 1866. Tozzer Library holds over 250,000 volumes, including the Peabody Museum’s original collection. Publication of Anthropological Literature, variously in paper and microfiche formats, began in 1979. Approximately 350,000 citations, formerly in the card catalog, were added in 1997 to the post-1979 records to create the foundation for the current online database. Pre-1984 article indexing was included in several G K Hall publications of the catalog of the Peabody Museum Library (renamed the Tozzer Library in 1974 in honor of noted archaeologist Alfred Marston Tozzer). These consist of 53 volumes from 1963, four supplements totaling 31 volumes in 1970, 1971, 1975, and 1979, and a second edition in 1988 of 1122 microfiche, following the closing of the card catalog. There were also two editions of the Tozzer Library Subject Headings, in 1971 and 1981; these remain of value as article records created before Tozzer Library’s adoption of Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) in 1986 retain the older local forms of subject headings.

Access aids: The database is searchable by author, keyword, date, title, etc. One of the main access points is the Library of Congress subject heading. Because articles often present recent research in disciplines, it is not unusual for articles to be indexed for which Library of Congress Subject Headings do not yet exist. In such cases, LCSH-style headings are created and applied by Tozzer Library. A list of such headings may be found in the Anthropological Literature section of the Tozzer Library website. When the Library of Congress adopts one of these headings, it is removed from the Tozzer Library list. The AL website contains a list of journal titles currently indexed, as well as titles of indexed edited works. In addition to the lists posted on the Anthropological Literature website, a user guide, or tip sheet, is also available. It is written specifically to help users negotiate the AL database in the OCLC FirstSearch interface.

Bibliography:

Anon. 1934.	The Peabody Museum, Anthropological Section of the University Museum. Pp. 166-167 in “Departmental Libraries,” The Library of Harvard University: Descriptive and Historical Notes. 4th ed. Harvard University Press.

Barnes, Melba. 1945	Peabody Museum Library. Special Libraries 36(6): 197-198. July-Aug.

Brew, John Otis. 1966	Library. Pp. 11-12 in his Early Days of the Peabody Museum at Harvard University. Cambridge: Peabody Museum.

Currier, Margaret. 1949a	The Peabody Museum Library. The Harvard Library Bulletin, 3(1): 94-101. Winter 1949.

1949b	Peabody Museum Library at Harvard University. Museum News 26 (19): 7-8.

1953	Anthropology Indexing at the Peabody Museum Library, Harvard University. United States Library of Congress Information Bulletin, 12 (20): 7-8.

1966	The Peabody Museum Library. In People and Projects of the Peabody Museum, J.O. Brew, ed., pp. 57-59. Harvard University Press. (This is an abridged and revised version of Currier 1949a.)

Hay, Fred. 1992 Tozzer Library:  How to Access the World’s Largest Anthropology Bibliography. CAM: Cultural Anthropology Methods Newsletter, 4(1): 1-3.

Schmidt, Nancy J. 1981 Two New Publications from the World’s Largest Anthropology Library. Symbols, Fall 1981, 6-7, 12.

1982	A Short History of Anthropological Subject Headings at Tozzer Library. History of Anthropology Newsletter. Spring: 11-14.

Steins, Janet L. 2003	Anthropology Libraries. Pp. xx in Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, 2nd. edition. New York: Marcel Dekker. [ Not online; need to check page nos., as the copy I have is from the page proofs, paged only for itself. Also, the page proofs carry a copyright date of 2004, while the HOLLIS record for the work says 2003.]

Weeks, John M. 1985	Middle American Indians : a guide to the manuscript collection at Tozzer Library, Harvard University. New York: Garland. Garland reference library of social science ; v. 332.

1987a	Maya Ethnohistory : a Guide to Spanish Colonial Documents at Tozzer Library, Harvard University. Nashville: Dept. of Anthropology, Vanderbilt University

1987b	Tozzer Library: A “National” Library for Anthropology. Current Anthropology 28: 133-137.

1990	Mesoamerican Ethnohistory in United States Libraries: Reconstruction of the William E. Gates Collection of Historical and Linguistic Manuscripts. Culver City, Calif. : Labyrinthos.

1991	Historical Notes on the Bowditch-Gates Middle American Indian Manuscript Collection at Tozzer Library, Harvard University. Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian, 11(1): 27-47.