Learning
about Ingredients
Presented by
Esther Sunde, Librarian
November 6,
2007
SSCC Library web
site http://dept.seattlecolleges.com/sslib
Reference books
Reference books are a good place to
start your research and get an overview of a topic. We have a number of
reference books for the Culinary Arts. These cannot be checked out, and must be
used in the Library. A selected list of references appears below.
Concise
encyclopedia of foods and nutrition TX349.C567
1995
Oxford
companion to food TX349.D38 1999
Oxford
encyclopedia of food and drink in America
TX349.E45 2004
Visual
food encyclopedia TX349.E48 1996
New
larousse gastronomique
TX349.M613 1977
Food
by Waverly Root TX349.R58
Cambridge
world history of food (2 vols.)
TX353.C255 2000
New
whole foods encyclopedia TX369.W67 1999
Handbook of spices, seasonings,
and flavorings TX406.U36 2006
On
food and cooking: The science and lore of the kitchen
TX651.M37 1984
Informed
baker TX763.N48 1997
Kitchen
essentials TX669.F73C67 2001
The
professional pastry chef: Fundamentals of baking and pastry TX773.F75
2002
Describing
your topic: Words for searching
When you search for information, it’s critical
to have good words for describing your topic! This applies to your searches
both in library resources and on the World Wide Web.
LC subject headings are authorized
“official” words to describe subjects that have been established by the Library
of Congress. Use them when you do a subject search in the library catalog and
other library databases. You'll find them listed in the big red books at the
Reference Desk. Some examples appear below.
baked
products dairy products
bread oils
and fats, edible
cake butter
confectionery cookery
(butter)
desserts nuts
chocolate cookery
(nuts)
spices almond
Another strategy to find good subject
headings is to do a keyword search to pull up a relevant item, and
look through its full record. A keyword search is a natural language search,
that is, the words you use yourself in talking about your topic. When you get
your results list and find a good item, you'll see a list of subjects in the
record. Some of these may be good subject headings for your topic that you can
use as you continue searching. An example of a keyword search strategy might
be:
+cinnamon +history
“cinnamomum
aromaticum”
The plus (+) sign requires both words
to be present and narrows the search. Another good way to narrow your search is
to put quote marks (“ “)
around a phrase. In library databases such as the library catalog, if you find
a good subject heading in the full record of an item, you can click on it to
bring you to other items that have the same heading.
Both subject and keyword are useful
ways of searching and it’s a good idea to use both strategies in looking for
information about your topic!
Library
Catalog
The library catalog is available from the
library web site. Click on catalog.
http://dept.seattlecolleges.com/sslib
The library catalog lets you search the
145,000 books in our library system, including South, North and Central
Community College libraries. The item record will tell you the location of a
book and whether the book is available. Use the call number to find the book on
the shelf. You can also place a hold on books from the other two campuses. It takes
48-72 hours for a book to be sent to our library from another campus.
Library of
Congress Classification Numbers
Books are arranged by topic according
to the Library of Congress classification scheme. Go directly to the shelves
and browse using these numbers.
|
Cookery |
TX643 - TX840 |
|
Baking |
TX761 - TX778 |
|
Bread Making |
TX769 |
|
Cake |
TX771 |
|
Pastry |
TX773 |
|
Desserts |
TX773 |
|
Chocolate |
TX767.C5 |
Some topics may be in more than one
area of the collection:
|
Spices |
GT2870 Manners & Customs |
TX406-TX407 Home Economics |
Library
Databases
You can access library databases from
home. You will be required to log in with your last name and student ID number.
Go to the Library web site and click on databases.
http://dept.seattlecolleges.com/sslib
Some useful databases are:
Academic Search Premier
eLibrary
Encyclopedia Britannica
ProQuest
Librarian’s
Internet Index
The best of the Web, compiled by librarians. A great source for finding high quality web sites. Type in
your ingredient and see what comes up!
The Cook’s
Thesaurus
Cooking encyclopedia that covers thousands of
ingredients and kitchen tools. Descriptions are brief.
JoyofBaking.com
Web
site founded by baking hobbyist, Stephanie Jawarski.
She has compiled a comprehensive web site with ingredient information, recipes,
substitutions, and conversions.
You
may be a Google user, but have you used the Google Images search? Go to the
Google home page and select Images from the menu at the top of the page. You
can pull up many wonderful images for your project!
http://www.google.com