Interested in learning more about Iran? Iran has a long and rich history, which you can explore through the books and articles in our collection. Scroll down for some highlights from our print book collection!

Iran : a modern history by Abbas Amanat, an Iranian born scholar and historian, covers the history of Iran from 1501 to 2009. Rather than a linear survey of historical events, Amanat explores Iranian history through various themes, following through lines that have had impacts on the modern world.

A history of modern Iran by Ervand Abrahamian focuses on Iran in the twentieth century. He writes about Iran under the rule of the Qajars at the beginning of the century all the way through to the rise of the Islamic Republic.

If you’d like to dive deeper into the history of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution that took place at the beginning of the twentieth century, check out History of the Iranian constitutional revolution by Ahmad Kasravi and translated from the Persian by Evan Siegel. Ahmad Kasravi was an important Iranian historian and legal scholar (among other things).

Learn more about contemporary Iranian art in Contemporary Iranian art : from the street to the studio by Talinn Grigor. Published in 2014, this book presents the art has been created in Iran since the 1979 revolution and the way it is influenced by the political, social, religious, and cultural context that surrounds it. It examines state sponsored art, works created by artists for galleries in Iran, and art created by the Iranian diaspora.

Explore Iran’s culture through it’s food with Joon : Persian cooking made simple by Iranian chef Najmieh Batmanglij. Adapted to accommodate busy lifestyles, Batmanglij shows you how to make Persian food with a few key ingredients and techniques.

Want to explore more? Search our catalog to find more books or use Quick Search to find articles! And don’t forget that you can always reach out to the Information & Research Help Desk for assistance finding resources – we’re accessible in person, by phone, chat, or email!

Finals week is when “good enough” might start to feel really tempting. You find a source, it kind of matches your topic, and it’s easy to move on without thinking too hard about it. The problem is that weak or unreliable sources can secretly drag down your entire paper, even if your writing and ideas are solid.

That’s where the CRAAP Test actually helps – not as a rigid checklist, but as a quick way check an article while evaluating your sources. It stands for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose, and you can run through all five in under a minute once you get used to it. 

Start with Currency: if your topic involves something that changes quickly, like technology, health, or current events, an outdated source can weaken your argument right away. For things like a History paper sometimes older books/articles are perfectly fine so be sure to take your topic/class into consideration!

Relevance is just as important – sometimes a source is credible but doesn’t really answer your question or support your argument, and forcing it into your paper can show. Make sure to look for information that really bolsters what you are trying to say!

Authority and Accuracy are where you start separating strong sources from weak ones. Look at who wrote the piece and what qualifies them to speak on the topic – are they connected to a university, research organization, or credible publication? Then pay attention to whether their claims are supported with evidence and whether you can find similar information in other sources. Reliable information tends to overlap across multiple places, while sketchy claims often stand alone.

Finally, think about Purpose. Every source is created for a reason, and that reason shapes how information is presented. If something feels like it’s trying to persuade you, sell something, or push a specific agenda, that doesn’t automatically make it unusable – but it does mean you should tread carefully and balance it with more neutral sources.

At the end of the day, professors aren’t just grading what you say – they’re paying attention to what you build your argument on. Taking a little extra time to question your sources using the CRAAP framework can make your work more convincing without adding much effort, which is exactly the kind of advantage you want during finals week.

And as always, feel free to stop by the Information and Research Help Desk in person, online via chat or email or even an old fashion phone call – your friendly librarian is there to help you feel confident evaluating your sources 🙂

If you are writing a paper and trying to keep track of your references and citations, you have probably tried a citation tool to help. There are several different options that we highlight in our How To Guide for Citation Tools. In this post we wanted to highlight one you may not have tried yet – Zotero!

Zotero is a free to use open source program that allows you to easily save, organize, and cite your sources. It includes an application that you can download to your laptop as well as a browser plug-in called Zotero Connector.

Zotero Connector detects research and you can click it any time you find a useful source to save it – whether it’s a newspaper article or a scholarly work you found in one of the Library’s databases.

Once you save a source, you can find it in the application. There you can organize all your sources by project or topic. Zotero also integrates directly into Word and GoogleDocs so you can easily create in-text citations and a works cited/reference page.

Another perk to Zotero is that it is free to use for everyone – which means you can continue to use it after you graduate!

Find more information about Zotero in this handy Guide to Zotero or visit the Zotero website. If you need help getting started with Zotero, they provide an easy quick start guide.

Academic Video Online, AVON for short is a video subscription database that students and faculty have access to through the UAA Consortium Library’s Database webpage: 

Within AVON you can browse preselected channels or search using keywords by clicking on the magnifying glass icon found on the top of both the Homepage and the Channels page.

If you are familiar with Boolean Operators, you should review AVON’s General Platform Help page for Search Tips, because AVON does not follow typical Boolean Logic. 

If you would like to create personal playlists and clips, you must create a personal user account, click on the red account button located on the top right hand side of each AVON page. 

AVON is a great place to search for curated academic audiovisual content. While you are a student take advantage of this valuable and interesting resource. 

If your heart hasn’t already been broken and healed by Punch, the abandoned baby Japanese macaque who is just doing his best and trying to fit in at a zoo in Ichikawa City Zoo, you’re in for a real emotional journey. When he first arrived at the zoo, he struggled with socializing and showed signs of anxiety from the isolation. To help him with his transition, zoo-keepers gave him an orangutan plushie which he took to very fondly – photos of him cuddling and carrying the plushie around the enclosure quickly went viral and the heart of the Internet was captured.

Happily, Punch has now been seen being groomed and held by one of the adult macaques – a wonderful development for his socialization with the other monkeys at the zoo! You can read the Ichikawa City Zoo’s update here (if you don’t read Japanese, click the “translate” button!)

You can find photos and read more about Punch here.

Want to learn more about the social dynamics of Japanese macaques? Check out this search or some of the articles highlighted below (be sure to be logged in for off-campus access or connected to campus WiFi before clicking links)!

Male–male social bonds predict tolerance but not coalition formation in wild Japanese macaques by Tatsuro Kawazoe

Social play among juvenile wild Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) strengthens their social bonds by Masaki Shimada and Cédric Sueur

Have more questions about macaques or another topic? Reach out to us at the Information & Research Help Desk!