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Paper Topics
1) Technology in Funeral Service: leveraging technology to better serve client families in the digital era.
2) Memorialization: the various ways of remembering a life in today’s modern world.
3) Green Funerals: identifying environmentally sustainable options in the 21st Century.
4) Preplanning Your Funeral: the benefits of planning ahead.
5) Natural Organic Reduction (NOR): the science behind human composting.
6) Cultural and Religious Diversity: adapting to diverse traditions and funeral preferences in the contemporary landscape.
Paper Topic(s) Resources
Resource list for the paper topics:
Resources that can be used for several of the topic questions
2022 Minnesota Statutes : Use the search box to find Minnesota laws/statutes on such topics as cemetery use, burial assistance or disposition of dead bodies.
Minnesota Department of Health/Choices : consult this document for "Information on the regulations and requirements of the final disposition of a dead human body in Minnesota."
Minnesota Department of Health/Mortuary Science : search this site for all things dealing with the funeral industry within Minnesota
The Foresight: 2024 Funeral & Cemetery Consumer Behavior Study Report.
More specific resources
Technology
- National Funeral Directors Innovation Awards: list of award winners of a variety of funeral service technology. There is also a wide variety of blog posts by funeral homes on funeral service and technology.
- ReadWrite: How will technology change the way we mourn?
Memorialization
- Hospice of St. Lawrence Valley: 10 Ideas for Funerals & Memorials When you Can't Be Together
- Funeral & Memorialization Information Council: FAMIC Study (excerpts)
- Remembering A Life (NFDA Consumer Website): Have A Talk of a Lifetime (developed by FAMIC) -- workbook & resources
- NFDA: News release about 2nd edition of consumer survey "Value of a Funeral" -- the Libraries has a print copy of the Jan 2023 The Director that contains a more fuller analysis of the survey results.
Green burial / Natural Organic Reduction
- Vermont General Assembly: The Science Behind Green and Conventional Burial
- Green Burial Council
- US Funerals Online: Human composting as a new death care alternative
- Choice Mutual: 2024 Survey Results - Alternative Burial Options & Preferences Across America
- Britannica: Human composting
Cultural or Religious
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Funeralwise.com: Funeral customs by religion, ethnicity & culture
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National Funeral Directors Association: Religious funeral customs
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See also the Cultural Considerations & Burial Rituals from the Mortuary Science subject guide.
Statistics -- such as funeral costs
- Statista: search using "death care services in the US -- statistics & facts"
FTC (Federal Trade Commission)/Complying with the Funeral Rule
Database Resources
Databases and suggested search strategies for finding information on research topics.
Scopus or Web of Science: Covers the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities
Suggested search strategies: please note that these search strategies cast a wide net, so you may have to scroll through to find the few gems.
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green burial" OR "natural burial"
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natural organic reduction" / "human decomposition" / "human composting"
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memorialization OR memorials OR memorialize) AND (funeral OR burial) / cybermemorials
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funeral AND (technology OR digital OR online)
- funeral AND costs / preneed OR pre-need /
- funeral AND ( culture OR cultural OR religion OR religious )
Google Scholar -- use the above databases first, but then try Google Scholar. Use the Google Scholar link from the Library's homepage to make sure you have activated the FindIt app. Be aware that Google Scholar returns results in relevance order, not date order, so there will be a mixture of old and new articles and not everything will be available. Use the side custom date limits function to get results within a five or ten year range.
The Morgue: Article database that covers funeral service trade journals. Can only be searched by keywords and does not have abstracts or links to full-text. Excellent database to search for funeral service specific topics such as funeral planning/preneed, memorialization. From the results list, note which articles look relevant for your topic and then consult with library staff to obtain copies of the articles.
E-Books
Death Across Cultures by ISBN: 9783030188283Publication Date: 2020-08-14Death Across Cultures: Death and Dying in Non-Western Cultures, explores death practices and beliefs, before and after death, around the non-Western world. It includes chapters on countries in Africa, Asia, South America, as well as indigenous people in Australia and North America. These chapters address changes in death rituals and beliefs, medicalization and the industry of death, and the different ways cultures mediate the impacts of modernity. Comparative studies with the west and among countries are included. This book brings together global research conducted by anthropologists, social scientists and scholars who work closely with individuals from the cultures they are writing about.
Death and Bereavement Across Cultures by ISBN: 9781317520931Publication Date: 2015-06-05All societies have their own customs and beliefs surrounding death. In the West, traditional ways of mourning are disappearing, and although Western science has had a major impact on how people die, it has taught us little about the way to die or to grieve. Many whose work brings them into contact with the dying and the bereaved from Western and other cultures are at a loss to know how to offer appropriate and sensitive support. This is a practical guide explaining the religious and other differences commonly met with in multi-cultural societies when someone is dying or bereaved. In doing so readers may be surprised to find how much we can learn from other cultures about our own attitudes and assumptions about death. Describes the rituals and beliefs of major world religions; Explains their psychological and historical context; Shows how customs are changed by contact with the West; Considers the implications for the future The second edition includes new chapters that: explore how members of the health care professions perform roles formerly conducted by priests and shamans can cross the cultural gaps between different cultures and religions; consider the relevance of attitudes and assumptions about death for our understanding of religious and nationalist extremism and its consequences; discuss the Buddhist, Islamic and Christian ways of death. Death raises questions which science cannot answer. Whatever our personal beliefs we can all gain from learning how others view these ultimate problems. This book explores the richness of mourning traditions around the world with the aim of increasing the sensitivity and understanding which we all bring to the issue of death and bereavement.
Death, Mourning, and Burial: a cross-cultural reader by ISBN: 9781119151746Publication Date: 1991-01-16The definitive reference on the anthropology of death and dying, expanded with new contributions covering everything from animal mourning to mortuary cannibalism Few subjects stir the imagination more than the study of how people across cultures deal with death and dying. This expanded second edition of the internationally bestselling Death, Mourning, and Burial offers cross-cultural readings that span the period from dying to afterlife, considering approaches to this transition as a social process and exploring the great variations of cultural responses to death. Exploring new content including organ transplantation, institutionalized care for the dying, HIV-AIDs, animal mourning, and biotechnology, this text retains classic readings from the first edition, and is enhanced by sixteen new articles and two new sections which provide increased breadth and depth for readers. Death, Mourning, and Burial, Second Edition is divided into eight parts reflecting the social trajectory of death: conceptualizations of death; death, dying, and care; grief and mourning; mortuary rituals; and remembrance and regeneration. Sections are introduced through foundational texts which provide the ideal introduction to this diverse field. It is essential reading for anyone concerned with issues of death and dying, as well as violence, terrorism, war, state terror, organ theft, and mortuary rituals. A thoroughly revised edition of this classic anthology featuring twenty-three new articles, two new sections, and three reformulated sections Updated to include current topics, including organ transplantation, institutionalized care for the dying, HIV-AIDs, animal mourning, and biotechnology Must reading for anyone concerned with issues of death and dying, as well as violence, terrorism, war, state terror, organ theft, and mortuary rituals Serves as a text for anthropology classes and provides a genuinely cross-cultural perspective to all those studying death and dying
Mortuary Science Journals
Select set of Journals in mortuary science and bereavement
| Title | Years |
| American Funeral Director | 1945- |
| Casket & Sunnyside: C & S | 1945-1984 |
| The Director | 1948- |
|
Embalmers Monthly and National Funeral Director |
1945-47, 1956-59 |
| Mid-Continent Mortician | 1944-1973 |
| Morticians of the Southwest | 1955, 1957-1977 |
| Mortuary Management | 1945-1948, 1955- |
| National Funeral Director and Embalmer | 1958-1977 |
| Southern Funeral Director | 1945-1977 |
APA Style
APA Style (American Psychological Association)
- Books
- Concise rules of APA style
1. Concise and bias-free writing -- 2. Punctuation, spelling, and capitalization -- 3. Italicizing and abbreviating -- 4. Numbers, metrication, and statistics -- 5. Tables -- 6. Figures -- 7. Footnotes and appendixes -- 8. Quotations, reference citations in text, and reference list -- 9. Reference examples. - Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
- The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition) is the style manual of choice for writers, editors, students, educators, and professionals in psychology, sociology, business, economics, nursing, social work, and justice administration.
- Writing with style: APA style made easy
- Introduction: the laypeople and you -- Some generalizations about how psychologists write -- Preparing the introduction section and the literature review paper -- Preparing the method section -- Preparing the results section -- Preparing the discussion section -- Preparing the abstract -- Preparing the references section -- Preparing a title page and formatting your manuscript -- Grooming tips for psychology papers -- Preparing a presentation -- Wrapping it up.
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- Introduction: the laypeople and you -- Some generalizations about how psychologists write -- Preparing the introduction section and the literature review paper -- Preparing the method section -- Preparing the results section -- Preparing the discussion section -- Preparing the abstract -- Preparing the references section -- Preparing a title page and formatting your manuscript -- Grooming tips for psychology papers -- Preparing a presentation -- Wrapping it up.
- Concise rules of APA style
- Internet Resources
- American Psychological Association (APA) style examples
- Monash University
- APA Format Citation Guide
- Mendeley.com
- APA Formatting And Style Guide (7th ed.)
- OWL Online Writing Lab, Purdue University.
- APA Quick Citation Guide
- Penn State University Libraries
- Academic Writer Tutorial: Basics of Seventh Edition APA Style
- From the American Psychological Association.
This tutorial is designed for those who have no previous knowledge of APA Style®. It shows users how to structure and format their work, recommends ways to reduce bias in language, identifies how to avoid charges of plagiarism, shows how to cite references in text, and provides selected reference examples.
- From the American Psychological Association.
- Bow Valley College Guide to APA Style
- Bow Valley College, California. Covers all aspects of APA style. Includes online tutorials and a set of FAQs
- Paper Format (APA Style)
- From APA.org - covers title, margins, line spacing, headers and more.
- How to Write a Paper in APA Format
- From VeryWellMind.com
- Student Paper Format - APA Style
- From Towson University
- American Psychological Association (APA) style examples