History 301: Historical Methods & Writing (Sepinwall)
The purpose of this guide is to familiarize you with finding historical research resources in the library and on the internet for your correspondence and research project.
Getting Started
You have 4 projects to research and prepare for:
- Library Resource Exploration (Furay, Chapter 6)
- Prospectus--a summary paper of whose papers you will be working with and your hypothesis.
- First Paper--A description and evaluation of the papers you have selected
- Second Paper--Placing the correspondence in a larger
historical context with reference to at least:
- 4 secondary sources
- 1 primary source (in addition to the correspondence)
Library Resource Exploration
The purpose of Chapter 6 in Furay is to familiarize you with specific types of research tools needed for historical research. You have likely used some of these before, but probably not all. Here are hints on how to start in both Set A and B, Exercises 1 and 2.
Exercise 1--use keywords from the question to search the library catalog. When you see a likely-sounding title, click to open the record and look at the subject headings as shown in the screen shot below.
Exercise 2--This gets tricky as most electronic sources will not contain materials published prior to 1980. CSUSM does have some back runs of journal indexes. The electronic databases, America History and Life and Historical Abstracts, do index materials published from about 1945.
- To locate print reference sources, use the keyword search to look for materials and then limit the results to REFERENCE location. If you don't get anything back, try a broader term (e.g., 'presidents' rather than a specific president by name.) As Furay notes, basic facts can frequently be found in an almanac and more in-depth information will be in the specialized encyclopedias, biographies and longer works.
- To locate electronic sources, you may choose from a number of databases, some are identified below. Use the advanced search with your keywords and data limiters. Remember, you are looking for scholarly articles!
Prospectus, First and Second Paper
You may have a person in mind to be the focus of your research, if so, good for you! If you do not, you have a lot of flexibility and the resources to make an informed choice. Either way, doing some exploratory research to see what is available is strongly recommended to be sure appropriate and sufficient resources are available. This is to inform your prospectus as you can address who you will be
This exploration is possible though the library catalog by searching for either a person or a topic. Doing this type of simple search will bring back plenty of material in both the primary and secondary categories that you need for your second paper. Let's say you are interested in the history of the birth control movement in the United States. A search in the catalog will retrieve a variety of titles, but in looking at them, you note Margaret Sanger as a specific person involved in the movement. Finding a specific person is important as you will be looking for correspondence of a historical figure for your research project.
- You will note the subject heading for this person is phrased as Sanger, Margaret, 1879-1966
- Related subject headings discovered in looking at the works about her are:
- You also want related materials on the topic, not just those about Margaret Sanger since she didn't work on this issue in a vacuum, so try either "birth control' or 'Sanger' as keyword searches and a browse of likely results return the following:
Locate your historical figure's correspondence which must meet the following criteria:
- This is 10-100 pages of text constituting 1-2 months' worth of correspondence.
- This writer must be deceased.
- Use this material to evaluate and form a thesis about the writer's world in paper #1--watch for the bias of current thinking--this person reflects the thoughts of their time, not yours.
- Use this material to form the basis of your research for paper #2. Find primary and secondary sources to validate or refute your previous evaluations and develop a broader context. For example, compare your subject's status, religious beliefs, and views with others of the time to get a sense of how they fit.
A sample search to find the papers of Margaret Sanger:
- Search the library catalog for Sanger and correspondence.
- If that doesn't work, try alternative terms for correspondence such as letters.
- Looking at the bibliography of a biography can lead you to correspondence collections outside the CSUSM collection--remember to check Circuit, but you do want a collection that is accessible.
Books
Any well researched project uses books to support your thinking and writing that you can investigate in the library through the Library Catalog. To find them, search by KEYWORD using terms from your class readings and notes, TITLE for specific works, or AUTHORS who have been identified as authorities on the topic.
Do a KEYWORD search on the topic by typing the word or phrase in the search box. Since keywords can have multiple definitions and therefore, uses, once you locate a useful title, examine the SUBJECTS for precise 'labels' to identify your topic. While looking at each item, note authors who are writing on your topic and the call number for browsing the stacks.
Beyond the CSUSM collection and depending on how much time you have, you have additional options:
Circuit (1-3 day delivery)
Search the collections of other San Diego area libraries -- about 3,000,000 books. Find and request books directly online; pick them up at our Library in 1-3 days.
WorldCat (5-10 day delivery)
Search the collections of libraries world-wide -- about 52,000,000 books. Find a book in this database, and fill-out an Interlibrary Loan delivery request. Book will be delivered to Library for pickup.
Journal Articles
History journals include some of the latest research in
the field and can be very helpful in your project but are
secondary sources, not primary documents when doing this
project. They're a good source for finding very
detailed information on your topic. To
find articles, you need to start with a research
database and
preferably one that indexes scholarly sources as they are
based on careful research and peer-review prior to
publishing. For more on scholarly sources, click
here.
Some databases do not offer
full text of the articles. Use the
button
to check our other resources for full text.
NOTE: most databases do not cover material published prior to the early 1980's, so you may need to use print resources to do some verification or earlier research.
Most Useful
Historical Abstracts
Abstracts of journal articles covering world history, from pre-history to the present. This database covers materials published since the 1970s, but addresses prehistory through modern times.
America: History and Life
Abstracts of journal articles covering US and Canadian history, from pre-history to the present. This database covers materials published since the 1964-on, but covers history from prehistory through modern times.
JSTOR
Full-text. Contains complete full-text back files (EXCEPT for the latest five years) of core scholarly journals in such areas as sociology, history, economics, political science, mathematics, African-American studies, Asian studies and others. This collection offers articles published since the late 1800's.
Project MUSE
Full text. Scholarly article collection supplementing the holdings on many titles in JSTOR by offering more currently published materials.
Also Useful
Academic Search Premier (via EbscoHost)
Full-text. A multi-disciplinary database offering full text for nearly 1,850 scholarly journals, including more than 1,250 peer-reviewed titles. Use peer-reviewed limiter to focus on more scholarly materials.
Accessible Archives
A good source for 19th Century American History; includes newspapers on the Civil War and African Americans as well as Godey's Ladys Book magazine.
History E-Book Project
Full-text. Approximately 760 full-text e-books in the area of history. Each title is also included in the library catalog.
Oxford English Dictionary
A guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past. It includes etymological analysis, listings of variant spellings, and shows pronunciation using the International Phonetic Alphabet
Also Useful (Specific Subject Areas Within History)
Chicano Database
Abstracts for books, journal articles and other material about Mexican-Americans.
Handbook of Latin American Studies
An essential bibliography on Latin America consisting of works selected and annotated by scholars.
Military & Government Collection
Provides full text for hundreds of military related periodicals and general interest magazines.
Womens Studies International
Includes over 204,000 records drawn from a variety of essential women's studies databases. This database is not full text or SFX-enabled. See the librarian for help in locating resources mentioned in this database.
Primary Sources on the Internet
A primary source is a document or artifact that reflects the individual viewpoint of a participant or observer of an actual historical event. They include diaries, letters, memos, and books and commentary published at the time of the event. These are valuable tools in verifying the validity of information on another site.
A well-done site that discusses finding primary sources on the web, providing examples and a selection of sites is "Using Primary Sources on the Web" site. This is brought to you by the members of the the American Library Association's Reference & Users Service Association/History Section.
Many internet sites exist providing access to a mix of primary and secondary sources. For more on primary sources, click here. Here are some of the best on the internet.
- American Memory (correspondence and digitized documents, maps and photographs)
- Artcyclopedia (a source for images and paintings of the Early Modern era.)
- Artchive (like the name says, an archive of art. You may find useful images for your presentations.)
- BUBL Catalog of Internet Resources: History
- Early Modern Web (nicely done site from the UK, with a clear disclaimer as to the validity of sources, so use with care, but there is a lot here!)
- Internet History Sourcebooks Project (Fordham University) provides access to the Medieval Studies Sourcebook and Modern History Sourcebook
- Luminarium: Medieval, Renaissance and 17th Century materials
- WWW-VL History Central Catalogue
Searching the Internet
There are ways to search the internet quickly and effectively. Use Advanced or Expert Search whenever possible to focus your results and eliminate sites you can't use like those in languages you cannot read.
Finding the better sites
- Limit your searches to high quality domains: .edu (university servers), .org (museums and associations), .mil (military servers) or .gov (US and state governments).
- Use appropriate language to accurately describe your topic.
- Spell names or phrases accurately--be aware of alternate spellings used in earlier time periods.
- Look for bibliographies or references to the works used for the site's contents.
- Know your topic!
- Evaluate for bias or incomplete information
Dr. Sepinwall recommends...
- NetLibrary (free and fee-based access) You may access free content via general internet access or use the CSUSM catalog to link to fee-based titles available to CSUSM users.
Style Guides
Sites with examples of in-text citations and works cited pages.
As you write your paper, you'll need to cite passages and ideas from the sources you've found. Many historians use the Chicago Manual of Style for consistent resource citation. There are two forms in Chicago, the documentary note (use of footnotes or endnotes in the text) or the author/title. Chicago may also be referred to as Turabian.
Chicago
Quick Summary (
,
42k)
In-text citing and works cited examples.
Chicago/Turabian Documentation from University of Wisconsin-Madison (Dr. Sepinwall's preferred style)
Chicago Manual of Style (Online) includes a link to Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide for students.
Diana Hacker's Guide to History: Documenting Sources
KnightCite (citation generator--use with caution!)
It is highly recommended that you have your own copy of the Chicago Manual, as the library's copies are often checked out.
 |
Chicago manual of
style. 15th ed. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2003 |
