| Judith Downie
Humanities Librarian
CSUSM Library
KEL 3424 Office Hours: When my door is open or
by appointment
jdownie@csusm.edu
(760) 750-4374 |
|
The purpose of this guide is to familiarize you with
finding historical research resources on the internet for
your analysis and evaluation project.
Getting Started
Think about what you know on a topic that interests you
and meets the requirements for this assignment (event since
1500 that will be covered in the course lectures by April 16.) Before choosing websites for
this project, you may
need to review the topic you will be focusing on. Look for
terms and personal names in your notes and readings.
NOTE: Keep in mind
that many times while doing this internet research project,
you will find a link in the search engine results list that
takes you to a page
within a website. Your project
is dependent on your use of the entire site starting with
the home page ("mother site"), not just a second layer page!
To get to the home page for the entire site, all you have to
do is cut the URL string in the address box as short as
possible to where it still makes sense.
Example:
http://library.csusm.edu/course_guides/history/history_202.asp
is the address for this page within a larger site. Reading
right to left, delete all the characters up to the first
single slash in the address (just after the domain '.edu').
You will have the root address of
http://library.csusm.edu/. That is the actual home page
for the entire site and should provide a great deal of information
about who, what and why the page you found exists.
Some root addresses will not have much, if anything, to
do with the page(s) you are interested in. That is valuable
information in itself. Ask the following:
- Why the information
you need is residing on a server that supports some other
interest.
- Is the page a personal hobby?
- An archive of
information from elsewhere?
- Does this page contain true information based on
what you all ready know?
- Is the page well designed, current and aware and
respectful of other's views?
In the example given, even
though it is obvious the page is informational and a
library's purpose is to provide access to information, cutting the
address to http://library.csusm.edu/course_guides/ would take you
to the home page for all course guides and
would make more sense when looking at the environment in
which this page resides.
Books (finding
background information)
Any well researched project uses books to support your
thinking and writing. There are two kinds of books you can investigate in the library. To find them,
perform either
KEYWORD searches using terms from your class, TITLES of
specific works, or AUTHORS who have been identified as
authorities on the topic.
Finding Books
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CSUSM Library Catalog
Do a KEYWORD search on the topic by typing the word
or phrase in the search box. |
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Videos and Media |
You will find VHS, CD and DVD format
materials in the catalog as well. This could be useful
in your search for validation on your website, but check
with your instructor. |
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San Diego Circuit
This shows materials you may borrow from other San Diego
County universities. Either search from the CSUSM
catalog by clicking on OTHER CATALOGS in the beginning
search screen, or you can extend your CSUSM catalog
search to Circuit by clicking on the CIRCUIT button
towards the top of the screen. If you are already
looking at a specific item in the catalog, Circuit will
only search for that item, so be sure to work from the
keyword search results list! You may request the item
online to be delivered to CSUSM. |
Reference Books
These are works like
encyclopedias, directories, and collections of reviews
that do not circulate from the library. They may be quick
overviews or in-depth studies.
Circulating Books (check out and take
home)
Find books on your topic by
using KEYWORD or subject searches. Some books are now
available in full text through the catalog. When you see an
Electronic or WWW connection offered, click on that link to read the
book online (access is in 2 hour increments.)
Other Resources
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Newspapers |
More recent issues
available through the Research Databases, older on
microfilm. |
Primary source reports on events,
CSUSM's collection starts with the mid-1800s. |
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Microfiche and Film |
Several collections of
early American newspapers and print documents. |
Great primary documents and all are
indexed in the Library Catalog. |
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History Subject Guide |
Portal to online resources brought to
you by CSUSM |
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Journal Articles
History journals include some of the latest research in
the field and can be very helpful in your analysis 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. 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.
Some databases do not offer
full text of the articles. Use the
 button
to check our other resources for full text.
Most Useful
Historical Abstracts
Abstracts of journal articles covering world history, from
pre-history to the present with SFX links to full-text when
possible. This database does cover materials published since
the 1970s on.
America: History and Life
Abstracts of journal articles covering US and
Canadian history, from
pre-history to the present with SFX links to full-text when
possible. This database covers materials published since
the 1964-on.
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.
Project MUSE
Full text. Scholarly article collection which
supplements the holdings on some titles in JSTOR.
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 the
Advanced Search feature to limit your searches to reviews of
your film.
History
E-Book Project
Full-text.
Approximately 500 full-text e-books in the area of history.
Each title is also included in the library catalog.
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. Many internet sites exist
providing access to a mix of primary and secondary sources.
For more on primary sources, click
here
to reach the CSUSM History Subject Guide discussion on
primary sources or visit the Reference and User Services
Association's
"Using Primary Sources on the Web" site. Below are some of the best
collections on the internet. Due to their massive
collections, these are NOT sites you should use for your
internet evaluation assignment.
Searching the Internet
There are ways to search the
internet quickly and effectively. Use Advanced Search whenever possible to focus your results and eliminate sites
you can't use such as those in languages you cannot read.
For one librarian's discussion of his experience in
Internet searching, read
"Surfing History" by Donald Altschiller.
|
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A favorite of librarians as sites are
ranked by how many other sites link to the page. The
more links, the higher in the rankings and closer to the
top of the list the page goes. |
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Another powerful search engine with more
flash and pop-ups to distract you.
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A good alternate, although it doesn't
have as extensive coverage of the web as Google. |
Better Sites' Features
- 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.
- Look for bibliographies or references to the works
used for the site's contents.
- Know your topic!
Weak Sites' Features
- Sites that have .com in the address usually are more
interested in selling you something than relaying
scholarly analysis.
- Sites with 'K12' in the address are hosted by
elementary schools and are not bad, but are not
scholarly-level work.
- Misspellings, slang, or incorrect dates are signals
that there are problems with the site and its
information.
- Look for obvious bias or a single person's work is
featured without analysis or argument.
- If there are no sources provided for the
information, especially if there is a statement of fact,
do NOT trust the information!
Points to Compare
- Are there words such as: conspiracy, revisionist,
controversy, or denial being used to elicit
an emotional response or cloud your evaluation of the
content?
- When comparing the two sites you need, do either one respond or mention
the other site or people affiliated with them?
- How current is the information?
- What are the professional degrees or positions held by the site
authors? Are they from reputable institutions or
organizations?
- Are articles cited published in peer-reviewed
journals? (Use Ulrich's in the CSUSM Research Database
collection to
determine this.)
- What organizations are mentioned as partners or
supporters of
this site?
Citing Your Sources
As you write your paper, you'll need to cite passages and
ideas from the sources you've found. In order to cite
your resources properly, you need to follow the style
guide used by for this class, the Chicago Manual
of Style.
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Chicago manual of
style. 15th ed. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2003
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