|
The purpose of this guide is to familiarize you with the
best resources for historical research in order to research
your paper and presentation..
Getting Started
[MediaSite]
You are allowed to choose your own research topic and
thesis.
This is could be overwhelming when you think about how
everything has a history...but some topics will be more
suitable for university-level scholarly research. Before
getting too invested in time and effort, think about what
you know about several topics that interest you. Has it been
discussed in a previous class? Review those notes for terms
and important people. Before choosing a specific focus
on a topic, you may
wish to survey what is available--if you can't find
materials on your topic, you are creating barriers for
yourself and working much harder than you need to for a
successful paper.
Books
[MediaSite]
Any well researched paper uses books to support your
thinking and writing. There are two kinds of books you will
want to investigate in the library. Primary sources
can be letters, diaries, contemporary newspaper reports or
other first-person accounts. Secondary sources are
articles and books that review a number of works to create a
text. Secondary sources are most often written years after
the event or time period and may be based on research in
primary sources.
Reference Books...
are normally secondary
sources. 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 and can help you in
developing ideas on topics or a focus on a topic.
-
Cambridge History of Latin America REF F1410 .C1834 1984
-
Encyclopedia of European Social History from 1350 to
2000 REF HN373
.E63 2000
-
The HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion REF BL31 .H37 1995
-
Rap Music in the 1980s: A Reference Guide REF
ML128 .R28 M3 1992
-
Atlas of the Ancient World : Charting the
Great Civilizations of the Past
REF G1033 .O5 1992
- Greek, Mediterranean and Roman history reference
sources REF DE through DG areas
Circulating Books (check out and take
home)...
can be a mix of secondary
and primary materials. Be aware that sometimes primary
materials will be held in special collections or
archives and may be more difficult to access.
-
CSUSM collection -- Located in the
Kellogg Library on both 4th and 5th floors.
- E-books (Net Library or History
EBook Project) Available through a WWW link in
library catalog. Access is normally for 2 hours at a
time.
Finding Books
CSUSM Library Catalog
Start your search
by typing your topic in the KEYWORD search
option. This will return a list of titles
(including books, videos, slides) for you to
browse. When you find an item that looks
relevant, click on the title for more
information. Especially useful on the item's
record will be SUBJECTS which describe the
content of the item and will link like items
together. |
Example of Catalog Screen
 |
San Diego Circuit
Either search from the CSUSM catalog by clicking on
OTHER CATALOGS in the beginning search screen, or if
your title search has been unsuccessful, you can repeat
the search by clicking on the CIRCUIT button towards the
top of the screen. If you are looking at a specific
item, Circuit will only search for that item, so be sure
to work from the results list of titles. If you find it
and CSUSM doesn't have a copy available to check out,
use the REQUEST THIS ITEM link to have it delivered to
CSUSM to pick up. |
Catalog for the entire University of California library
system. |
Other Resources
-
Newspapers More recent issues
available through the Research Databases, older on
microfilm. Especially important for reviews, firsthand accounts, and commentary.
-
History Subject Guide
Portal to online resources brought to you by CSUSM
Useful Subject Terms
Library
catalogs use specific subject headings to group related
books together. In doing your keyword searches, look
at the hyperlinks next to the SUBJECT header (below the
location box). These are specific labels added by subject
experts to identify the content of a book regardless of the
title or terminology the book's author uses. Click on a
subject heading that sounds useful and you will retrieve a
different set of titles than with the keyword search. When you
go to the shelves to get the item you found, be sure to look
at other items near the one you want, as
other works sharing the same subject will be shelved there.
Here are some sample subject headings.
You may wonder why not start in the catalog with a
subject search, rather than the keyword search. Look at the
structure of the subject headings and how they vary from how we normally speak or write. If you type 'Ancient History'
into a subject search, you won't get any results as the
subject headings are not structured that way. Remember,
computer search engines do a character by character match
and don't know that you might want something that comes in
a slightly different phrasing.
Journal Articles
[MediaSite]
History journals include some of the latest research in
the field. They're a good source for finding very
detailed information on your topic. It's best to start
with a couple of books before diving into journals to gather
scholarly terminology and names of recognized authorities on
your topic. To
find articles, you need to start with a research
database. NOTE: most databases do not cover
material published prior to the early 1980's, but
will cover topics dating back to prehistory.
Some databases do not offer
full text of the articles. Use the
 button
to check our other resources for full text.
Most Useful
America: History & Life
Abstracts of journal articles covering American & Canadian
history, from pre-history to the present; handful of links
to full-text.
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 mid-1900s 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
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 scholarly
material.
Handbook of Latin American Studies
An essential bibliography on Latin America consisting of
works selected and annotated by scholars.
History
E-Book Project
Full-text.
Approximately 750 full-text e-books in the area of history.
Each title is also included in the library catalog.
RILM Music Abstracts
Abstracts from scholarly journals on international music and
related disciplines.
Womens
Studies International
Includes over 204,000 records drawn from a variety of
essential women's studies databases. This database is not
fulltext or SFX-enabled.
See the librarian for help in locating resources mentioned
in this database.
Primary Sources on
the Internet
[MediaSite]
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. Additional
information on primary sources can be found
here.
Many internet sites exist providing access to a mix of
primary and secondary sources. Here are some of the best on
the internet.
Searching the Internet
[MediaSite]
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), or .org (museums and
associations).
- 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!
- Carefully evaluate what you find for bias,
conflicting, or incomplete information.
Oral History
Techniques
In
order to perform an accurate and valid interview, the
following can be helpful:
Presentation Tips
Citing Your Sources
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
(more like the APA citation style with a 'tag' in the text
pointing to the References.) CSUSM has a collection of
quick summaries for a variety of citation styles, but
here is information on Chicago (also referred to as
Turabian.)
 |
Chicago manual of
style. 15th ed. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2003
|
Need More?
[MediaSite]
Judith Downie,
Humanities Librarian
(760) 750-4374
OR come by my office (KEL 3424), I am available if
my door is open (most of the time)
OR
come by the Research Help Desk (3rd floor of the
Kellogg Library)
|
