The purpose of this guide is to familiarize you with finding credible and scholarly research resources in the library, historical collections, and on the internet for your research paper.

	Getting Started
	Books
	Articles
	Primary Sources
	Additional Sources (museums, etc.)
	Searching the Internet
	Citing Your Sources
	Need More?

Description of the research paper from the Term Paper page by Dr. Schwartz:

     "Your term paper must consider the development of the community you choose as a subject from the colonization of California in 1769 until at least 1960.
      Your term paper must consider how broad trends in California history have been reflected and not reflected in the development of a specific community. The broad trends in California history, for our purposes, include (but need not be limited to) colonization, secularization, the growth of the American population during the Gold Rush period, the building of railroads, expansion of agriculture and later of irrigation, urban population growth in southern California, the Great Depression, and World War II.
      Your paper must identify and briefly describe the native people living in the subject area when colonization began and how they were affected by colonization.
      However, the central focus of the paper must be what you can reasonably argue was the most significant period of development."  (http://courses.csusm.edu/hist347as/s08/h474fram.htm)

What do you need? This is drawn from Dr. Schwartz' instructions:

• Primary sources (at least two and most likely to be newspaper articles) for more on primary sources, click here.
• Scholarly sources for more on scholarly sources, click here.
• Non-scholarly local histories (when they are the only available secondary sources.)
• Copies of pages you cite in your paper.
   

Getting Started

Take a few minutes to think about what you know about your topic that interests you and meets the requirements for this assignment. Look for terms, personal names, and specific time periods in your notes and readings.

Before committing to a community for your topic, you will need to do some beginning research on the topic to be sure appropriate and sufficient resources are available. Many smaller communities are harder to research as there isn't as much widely published as there would be for a large city. Part of what will drive your decision is the accessibility of information. If you live in South County, writing on a community in North Riverside County means some drive time to access primary source material.

Remember to keep photocopies of your research as you are required to turn this in with the completed research paper. If you are not sure you will be using the material, you may not want to make copies immediately of easily-accessed materials, but be sure to record all information on where and how you found it in order to find it again. (Call numbers and the library or museum's name for a book you saw, full web address for a website, etc.)

A quick search of the internet can provide some idea of what is available, but by no means is where you will find the sources you need. The general means to start your research is to type a word or phrase into a search engine, whether that is a library catalog, research database collection of articles, or using a general search engine for the internet. This is KEYWORD searching and the searching program's response is to match exactly what you type, no more, no less. Since what you type is what you get, you will find that the computer will return matches that may not have any meaningful relation to what you are really looking for in your research. The following information is to help you get the best of the electronic and paper resources with as little time and effort spent on the unnecessary.

Books

Any well researched project uses books to support your thinking and writing. To find them, choose from the search options to either do KEYWORD searches using terms from your class readings and notes, TITLE searches for specific works, or search for AUTHORS who have been identified as authorities on the topic. Once you find a likely resource, look at the subject headings and use those links to find other works on the same topic rather than the blind matching the computer will offer through the keyword search strategy. 

Subject headings can be like deciphering a foreign language and since computers are unforgiving in their character-by-character searches, it can seem hard to decide how to 'build' a subject heading to find what you need. Here are some tips:

• If you are looking for works about a person, type their name in lastname, firstname order as a SUBJECT search (firstname last name order will not get you anything.)
• If you are looking for works by a person, type their name in lastname, firstname order as an AUTHOR search
• Unless you know the specific phrasing of a subject heading, try the KEYWORD search first and then look at the subject headings. Here are some examples:
  • California History (this is an example of an extremely broad heading, current result count in the CSUSM collection is 224 titles. The subject is further broken down by time periods in specific date ranges, regions, or topics.)
  • Fallbrook (Calif.)  (note the five-letter, not two-letter state format)
  • La Jolla (San Diego Calif.) (note how a community within a larger city is listed)
  • San Diego County (Calif) -- History  (county subject heading)
  • Pauma Indian Reservation (Calif) (example of a 'group' subject heading)
  • The term 'Gold Rush' is not a recognized subject heading--you are referred to Gold Mines and Mining and would want the California subdivisions for this subject.

But not just any book will do. Historians need to be particular about their sources, checking for both scholarly content  which well-researched and documented and authority of the author. Primary source material such as newspaper accounts, government legislation, diaries and more are to be viewed as a testimonial of the times in which they were recorded. Keep in mind such sources are likely to exhibit attitudes, biases, and behaviors possibly not found acceptable or believed to be true today.

Finding Books

	CSUSM Library Catalog 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. Check to see that they have bibliographies (listing of the research sources used) to substantiate the book's claims. A scholarly publisher is helpful also!
	Example of Catalog Screen
	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 to get broader results. You may request the item online to be delivered to CSUSM for you.

Reference Books (in library use)
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 are frequently useful for short facts or overviews, birthdates, statistics and bibliographies of sources. An example is the reference book "California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names" by Gudde at REF F859 .G79 1969

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 a WWW connection offered, click on that link to read the book online (access is in 2 hour increments.) You can find primary document collections in book form, especially correspondence, diaries and journals that are useful.

Other Resources  

	Newspapers	Primary source reports on events, CSUSM's collection starts with the mid-1800s publication of the San Diego Union, Los Angeles Times and New York Times. The Los Angeles Times is now available through the Research Databases.
	History Subject Guide	Portal to online resources brought to you by CSUSM
	Microforms (fiche and film)	Located on Kellogg's 4th floor. Besides the older newspapers, there are the Evans Bibliography of pre-1800 US publications and government documents.

 

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. 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 complete research to find older materials.

Some databases do not offer full text of the articles. Use the button to check our other resources for full text and Interlibrary Loan for documents that we don't own in full text.

Most Useful

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 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.

U. S. Serial Set, 1817-1980
Business, legislation, debates and other activity of the from the beginning of the U.S. Congress on an extensive variety of topics including taxation, Native Americans, wars and elections.

American State Papers, 1789-1838
Collection of U.S. Congressional business after the Continental Congresses and before the U.S. Congressional Serial Set began.

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 but be aware that not all materials returned in a peer-review search will qualify as such as they may have been published in a peer-reviewed journal but not have undergone the review process.

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.

Also Useful (Specific Subject Areas Within History)

Chicano Database
Abstracts for books, journal articles and other material about Mexican-Americans.

Indian Question
A good CD-ROM covering Native American history, including primary source materials (eyewitness accounts of native life), treaties in full-text, and government reports on Indian civil rights. This requires downloading Citrix software which is all ready loaded on the library machines. 

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 offers limited full text.  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. Following is a list of some of the best on the internet.

• American Memory (correspondence and digitized documents, maps and photographs organized into focused collections.) Some California-related collections to browse are Early California History: An Overview, Chinese in California, and California, First Person Narratives (book collection). There are others as well, found by browsing the collection titles or searching the entire collection.
• California Cultural Directory from the California Historical Society lists history museums and associations by county with contact information and web pages if available.
• California State Archives (through the CA Secretary of State) offers mostly finding lists, some materials are available full text or provide borrowing/purchase information from the appropriate state agency.
• Census materials (show growth, development and population movement for an area)
  • Selected Historical Decennial Census of the United States (PDF files)
  • Historical Census Browser (same data as the Decennial Census site, but in a spreadsheet that can be manipulated for specific demographic features such as gender, employment, ethnicity...)
  • Historical Census Populations of California State, Counties, Cities, Place and Towns 1850-2000 provides a downloadable Excel spreadsheet derived from the US Census data. Read the explanatory note on the page to understand how the census data has been collected and how this will affect your research.
• Historical census populations of places, towns and cities in California, 1850-1990 This site compiles available data on cities in California. Read the html file first as it explains the data available in the Excel spreadsheet. History and Social Sciences for Students: California History is geared towards younger users and environmental issues, but provides short essays that frequently have bibliographies to lead to more scholarly sources.
• LearnCalifornia.org has been developed by the California State Archives to provide some access to historical research resources. The city and county histories vary in quantity and quality of information as each link points to pages created by different communities so there is a lack of standardization, but provides a means to start with names and dates.
• Online Archive of California has digitized a number of oral histories, texts, images and more to provide access to California history.

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 or names. One example is Temecula having been referred to in earlier works as Temeku, and other communities have changed names completely over time.
• Look for bibliographies or references to the works used for the site's contents.
• Know your topic!
• Evaluate for bias or incomplete information

Citing Your Sources

As you write your paper, you'll need to cite passages and ideas from the sources you've found. Dr. Schwartz has provided examples of his expected citation style or you may use Chicago, as long as the citations are complete, consistent and accurate so that a reader could locate the material you have cited. 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.) The important thing is to be consistent in your style and complete in your information. 

Chicago manual of style. 15th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003 Diana Hacker's Guide to History: Documenting Sources Chicago/Turabian Documentation from University of Wisconsin-Madison Library Copies (REFERENCE Z253 .U69 2003)

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