Likely Locations, Search Tools, and Effective Searching
Primary sources are most often published in book format or in collections of electronic documents. This provides clues as to where NOT to look for primary sources (scholarly journal articles). The sources on this page are organized on this principle.
To conduct an effective search (wasting less time) you want to do the following:
- Decide on an event or a country you want to find primary sources on
- Confirm the official name the information is listed under (we'll workshop this in class using subject headings)
- Search for books or electronic documents using the official name and the strategies below for each resource type
- After you have read the document, identify individuals who had a hand in its creation
- Also identify individuals or groups who were excluded from it's creation but effected by it
- Use the information from steps 2, 4, and 5 to search for factual information to confirm the source's authenticity and biases (we'll workshop this in class)
- Repeat step 6 to find a few articles written by scholars that discuss the impact of the event/individual of WWI on your topic
Book and E-document Sources
1. Books
We are going to use OneSearch's Advanced search to conduct an effective model search. The advanced search allows us to limit where certain words appear in the record so that we can be certain the results discuss the topic we want, not just mention it.
The video below walks you through the steps we went through in class, so if you need to modify your topic you can review the steps easily.
Video in creation - will be added later.
2. E-documents
You'll have a number of options for e-documents. These are usually parts of electronic collections we purchase to support research. They can also be found out on the web; however, you can be certain the ones in our electronic collections are accurate (rather than false or excerpted to emphasize a bias).
Choose History from the Databases by Subject menu (and since History is often organized by geographic regions you may want to see if there is a "studies"section for your region).. A simple keyword search by country name may turn up resources, but if you don't find anything, search by subject:
Choose the subject from the pull-down list and also select the Resource Type as Electronic Texts and Documents:
Click on the name of the source to see more information on it's scope, search features, and time periods. Choose a suitable source and explore the features it offers (essays, chronologies, advanced search features, etc.) and then type in some selected keywords. Each resource will be somewhat different, so I'll come around and help you individually at this point.
Scholarly Article Sources
To better understand and interpret your primary source document you will want to read what a few other scholars have had to say about the document, the situation that caused its creation, and the people who crafted it. Use the resources described below to find the scholarly historical articles you'll need.
In some cases, there may be a very subject-specific resource to use, but a good first starting place is Historical Abstracts. This lists articles on all aspects and regions of history except Canada and the United States.
- Historical abstracts This link opens in a new windowIndexes and provides abstracts to scholarly journal articles, conference papers, dissertations, books and book reviews in history for all countries except the United States and Canada (for the U.S. and Canada use America: History & Life). Since every subject has a history all subjects are covered, from accounting and biology to warfare and zoology, not just traditional "history.", Includes research on eras from prehistory to the present. Basic, advanced, and visual search features, limits by time period, country, year of publication of article, language of publication, in addition to subject, author, keyword, etc. EBSCO.
- Bibliography of Asian studies This link opens in a new window
Contains records on all subjects (especially in the humanities and the social sciences) pertaining to East, Southeast, and South Asia and published worldwide
- Military & government collection This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing and abstracts for popular and scholarly journal articles on military history and government. Covers all continents and eras.
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