Strategies & Tools for History 91 Research

Celia Caust-Ellenbogen

Associate Curator

Friends Historical Library

(she/her)

Laura Melbourne

Public Services Archivist

Peace Collection

(she/her)

Simon Elichko

Social Sciences & Data Librarian

(they/them)

Intros

Finding Secondary Sources

Key resource: History 91 Research Guide

Relevant pages in the guide:

• Background Reading
• Find Scholarly Books & Articles

Useful tools for finding
secondary sources:

Library catalogs

• Tripod  (TriCo Libraries)
• Worldcat  (many libraries in US and beyond)

History-focused databases

• America History & Life (US)
• Historical Abstracts (world)
   

General-purpose academic databases

• JSTOR
• Project Muse

Library Catalogs
Use these to find books (also other resources)

Start with Tripod  (TriCo)

You can expand your search to Worldcat (many libraries)

1. Working with a partner, pick a book from one of your projects.
   Search for the book in these two library catalogs:
   - Tripod - tripod.swarthmore.edu
   - Worldcat - worldcat.org
   
   (Example: Women's House of Detention - search in Tripod, search in Worldcat)
    
2. What do you see listed under Subjects in Tripod?  And in Worldcat?
   - To find subjects in Tripod, scroll down
   - To find subjects in Worldcat, click "Show more information"
    

3. Try searching Tripod for other books with one of the same Subjects.
     (Example: Women prisoners -- social conditions)

TriCo
Login to Tripod to request delivery (arrives 1-2 days)

  Swat          Haverford      Bryn Mawr

You can access materials from TriCo libraries and beyond

You can also request PDFs of articles & book chapters not owned in the TriCo.

History-focused databases
Use these to find journal articles and book reviews

• America History & Life (US)
• Historical Abstracts (world)

How to turn a topic into useful search terms

Example:  conservative talk radio in the US

Try out the Keyword Generator:

Go to keywords.lib.utexas.edu

Then try searching in one or both databases:

• America, History and Life
• Historical Abstracts

Break down your topic into concepts, then think about synonyms and related terms.

• conservative, Republican, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh
• talk (radio), news, journalism
• radio, broadcasting

Tips for coming up with search terms

• Use the Keyword Generator to help break down your topic into core concepts and generate possible search terms.
   
• Do an initial broad search to gather search term ideas.
  • What words are being used in titles, abstracts, and subjects?
     
• Look at sources you already have for ideas: what words do they use?
  • If you have a book that's on-topic, look at the index.

Additional tools for secondary research

See Review Essays & Topic Overviews for links to:

• Review journals: History Compass, Reviews in American History
• History companions and handbooks: Cambridge Histories and others

Finding Primary Sources

Relevant pages in guide:

• Finding Primary Sources
• Finding Sources in Archives
• Historical News & Magazines (US)

Open this link:

https://bit.ly/h91-sources

Types of Primary Sources

Types of Primary Sources (continued)

Write on the whiteboard wall:

An example of a primary source you've found (or think you'll likely be able to find)

Your ideal primary source
(whether it's realistically findable or not)

What should you do if you find the title/name/citation for a primary source, but can't find the source itself?

Is it available immediately?

• Search for it in Tripod and Google
  • Try putting part of the title in quotes: "War and Peace")
• Look through Research Guides (library databases + subscriptions)
• Search Internet Archive and (if it's a website) Wayback Machine.
• Ask for help! Simon can help you figure it out.

Could it be delivered to you?

• Search for other libraries that own a copy using Worldcat
• Published items could be requested through EZBorrow, Interlibrary Loan, Article Delivery
• If it's a unique item and it's owned by an archives or special collections library, there's a chance you could have it scanned. (Ask Simon or Celia.)

Could you go to somewhere to access?

• If it's in an archives or special collections library, you may be able to set up a visit.
• If you need to use an online resource that's behind a paywall (costs money), you might be able to use the resource at another library, like Temple.
  • Definitely check with Simon first!

Where to look for primary sources

• Primary sources section of History 91 Research Guide
  • Find it here: bit.ly/hist91guide
• Database Finder
  • Lets you explore databases by content type (e.g. news)
• Ask Simon!
  • Email or find a time to meet (bit.ly/selichk1)

Let's get experience using two different kinds of resources for finding primary sources:

• Periodicals Index Online
• Adam Matthew Explorer

Both sites are linked from the
Primary Sources page in the History 91 Guide.

Periodicals Index Online is linked from
Historical News & Magazines (World)

Let's try finding some primary sources
for your project.

On the Finding Primary Sources page of the Research Guide, choose a type of primary source.

Following instructions & tips on these pages, spend 5 minutes looking for source(s) relevant to your own topic.

After 5 minutes, you'll pair up with another student

and discuss what you noticed.
 

What did you find? What were you surprised to learn or find? What were the difficulties? Do you have any search tips to share?

Complexities of searching for historical sources...

If, for example, I wanted to find out more about the island from which [Sir Walter] Raleigh penned his letter, what name should I keyword search? Saint Christopher, St. Christopher, Saint Christophe, St. Kitts, or San Christoval?"

- Casey Schmitt, Love Letters and the Digital Turn (The Junto)

• Name changes, aliases, titles
• Place name changes
• Terms in multiple languages
• Alternative spellings
• Mistakes in OCR
• Misspellings in documents

Consider keeping a list of various terms and spellings you've encountered, to help you with searching.

OCR?

Optical character recognition is the process of making text in images searchable (e.g. when scanning a poster).

• Everyday versions of OCR: iOS and Google Keep text recognition in photos
• Tools for running OCR on your documents, or for improving the quality of existing OCR:  Adobe Acrobat, ABBY FineReader (available from ITS)
  • Work better with typed text than handwriting
     

When you're searching through (digitized) historical sources, you're often searching text generated by OCR.

It's easy for OCR to miss entire words, cut them off part-way, or otherwise be inaccurate. You can't fully count on searches within sources being completely accurate. (So sometimes it's worth manually looking at, say, the newspaper issue from a key date.)

Using Archives

Relevant pages in guide:

• Finding sources in archives
• Philadelphia-area archives and collections

Archives & Manuscripts

Think "Tripod" - come to the library to view the materials

Digital Collections

Think "JSTOR" - the materials are digitized & online.

Intercultural Center Records, RG 6/Q030, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College.

https://findingaids.library.upenn.edu/

Make an appointment

What to expect from any archives visit

• Contact the archives well in advance to make an appointment
• Tell the archivist you are an undergraduate student - ask for help and suggestions
• Don't bring food, drink, or pens
• Be prepared to store your belongings in a locker
• Ask whether it's okay to take pictures, and if it is, take LOTS of them (including of the box/folder info) to read and refer to later
• Be gentle with the documents and make sure EVERYTHING stays in the same order

Organizing Your Research

• Document your process

• Save consistently

• Annotate sources

Three ways to stay organized
while doing research: 

Document Your Process

As you work, keep a research log.

- Today's date

- What did you do today?
- What are your next steps? (however tentative)

Save Consistently

Be predictable
Decide on and stick to a system that is easy and reliable.

Label everything 
Include enough information so you can recognize sources at a glance.  (even a few weeks later)

Zotero 

• One place to save sources + citations
• Sort, categorize, tag sources
• Generates formatted citations
• Free PDF storage with Swarthmore.edu address (but will go away after graduation, so good to plan ahead)

Annotate Sources

Source notes
Why does this document seem (potentially) relevant?

Write it down now, while you still remember.
Add the source date somewhere prominent.

• Helpful for putting your primary sources in date order

Categorizing sources

It can be helpful to sort your potential sources into categories (by topic, by potential use, etc.) 

{ Tools }
• Zotero -- tags, folders  ("collections")

• Coggle -- mindmaps - create groups of sources, authors

Next steps:

• Make an appointment with Simon
• If your topic connects to Swarthmore's Special Collections, make an appointment to visit
• Look over the Research Guide: bit.ly/hist91guide

More ways to get help:

• Use Tripod Chat to get help with quick questions
• Contact subject librarians, or email librarian@swarthmore.edu and your question will reach the right person.