History 122 Research Guide

Instructor: Louise Spiegler
Librarian: Sarah Leadley

Selecting and Focusing a Topic | Finding Books | Finding Primary Sources | Specialized Subject Encyclopedias

Download a copy of the research assignment: Next Steps

Before you get started:

Getting Started - This page goes over some of the basics that won't be covered in class, including how to access UW Restricted databases from home.	Research 101 (UWILL) - go through this online tutorial if you would like to review or update your research skills
Assessing Your Sources - This page provides some tips on evaluating the information that you find in your searches.	Link to Reserve Readings
Search Tips - This page covers some of the basics of searching online and how you can translate your research interest into searches that are "database friendly."	Please ask if you have any questions!

Selecting and focusing a topic

Browse your textbook, the history websites and reference books listed below, library databases, books on the shelf. The Library also has some topics books that might be useful, including:

Term paper resource guide to 20th century United States history
E741 M83 1999 TOPICS

100 research topic guides for students
Z710 B73 1996 and Z710 M19 1999

10,000 ideas for term papers, projects, reports, and speeches : intriguing, original research topics for every student's need / Kathryn Lamm
LB1047.3 .L35 1998 TOPICS

Consider how the following categories might be useful in narrowing your topic:

Geography/Place : Can you limit to a particular state? Region? City? Other?

Time period : You might want to limit to a specific decade or year, or perhaps compare two such time periods.

Person/Group : This might be a person who played a pivotal role in shaping an event, or someone whose experience of the event was particularly interesting or revealing. It might also be a group of people, such as an activist group, a political party, a category of workers, etc.)

Race/Class/Gender/Age : You might focus your research on a specific racial or ethnic group. Does your topic lend itself to analysis by class or socio-economic status? Did men and women experience some aspect of your topic area differently?

Do some preliminary research on the web, in reference books, and in the databases, looking for quick background or overview information, which may include:

Major players or key stakeholders – individuals and/or groups

Significant events

Key issues, questions, debates or controversies – depending on your topic you might find these in the popular press or mass media of the time period and/or in the scholarly literature written by historians

How to do historical research – additional guides and resources
Includes links to information about using primary sources and the web version of A Student’s Guide to History by Jules Benjamin

Finding Books

The UW Libraries Catalog

Most of the books that you find in the UW Libraries system are academic - written by an expert in the field and well documented. You can also use the bibliography or footnotes to identify other relevant sources.

Use "and" and "or" to connect your search terms.
Use the * to search on word stems.
Use parentheses ( ) to group "like" terms (synonyms, related terms, etc.)

For example:

Vietnam war and (soldier* or race relations)

United states and history and sport*

foreign policy and cuba* and united states

(native american* or indian*) and united states and government policy

(labor or work*) and united states and (strike* or protest*)

Finding Books in the UWB/CCC Campus Library

You can limit to books that available here on campus by clicking on the drop down box “View entire collection” or by selecting “UW Bothell/CCC” from the main search screen. Most of our books are shelved on the 3rd floor of the library.

**Books are shelved according to the Library of Congress classification system. Click here if you want to know more about using this system for browsing, or if you have any questions about finding what you want on the shelves!

Requesting Books

You can request books from the UW Seattle and Tacoma campus libraries via the UW Libraries Catalog. It will take about 2-5 working days. You can also request books from other colleges and universities in Oregon and Washington through the Summit Catalog

You’ll need to enter your library barcode number and library PIN number. If you’ve activated email notification you’ll receive an email message when the book has arrived here at the Campus Library. You need to have activated/linked your library account – if you haven’t done this information is available on the Library’s website under “Connecting” or you can ask for assistance at the main desk

Browse our History Subject Guide for more resources, or the UW Libraries History Research Guide

Finding Primary Sources

Primary sources are materials contemporary with the topic or question you are researching. Examples include eyewitness accounts, decrees, letters and diaries, newspapers and magazines, speeches, autobiographies, works of art, films, photographs, cartoons, illustrations, government documents, recordings, and oral sources such as interviews.

As you read your sources keep these questions in mind:

Where is the source from? Who "published" it? When? Where? What was the perspective/intention/ bias of the source's producer(s)? These questions can be easy, difficult, or impossible to answer depending on the source
How do you read the source? Look closely at it. Examine and isolate details. How do those details add to/contradict the source's overall argument(s)? How does the source support and/or complicate what you've learned from your secondary materials?
What is the historical context in which the source was written and read? Who was the intended audience? How might the source have been interpreted when it first appeared, why might it be read differently today?
Are there other contemporary sources to compare against this one? Do all of your sources tell the same story? If not, why might this be?

Selected historical websites:

Web starting points for history - an excellent resource created by Theresa Mudrock, the UW Libraries History librarian

American Memory The Library of Congress' American Historical Collections, which include documents, photographs, recorded sound and moving pictures from the Library's Americana collections. For example:

America from the Great Depression to World War II - Photographs
American Life Histories, 1936-1940
The Emergence of Advertising in America
September 11 Documentary Project

North American Women's Letters and Diaries, Colonial to 1950 UW restricted

UW Libraries Digital Collections - great local history resources

Finding Images Subject Guide - includes links to historic images collections

How to search the UW Libraries Catalog for Primary Sources

Using Primary Sources on the Web, including tips for evaluating what you find

Legal and Legislative Research

LEXIS-NEXIS academic universe UW restricted - Extensive array of full-text legal resources. Select Legal Research

Congressional universe UW restricted - Public laws and indexing of congressional publications from 1789+

U.S. Congressional Documents 1774-1875

Documents in law, history and diplomacy (The Avalon Project) 18thC to the present

See also the Government/Policy Studies and Legal Research Subject Guides

Newspapers and Magazines: current and historical

Alt-Press Watch UW restricted - Full text alternative and independent press sources.

American periodicals series online, 1740-1900 UW restricted - Eighteenth and nineteenth century periodicals

Ethnic Newswatch UW restricted - Full text ethnic, minority and native publications

Historical New York Times UW restricted - Full text of the NYT from 1851-2001

Lexis-Nexis UW restricted - U.S. and international newspapers, wire services, and more

Making of America - Journals (Cornell) 19th century magazines. Also see Michigan's Making of America journal site

Proquest Newspapers UW restricted - U.S. newspapers, including Washington State papers

Newspapers: Finding News Articles - A wide variety of ethnic, regional, and international news sources, both current and historical, are available from this site

Readers' guide retrospective 1890 - 1982 UW restricted - General-interest periodicals

Times of London Digital Archive - UW restricted- Full-text of this London newspaper from 1785-1985

Reference Sources - specialized subject encyclopedias

In addition to your textbook and general websites, use sources like these to find background information on your topic and for ideas on ways to focus from a broad “who, what, where, when” topic to a “how or why” question.

General or subject encyclopedias can be a great source of background information. Researchers use encyclopedic and reference sources to establish a fuller picture of the players, conditions, perspectives and events related to their area of research. You will find that it is much easier to filter out redundant or non-pertinent information when you have armed yourself with the "big picture." Depending on your topic, consulting an appropriate encyclopedia before you begin searching in the databases and online catalog will save you time and make your searches more effective.

See this list of american studies reference books available in print (and online) on the History Subject Guide

Getting Help from a Librarian

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sarah Leadley
American Studies Librarian
425-352-5387
sleadley@uwb.edu
Office hours - by appointment, Library 310C

If I'm not available, we have many ways you can get help. You can contact librarians individually for appointments in-person or via email. You are welcome to contact any of my colleagues at the reference desk: 425-352-3146. We also have an e-mail reference service that can answer your questions within one or two working days. You can also try Q&A Live, a collaborative digital reference service that allows you to "chat" with a librarian in real time using your computer. This service is staffed by librarians at all 3 campuses of the University of Washington (Bothell, Seattle, Tacoma) and Cornell University.

updated Spring 2005