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HST 290: World War I Searching for Sources. Dr. Sue McCaffray Ms. Sue Cody. How are your research skills?. Do you like doing research? Why or why not? What confuses/frustrates you most about doing research? What questions do you have about conducting research for this class?
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HST 290: World War ISearching for Sources Dr. Sue McCaffrayMs. Sue Cody
How are your research skills? • Do you like doing research? • Why or why not? • What confuses/frustrates you most about doing research? • What questions do you have about conducting research for this class? • How would you rate your current research skills? • Strong/Satisfactory/Needs improvement/Poor
Our plan for the week • Review Research Guide for this course. • Explore various finding aids. • Learn to identify primary sources. • Become familiar with special services. • Interlibrary Loan • Getting help
How much do you know aboutWorld War I? Where do you plan to start?
Which finding aids are most useful? • For scholarly articles? • For articles written during the time studied? • For books? • For government documents? • For other primary sources?
Database Exploration • Historical Abstracts • Bibliography of British & Irish History • JStor • Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature • Search your topic
Database Exploration • What is the scope? • Subjects • Publication types • Publication dates • Does this database provide access to relevant sources? • Citations, Citations & Abstracts, Full-Text? • How did you modify your search? Did it help?
Search tips • And, Or, Not • And narrows • Or adds synonyms/related • Not excludes (use carefully) • Truncate for word variations • (prison* = prison, prisons, prisoner, prisoners) • Words anywhere or phrase? • “trench warfare” • Field-specific searches • “Lost Generation” in title (look for pull-down menus)
Journal Holdings & Access • Follow the citation trail! • Search your citation • Does the library have it? • What format or location? • What online access?
Finding articles • Sweetzer, A. , “A Diary from the Front.” World’s Work 29 (1915): 350-356. • Moore, Gregory. “The Super-Hun and the Super-State: Allied Propaganda and German Philosophy during the First World War.” German Life & Letters 54 (2001): 310-330.
Finding articles • Foley, Robert T., “The Real Schlieffen Plan.” War in History 13 (2006): 91-115. • Jones, Edgar. “The Psychology of Killing: The Combat Experience of British Soldiers during the First World War.” Journal of Contemporary History 41 (2006): 229-246.
Next Class Library Catalog, WorldCat, Primary Sources
HST 290: World War ISearching for Sources Dr. Sue McCaffrayMs. Sue Cody
Finding Books • Library Catalog • local & UNCP/FSU • WorldCat • 9,000 libraries • Some databases lead to books • Cited directly • Book reviews
Randall Online Catalog – Keyword v. Subject • Keyword - variations • World War I, World War 1, World War One • Computers match character strings (they aren’t smart!) • Arrangement = Relevance • What is the subject heading for World War I?
Keyword/Subject features • Keyword • Finds words anywhere in record. • Look at records to see subject headings. • Search lots of terms, word variations • Subject Headings • Controlled vocabulary • May not be “natural language” but may find more • Hierarchical arrangement helps narrow topic • Searches only the subject field
Searching Personal Names • Keyword searches • Either order • Woodrow Wilson • Wilson, Woodrow • Author/Subject • Last name first, e.g. Lloyd George, David
Online Catalog links • Subjects for related items • Call numbers for related items (usually) • Library of Congress outline • http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/lcco.html • SuDoc arranges by agency • Cover, summary, reviews • Location maps • Expanding search (UNCP & FSU) • Repeating search
WorldCat • UNCW Holdings • Finds items for ILL requests • Link to ILLiad • Rare items not lent • Rare items may be reprinted & available • Websites included – often w/ free access! • 1 billion records
Primary Sources • Dairies, journals, other writings of “players” • Eyewitness/Observer accounts • Memoirs, autobiographies (written later) • Official documents • Laws, treaties, reports, orders, transcripts of proceedings, addresses, etc. • Images, Artifacts
Primary or Secondary? • Scholarly article on the use of mustard gas during WWI. • Text of the Espionage Act of 1917 • Encyclopedia of WWI. • Book compilation of British soldiers’ letters home from the warfront. • Biography of General Ludendorff. • Government publication from the U.S. Army Center for Military History. • World War I chronology.
Primary or Secondary? • 1997 book by a historian about the involvement of German middle class women in the war effort. • English translation of a memoir by French historian Marc Bloch (1886-1944). • 1915 article from the New York Times. • New York Times articles on the 50th anniversary of the Armistice. • President Wilson’s address to Congress severing diplomatic ties with Germany, found on the Presidential Library website.
Randall Online Catalog & WorldCat • Standard Subheadings • Correspondence • Diaries • Personal narratives • Sources • Treaties • See guide for others
Randall Online Catalog • Search general headings, use indexes • World War 1914 and sources • Search specific headings or persons • David Lloyd George as author • Look for items not tagged as primary source • Primary documents may be included in secondary sources • Eyewitness authors may not be tagged as sources
Newspapers & Magazines • Readers’ Guide Retro • Magazines, mostly US • New York Times Archive • Palmer’s Index to the Times • Index is quarterly • Times is on microfilm • Public Affairs Information Service Archive
Official Documents • British documents (see guide) • Foreign Relations of the United States • Hein Online • U.S. Congressional Documents
Bibliographies • Book-length • World War I Memories • Secondary sources (books and journal articles) • Types • Classified (easiest to find primary sources) • Alphabetical • Footnotes/Endnotes
Digital Collections • World War I Document Archive http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/ • FirstWorldWar.com http://www.firstworldwar.com/index.htm • World War I: Trenches on the Web http://www.worldwar1.com/ • The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century. http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/ • See Research Guide for more
Questions? What will you do when you have questions?
Ask for help – it’s what we do! codys@uncw.edu http://library.uncw.edu/ask