Doing historical research at Roesch Library

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Doing historical research at Roesch Library

• History 301
• Research Methods Seminar
• Winter, 2002
• Heidi Good, Documents Librarian
• Heidi.good_at_notes.udayton.edu, x94259

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Todays Topics

• Library of Congress subject headings
• Secondary sources
• Historical dictionaries
• Historical encyclopedias
• Subject bibliography
• Historical atlas
• Books
• Scholarly journals
• Scholarly articles
• Dissertations
• Book reviews

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• Subject search
• Crunches Library of Congress subject headings
• You use wrong words, you get nothing

• Keyword search
• Crunches words in subject headings, title,
  author, other parts of record
• Better chance of finding something, but may not
  be relevant

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What is a Library of Congress subject heading?

• Subject heading standardized description
• Given to books from a list of agreed upon ways to
  describe material type and/or contents
• Any record in the online catalog will have
  Library of Congress subject headings labeled
  SUBJECTS

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How to locate LoC subject headings

• Option 1
• Use the Library of Congress Subject Headings
  book
• 5 volumes
• Reference Room Z695 .L695 

• Option 2
• Do a subject search in online catalog

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Subject search like using an index at the back of
a book Just as you search phrases here, search by
phrase in online catalog
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But what if a Subject Search yields nothing?Try
a Keyword Search instead
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Part 2 Secondary resources

• Group 1
• Books
• Historical dictionaries
• Historical encyclopedias
• Subject bibliography
• Historical atlas
• Group 2
• Scholarly articles
• Scholarly journals
• Book reviews
• Dissertations

Use online catalog to locate items
Requires other sources
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Books

• To locate books, use the SUBJECT HEADINGS you
  have already found
• To find titles published AFTER 1985, Limit This
  Search

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Historical Dictionaries

• Short factual entries
• Briefly explain words which make up a particular
  subjects specialized jargon
• Can cover specific events, time periods, people,
  or countries
• Does not mean Websters Dictionary

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Historical Encyclopedias

• Longer, more analytical entries
• Entries often written by scholars, contain
  bibliographies
• Provide a good jump-start on a particular topic
• World Book Encyclopedia does not count!

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Locating dictionaries encyclopedias

• To find items in the online catalog, do a WORD
  SEARCH
• Enter your topic and (dictionar or
  encyclopedia)
• Asterisk is a truncation symbol--will look for
  dictionary or dictionaries, etc.Remember to
  include the words and or in search string

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Atlases

• Bound collection of maps
• May depict the evolution of conditions,
• either worldwide or in a specific region,
• over an extended period of time,
• or may deal with a specific event, such as the
  Civil War
• Conditions may be geo-political, demographic,
  environmental

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Locating atlas titles

• To locate items in the online catalog, do a WORD
  SEARCH
• Enter your topic and (atlas or maps)
• Atlas is not part of a subject heading, but a
  word search will find that term

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Subject bibliography

• A bibliography is a list of books and/or articles
  on a topic
• Can be short found at the end of a journal
  article or book chapter
• May also be long enough to be a book itself
• For this assignment, need to find a book-length
  bibliography

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Locating subject bibliographies

• To locate items in the online catalog, do a
  SUBJECT SEARCH
• Use Library of Congress Subject Headings
• Look for the subheading bibliography   

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Journals, articles book reviews

• Do not recommend online catalog -- use a
  specialized index, database
• Does not mean Periodical Abstracts!

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History Indexes Databases pagelibrary.udayton.
edu/research/article/dbsubject/pages/history.php
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Specialized indexes

• Can include listings for book chapters,
  dissertations, conference proceedings, plus
  articles
• Created for researchers, so less likely to
  contain material of general interest
• Scholarly in nature

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What does scholarly mean?

• Scholarly ARTICLES will
• Provide evidence of research footnotes or list
  of works cited
• Be frequently refereed judged suitable for
  publication by other scholars
• Contribute additional knowledge to the field
  analyze comment about events, do not merely
  report events

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What does scholarly mean?

• Scholarly JOURNALS are
• Usually published by academic publishers or by
  professional societies
• Fairly plain in format--few photographs,
  illustrations, advertisements. Mostly charts or
  graphs
• Focused in purpose--will generally describe their
  purpose is to report on original research

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Why the fuss about scholarly?

• You are practicing/working at being scholars
• Journal articles are written by scholars for
  other scholars to comment upon
• Magazine newspaper articles tend to be written
  for general readers, not researchersnot you, the
  scholar

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Locating articles

• Use an appropriate database to perform a WORD
  search
• Limit your options
• Language
• Article Type
• Time Period
• Year (of article publication)

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Locating historical periodical titles

• Find scholarly articles first, then look at the
  journal source
• Scholarly articles found in scholarly journals,
  usually
• Verify journals academic standing in Magazines
  for Libraries
• Reference desk, Z 6941 .M23
• Bonus Nicely annotated

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Locating historical periodical titles

• Option 2 Skip articles search, just use
  Magazines for Libraries
• Use the History section
• Look for "Aud Ac" (academic) or "Refereed" in
  the description to make sure title is scholarly

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Book Reviews

• Online catalog does not list book reviews
• Use these databases instead
• America History Life (U.S. topics)
• Historical Abstracts (non-U.S. topics)
• Humanities Abstracts
• Book Review Index
• All let you limit searches to just book reviews

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Locating book reviews

• To find reviews in a specialized index, do a
  BOOK TITLE search
• Use drop-down menu next to WORDS IN
• Select Article/Book Title
• Enter book title in search box
• Limit ARTICLE TYPE to Book Review

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• To read the actual review, you will need to
  determine if
• Its online--Retrieve Full Text
• If library subscribes to the Journal
• HINT Will usually be option 2

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• If Check Availability option grayed out, must
  use the online catalog
• Open another window (Ctrl N)
• Open online catalog
• Search for Periodical Title
• Do not search by Book Title--you already have the
  book

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Dissertations

• Cover a variety of topics
• Often represent new approaches new materials
• Heavily documented
• May contain much useful otherwise unavailable
  information

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Locating Dissertations

• To find a dissertation title, use online database
  Dissertation Abstracts
• library.udayton.edu/research/article/alpha.php
• You only have to find the citation, not the
  actual dissertation

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Questions?

• My contact numbers
• Email heidi.good_at_notes.udayton.edu
• Call x94270
• Help also available at the Reference Desk
• Librarians on staff Sundays - Thursdays until
  10pm
• Call us at x94270
• Email us ref_at_udayton.edu