1 Unstable Sources: New Approaches to Historical Methodology Just Say "No" to Google: Finding Archives and Manuscript Collections on the Web Susan Hamburger,

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Unstable Sources:New Approaches to

Historical Methodology

Just Say "No" to Google: Finding Archives and Manuscript Collections on the Web

Susan Hamburger, Ph.D.

Connecting Historians with Online ResourcesDaniel C. Mack, MLS, MA

Penn State University LibrariesJanuary 5, 2007

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Importance of knowing online resources

Access: always something new Digitization of primary sources increasing

exponentially Increasingly multi-platform

Ubiquity: widely available from any location Familiarity to students

Increasingly familiar with online sources Technology used in their daily life

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Online collections by subject, area, or period

Primary sources and archival materials Secondary sources Links to other collections and associations There is no “one-stop shopping” for online

historical sources Google doesn’t have access to and can’t

search many of these resources

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National Databases - U.S.

WorldCat (OCLC--Online Computer Library Center)

This site-licensed database offers advanced searching that can limit to Type (archival materials) to retrieve catalog records for manuscript and archival collections. Single item manuscripts are generally coded in the Books format.

http://www.lias.psu.edu/alall.html

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NUCMC/RLIN AMC File Search Form offers free access to the RLG Union Catalog Archival and Mixed Collections files

<http://lcweb.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/>

http://lcweb.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/

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ArchivesUSA

This site-licensed database provides keyword and subject searching, limitable by time period and specific resource, of 160,792 collection records, over 6,000 links to online finding aids, and more than 106,748 NUCMC records:

National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC, 1959-present)

1988 Directory of Archives and Manuscript Repositories in the United States (DAMRUS) of 5,596 U.S. manuscript repositories

National Inventory of Documentary Sources in the United States (NIDS, an index to more than 62,009 manuscript finding aids available in microfiche)

Federal records, Part 1 Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress, Part 2 State libraries, state archives, and state historical societies , Part 3 Academic and research libraries and other repositories, Part 4


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National Directory – U.K.

ARCHON Directory includes contact details for record repositories in the United Kingdom and also for institutions elsewhere in the world which have substantial collections of manuscripts noted under the indexes to the National Register of Archives.

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National Archives and Records Administration

<http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/basic_ search.jsp>

The online catalog of NARA's holdings in the Washington, D.C. area, regional archives, and presidential libraries; offers searching by keyword, limit by digital copy availability, dates, locations of materials, and type.

http://www.archives.gov/research_room/arc/index.html

http://www.archives.gov/research_room/arc/index.html

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National Databases - Canada

CAIN: Canadian Archival Information Network<http://www.cain-rcia.ca/>

Allows viewers to search archival holdings in more than eight hundred publicly-accessible Canadian repositories. The site offers links to provincial archival networks (organizations) and online archival exhibits.

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National Databases – U.K.

National Register of Archives (U.K.)<http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/>The NRA contains information on the nature and location of manuscripts and historical records that relate to British history. The National Archives, which covers England, Wales and the United Kingdom, was formed in April 2003 by bringing together the Public Record Office and the Historical Manuscripts Commission.

Access to Archives (A2A) database contains catalogues describing archives held locally in England and Wales and dating from the eighth century to the present day.

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National Databases – U.K.

Archives HUB<http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/index.html>

National gateway to descriptions of archives in UK universities and colleges, provided by the University Manchester.

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National Databases - Australia

Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts (RAAM)

<http://www.nla.gov.au/raam/>

This database contains records describing non-government archives held in Australian archival repositories and libraries.

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National Databases - New Zealand

New Zealand National Register of Archives and Manuscripts /Te Raarangi Puuranga, Tuhinga Ake o te Motu (NRAM)

<http://www.nram.org.nz/>A cooperative effort of several New Zealand library and archival groups, NRAM includes archival collections held in museums, local government bodies, libraries, historical societies, community repositories, and in-house business, educational, religious and sporting archives throughout New Zealand.

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Manuscript Repositories

Repositories of Primary Resources (University of Idaho)

<http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html>

This site provides links to over 5,000 Web sites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary resources for the research scholar; it is the most comprehensive in existence. The site is arranged by geographical area, and includes links to archives and libraries throughout the United States and the world. In addition, there are links to other indices of special collections and archival sites.

http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html

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Manuscript Repositories

Ready, 'Net, Go! Resources for Archives (Tulane University)

<http://www.tulane.edu/~lmiller/ArchivesResources.html>

This service is an archival "meta index," or index of archival indexes. That is, from here they refer you to the major indexes, lists, and databases of archival resources. From them you can link to every archives and archival resource in the metaverse.

http://www.tulane.edu/%7Elmiller/ArchivesResources.html

http://www.tulane.edu/%7Elmiller/ArchivesResources.html

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Finding Aids Online

RLG's ArchiveGrid (formerly Archival Resources)

This site-licensed database offers centralized access for searching and retrieving archival finding aids plus access to Research Libraries Group's Archival and Mixed Collections file of catalog records.




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Finding Aids Online

SOME STATE CONSORTIA

Online Archive of California <http://www.oac.cdlib.org>

Contains historical materials from a variety of California institutions, including museums, historical societies, and archives. Over 120,000 images; 50,000 pages of documents, letters, and oral histories; and 8,000 guides to collections are available.

Virginia Heritage--Guides to Manuscript and Archival Collections in Virginia

<http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/cgi-bin/eadform.pl>

A union database of a small percentage of finding aids from twenty-one repositories.

http://www.oac.cdlib.org/

http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/cgi-bin/eadform.pl

http://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaead/cgi-bin/eadform.pl

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Digital Projects

Valley of the Shadow; Two Communities in the American Civil War

<http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu>

A Web project documenting the communities of Augusta County, Va. and Franklin County, Pa. on the eve of the Civil War through Reconstruction, Fall 1859 through Fall 1870.

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Digital Projects

Library of Congress American Memory Project

<http://lcweb2.loc.gov>

This site contains historical collections for the National Digital Library.

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Panoramic photograph of a flood in Pittsburgh

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General Historical Online Resources

American National Biography onlineSite-licensed database includes the contents of the

Oxford Companion to United States History Encyclopedia

Search by keyword, name, sex, occupations and realms of renown, birth and death dates, birthplace, contributor, and date of publication

Entries include locations of personal papers

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General Historical Online Resources

Historic Documents Series onlineSite-licensed. Published annually since 1972, the series now contains 33 volumes of primary sources.

Search by keyword, browse by title, browse by topic, and cumulative index to link from the page number listed to the exact section of the document.

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Google Scholarscholar.google.com

Google’s efforts to index scholarly literature Search techniques and limitations unique to

Google Scholar Single search engine Indexes peer-reviewed journal articles, books, and

other scholarly resources Complements, but does not replace, traditional

research databases

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Special Historical Online Resources

Network Subject Gateways History

<http://www.historyguide.de/>

Subject gateway to scholarly relevant Web sites in history

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Etana: Electronic Tools and Ancient Near Eastern Archives: http://wwww.etana.org/

Cooperative venture of a consortium of scholarly societies and universities to develop and maintain a comprehensive Internet site for the study of the ancient Near East (ANE).

Academic, library and technical staff of the partner organizations will collaborate to share intellectual and technical resources in the development of the project.

Partners: The American Oriental Society [AOS] The American Schools of Oriental Research [ASOR] Case Western Reserve University Library [CWRU] The Cobb Institute of Archaeology at Mississippi State University The Oriental Institute, University of Chicago [OI] The Society of Biblical Literature [SBL] The Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University Vanderbilt Divinity School and the Graduate Department of Religion Vanderbilt Divinity Library

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Fernand Braudel Center for the Study of Economies, Historical Systems,

and Civilizations at Binghamton University: fbc.binghamton.edu

The Fernand Braudel Center was founded in September 1976 to engage in the analysis of large-scale social change over long periods of historical time.

Active Research Working Groups include: Cultural Forms in the Modern World-System Built Environments of Atlantic Slavery Crisis in the World-System: Options and

Possibilities Categories of Social Knowledge Structural Trends of the Capitalist World-Economy

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Special Historical Online Resources: Images

RLG Cultural Materials

Site-licensed database of collections of visual image material culture from U.S. and international libraries, museums, and archives.


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Special Historical Online Resources: Images

ArtSTOR (Fee-based)

<http://www.artstor.org/info/> A repository of hundreds of thousands of

digital images and related data Licensed to non-profit institutions

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Art & Architecture Archives of American Art

<http://artarchives.si.edu/>Collections Online

<http://www.aaa.si.edu/collectionsonline/>

Structurae<http://en.structurae.de/index.cfm>

Information on works of structural engineering, architecture or construction through time, history and from around the world.

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Agriculture Forest History Society Research Resources

<http://www.lib.duke.edu/forest/Research/>

Government Documents National Security Archive: The Atomic Bomb and the End of

World War II: A Collection of Primary Sources <http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB162/

index2. htm>

Census Historical Census Browser

<http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/>

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Oral History Oral History Online (Fee-based)

<http://www.alexanderstreet.com/products/ orhi.htm> In the First Person (Free version; citations only)

<http://www.inthefirstperson.com/firp/index.aspx>

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Immigration North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries and Oral

Histories (Fee-based)

<http://www.alexanderstreet2.htm/imldlive/index.html>

Women North American Women's Letters and Diaries, Colonial

to 1950 (Fee-based)

<http://www.alexanderstreet2.com/NWLDLive/>

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Black History Schomburg Center for Research in Black

Culture<http://www.nypl.org/research/sc/sc.html>

Civil Rights Civil Rights in Mississippi Digital Archive

http://www.lib.usm.edu/~spcol/crda/

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Catalogs of libraries and consortia

Library of Congress Bibliothèque Nationale de France British Library Committee on Institutional

Cooperation

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Library of Congress

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Bibliothèque Nationale de France

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British Library

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Virtual Electronic Library (VEL) of the Committee on

Institutional Cooperation (CIC)

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Secondary literature online

Historical Abstracts America: History and Life Année philologique Open access journals

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Historical Abstracts

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America: History and Life

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Année philologique

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Open access journals

Crisis in scholarly communication and journal costs

Directory of Open Access Journals: http://www.doaj.org/

Funding model that does not charge readers or their institutions for access.

Increase visibility and ease of use of open access scholarly journals to promote their increased use and impact.

One- stop shop for open access journals. Journals must exercise peer-review or editorial

quality control to be included.

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Open access journals in history:currently carries 92 titles

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Professional organizations

American Historical Association: http://www.historians.org/

The Historical Society: http://www.bu.edu/historic/

Organization of American Historians: http://www.oah.org/

Southern Historical Association: http://www.uga.edu/~sha

Southern Association for Women Historians: http://www.h-net.org/~sawh/

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Other academic resources

American Association of University Professors (AAUP): www.aaup.org/aaup

Chronicle of Higher Education: chronicle.com/ (online edition free to print subscribers)

H-Net discussion lists: http://www.h-net.org/lists/

Your institution’s archivist and/or subject librarian

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Pedagogic uses of online resources

Online course management systems Web-based instruction Audiovisual and other materials for

in-class use Evaluation of sources Citation and plagiarism issues

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Sample Teaching Resources

Center for History and New Media http://chnm.gmu.edu

Since 1994, CHNM combines cutting edge digital media with the latest

and best historical scholarship. Developed for historians and teachers: Online databases and other resources

Free digital tools (Web Scrapbook, Survey Builder, Scribe, Poll Builder, and Syllabus

Finder)

History Matters http://historymatters.gmu.edu/

Gateway to Web resources and offers other useful materials for teaching U.S. history. Includes 998 primary documents, images, and audio interviews.

WWW.History http://historymatters.gmu.edu/browse/wwwhistory/

Annotated guide to the most useful websites for teaching U.S. history and social studies.

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Conclusion: historical resources on the Web

Primary sources Archives Repositories Digital projects

Secondary sources Library catalogs Online books Journals, proceedings, and other research

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Conclusion: historical resources on the Web

Professional and academic resources Pedagogical resources Professional organizations Communications tools Discussion lists Online directories

Always ask a librarian or archivist

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Questions or comments?Contact us:

Susan Hamburger, Ph. D.

Manuscripts Cataloging Librarian

The Pennsylvania State University

[email protected]

Daniel C. Mack, MLS, MA

Head, Arts and Humanities Library

The Pennsylvania State University

[email protected]