Sources for History research

Presented by Richard PearsOctober 2011

Using the Library

• Open 7 days per week• Always bring campus card• Borrow 20 books at a time• 3 week, 3 day and short loan

(4 hours)• Group, individual and silent

study• PCs, laptops, wireless access

∂

Learning outcomesAfter this session you will be able to

•Use the Library catalogue:to locate books on reading listslocate books on a historical subjectlocate journals by titlerenew books on loan and reserve others

•Use online resources to locate journals and historical material

•Locate sources of assistance from the Library

∂

What information do you need?

• Define research area: People, period, place

• Focus: i.e. politics, society, religion, economics, etc

• Information: facts, theories, historiography, data, images, artefacts, etc.

∂

Break down the subject into searchable areas

Sample topic:

War and national identity in late medieval Scotland

themes time period place

∂

Finding information- Start here! http://www.dur.ac.uk/library/history/

∂

How to find information: books

Use the Library Catalogue: http://library.dur.ac.uk/

• All material held in Durham University Libraries

• Author, title, keyword

• Reserve, recall, renew items in Library

• Obtain items from store

• Export citations for your bibliography

Reading lists

• Link to library catalogue to check availability of print books and journals

• Access e-books, e-journal articles and scanned chapters and articles

• Also available in DUO ‘library resources’

∂

Using the Library catalogue

∂

Locating other sources

• Use the references and bibliographies cited in other books

• Look for other works by cited authors

• If the book you need is on loan you can use books at the same shelfmark instead!

∂

Using bibliographic databases

• Search engines indexing thousands of journals, theses, working papers

• Often include book reviews

• Sometimes link to full text

• Download references to relevant sources, then search for these in the Library catalogue

• See list at http://www.dur.ac.uk/library/resources/online/subjects/?s=History

∂

Using journal databases - JSTOR

Remember: JSTOR does not contain articles published in the last 5 years

∂

Using Historical Abstracts

∂

Recap

What sources will you need for your topic?

How will you find this information?

∂

Getting help

Library web pages: http://www.dur.ac.uk/library/history/

Contact: richard.pears@durham.ac.uk

Speak to your tutors

∂

Over to you!

Use the online resources available from the Library’s History web pages to locate information on your subject.

Go to http://www.dur.ac.uk/library/history/

Good luck!