HIST 243: British Society and Empire since 1901 (Conley): Secondary Sources

Choose a Tool:

As historical researchers, we might use... 

The Library Catalog [or CrossSearch]

• May contain many types of sources (scholarly, non-scholarly, multimedia,etc., both secondary and primary) 
• Covers a variety of subject areas; 
• Best place to find books for background on your topic. 

General (Article) Databases [or CrossSearch]

• May contain many types of sources (scholarly, non-scholarly, multimedia,etc., all typically secondary)
• Cover a variety of subject areas; 
• Good places to begin research OR to do research on an interdisciplinary topic. May not be specific enough for advanced research. 

• May contain a variety of source types (newspapers, manuscripts, etc.) or be limited to one
• Typically focused on the basis of one or more of the following: date; place; type of source; and/or topic. 
• Usually includes tools specifically designed for searching primary sources

Consider your research needs. What do you need at this point in time? Are you still becoming familiar with your topic, or are you trying to fill specific gaps? 

For example, if you are hoping to find news reports on the London Blitz, not just any database will do! You need a resource that: 

1. Provides access to newspapers; 
2. Includes resources published in the UK; 
3. Cover the period 1940-1941. 

Not sure which tool to use? Ask a librarian or your professor! 

Understand How Searches Work

Some research tools -- Google and other web searches as well as certain databases -- conduct what is called a full-text search, which scans every word of the document(s) being searched from beginning to end. 

Others, including the majority of our research databases and the library catalog, conduct what is called a bibliographic or metadata search. These tools scan only the metadata, or descriptive information about the documents they contain -- titles, abstracts, subject keywords and other info. This is why searching for sentences or entire phrases often works poorly in the research databases, and why Google produces so many more matches. 

So which do you choose? 

A bibliographic search will bring you fewer results, but will be tailored to results that mention your terms in the descriptive information (and therefore, are more likely to be relevant). 

A  full text search will bring you a greater number of results, but more of them are likely to be irrelevant (for example, if your search term appears only once in the document in an off-hand mention). However, it might catch some articles that you might not see otherwise, and may help you find articles whose bibliographic information uses different terminology to describe your topic. 

You may want to experiment with tools that conduct both kinds of searches, to get the widest range of resources on your topic. 

Craft Your Keywords:

Any research process begins by figuring out how to search. But, where to begin? 

brainstorm
Spend a few minutes thinking about what words could be used to describe the topic. Be as  specific as you can. 
 

expand
For each of the words you listed, think of other words or phrases you could use that mean the same thing.
 

use expert search tricks
Use AND and OR to make your search more or less specific! This will give you more sources to choose from.

• When you use AND, a database will look for resources that use all of the words you entered.
• Use OR between words that mean the same or similar things, or that you are equally interested in.
   

pivot as-needed
If you aren't finding much, try...

• Rephrasing. See if you can find even 1 or 2 relevant articles, note what subjects are listed for them, and use these to try again.
• Broadening your topic, date range, geographic area, etc. 
• Switching tools. Sometimes you just need a different database! 

TRACE Research Leads:

No piece of research stands alone; each is part of a broader scholarly conversation in that topic/ field. These resources have clues that you can TRACE, if you know how to look! 

Terms– Check the abstract, subject terms and article for concepts and terms that you can use for your future searches.

Reported in– Is the journal where the article was printed relevant? Try searching for other articles from this journal.

Author– What else has the author(s) published on this topic? Search the databases for their other publications

Consulted by - Check Google Scholar to see which articles or books have cited your sources, and to find
more-recent research which builds on your original information.

Evidence -Check the references list (or bibliography) to see what previous research this resource is drawing on. From here, you may wish to consider: 

- Previous articles or books published on your topic
- Other authors who have published on your topic
- Journals where your topic is frequently discussed

Tools for TRACE-ing: