Finding and Using Sources

Types of Documentary Source Books: Monograph (single author) Written by more than one author (reference them all, eg ‘Fraser and Green said…’ or ‘Fraser et all felt…’ Edited collection of articles (reference the author of the article first) Collections of primary source (reference the source, then give details of the book it appears in) Articles: In peer reviewed, academic journals In books as edited collections In newspapers (used as primary sources) Primary Sources Archived On-line Direct/others

Finding Sources Start with your reading lists – on the VLE for each subject. Books – try Goldsmiths library first. Search by author, title or subject. Next try Senate House library, other libraries in University of London (reference only access), even some local libraries will get specific texts for you Articles – available in hard copy here or at Senate House. Reference only. Also mostly on-line, via Senate House

‘Findit Gold’ button: SH selected

The book you want isn’t available. What can you do?

1. Reserve it - so that when it’s returned you get it.

2. Amazon – second hand, cheap, sell after you’ve used it.

3. Search the author and find an alternative

4. Search the key terms, e.g. Russian Revolution

5. Follow the subject string on SH catalogue

6. Google Scholar.

Search Tips for Google Scholar: Finding recent papers. To find newer articles click "Since Year" to show only recently published papers, sorted by relevance; click "Sort by date" to show just the new additions, sorted by date; click the envelope icon to have new results periodically delivered by email. Locating the full text of an article: click a library link, e.g., "FindIt@Harvard", to the right of the search result click a link labeled [PDF] to the right of the search result; click "All versions" under the search result and check out the alternative sources; click "Related articles" or "Cited by" under the search result to explore similar articles.

7. Follow the footnotes in a recent book/article. Example – I just read John Tosh’s article in Gender and History ‘Home and Away: The Flight from Domesticity in Late Nineteenth century Revisited (Vol 27, No 3, Nov 2015). He has 76 footnotes – many of which are ones I want to follow up.

8. Find a journal article instead. Articles can be selected by reading the abstract and they often present an argument in a clearer, easier to see way. JSTOR/on-line journals. You get access to a full range of these via your SH card. You put in your name and the number on the card for remote access. On-line sources will be covered by a later skills session.

You have found a book. How do you know it is an appropriate source to use? How do we assess sources?

A book is suitable if: It’s in Senate House or Goldsmiths or another university library. It’s published by an academic publisher, e.g. Cambridge University Press, Manchester University Press, Yale University Press Other good academic publishers are Palgrave MacMillan, Blackwell, Polity press, Ashgate etc – although you need to do other checks on this material

Search the author. Is/did he/she working/worked as academic in an academic institution?

Look up reviews of the book – JSTOR is good for this Is it footnoted/referenced? This is vital. Your job is to assess the scholarship, and you do this by considering the sources he/she has used. If a book doesn’t have footnotes and/or a bibliography, and it is recent then don’t use it. Bear in mind: some older, very good scholarship isn’t referenced. Try to use more recent material. The newer the better with secondary material.

Using Sources Keep the question you are trying to answer in mind Use the Contents page and select the appropriate chapters to answer your question Note the full referencing information – including page numbers – in your notes. Be careful copying quotations Try to read a chapter or a section of it and then summarise it in a few sentences – this forces you to make sure you understand it. You can try saying it out loud to someone.

Don’t fall into the trap of taking too many notes, or almost summarising all of it – note only what is relevant to your essay question. Don’t fall into the trap of including material in your essay because you’ve read it and it’s on the topic

Finally – read the sources THINK then write the essay.