1. Sources for History research Presented by Richard Pears October 2010

2. ∂ Learning outcomes After this session you will be able to Use the Library catalogue: to locate books on reading lists locate books on a historical subject locate journals by title renew books on loan and reserve others Use online resources to locate journals and historical material Locate sources of assistance from the Library

3. ∂ 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.

4. ∂ Break down the subject into searchable areas Sample topic: War and national identity in late medieval Scotland themestime periodplace

5. ∂ Where will you find information?

6. ∂ Some sources of information BooksInternet pages JournalsStatistics DatabasesNewspapers Theses Government publications Manuscripts Contacts: staff, organisations Images

7. ∂ Start here! http://www.dur.ac.uk/library/history/ http://www.dur.ac.uk/library/history/

8. ∂ How to find information: books Use the Library Catalogue: http://library.dur.ac.uk / http://library.dur.ac.uk / All material held in Durham University Libraries Author, title, keyword, subject searching Reserve, recall, renew items in Library Obtain items from store Export citations for your bibliography

9. ∂ Using the Library catalogue

10. ∂ 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!

11. ∂ 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 http://www.dur.ac.uk/library/resources/online/subjects/?s=History

12. ∂ Using Historical AbstractsHistorical Abstracts

13. ∂ Using journal databases - JSTOR Remember: JSTOR does not contain articles published in the last 5 years

14. ∂ Recap What sources will you need for your topic? How will you find this information?

15. ∂ Getting help Library web pages: http://www.dur.ac.uk/library/history/ http://www.dur.ac.uk/library/history/ Contact:richard.pears@durham.ac.ukrichard.pears@durham.ac.uk Speak to your tutors

16. ∂ 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/ http://www.dur.ac.uk/library/history/

17. Good luck!