LibGuides: History 498A: U.S. Labor History: Guide Summary

Introduction

This page summarizes the guide, and keys the different sections of the guide to your assigned reading for today (pp. 65-84 in The Craft of Research).

5.1: Three Kinds of Sources

5.1.1: Primary Sources: For historians, almost any source can be a primary source--what distinguishes a primary source is how the historian uses it. As such, almost all the sections of this guide can help you to find primary sources. The Library does, however, have collections of documents that are really intended to be used as primary source collections (many of these are digital collections), and you can find these collections in the section on Other Collections.

5.1.2: Secondary Sources: The best places to begin for secondary sources are the sections on Books and Periodicals. We especially recommend the database America: History and Life:

America: History and Life
The main article database for researching American history. Use to find journal articles, book reviews, and dissertations on all periods of North American history. Includes some links to full text. Complements Historical Abstracts. Indexes publications from 1964-present.

5.1.3: Tertiary Sources: See the section on Reference Sources, especially the box on Encyclopedias.

5.2.1: Planning Your Library Research

Ask a Librarian: The History Librarian is Celestina Savonius-Wroth. For more librarians, see the section Get Research Help from an Expert.

Consult Reference Works: See the section on Reference Sources.

Explore Online Databases: The kinds of databases described in this section of the book are listed in our section on Periodicals.

5.2.2: Finding Specific Sources

Search Your Online Catalog: Detailed advice on searching the online catalog can be found in the section on Books. Additionally, you can just access the Online Catalog directly:

University of Illinois Library Catalog
Use the Library Catalog to identify books, journals (but not journal articles), microform collections, and digital collections owned by the University of Illinois. The Library Catalog is the primary tool for exploring the collections of the University of Illinois Library, the second largest academic library collection in the United States. In the Library Catalog you can search for books by subject, and you identify the location within the Library of a particular book or journal. Books and journals are organized in the library by subject. Each item is assigned one or more subject headings and a unique call number. Subject headings are standardized terms from the Library of Congress. The call number is based on the Dewey Decimal Classification or Library of Congress Classification. Boolean operators must be capitalized if used: AND, OR, NOT. Interface automatically truncates some search terms unless Boolean operators are used within the same query line. You can also browse catalog records by call number, creating a "virtual shelf browsing" experience.

Prowl the Stacks: The technique described in this section of your book is also called shelf browsing. and more information on how to do it in this Library can be found in the section of this guide on Shelf Browsing.

Follow Bibliographic Trails: In addition to the literature reviews in journal articles (see sections on Article Indexes and Digitized Journal Collections), you can also find historiographical essays in journals and books. One journal is devoted exclusively to publishing historiographical essays:

History Compass
Call Number: 900 ONLINE
Publication Date: 2010-
Online journal dedicated to historiographical essays on a wide range of topics.

Use Citation Indexing: Citation indexing databases are better for some disciplines than others. The main citation index for History is Arts and Humanities Citation Index:

Arts and Humanities Citation Index
Identifies articles from scholarly journals. In addition to searching for articles on a known topic, this database allows you to search for citations. So, if you already have an article, you can discover what other resources cite that article, as well as the resources cited by the article itself. This can be helpful when doing academic research, although the search interface itself can be somewhat confusing. Ask a librarian if you need help! Indexes publications from 1975-present.

If you perform a keyword search in this database, you can run a "Citation Report," which will tell you the most frequently cited articles on this subject. A citation report can be one strategy for identifying dominant historical narratives.