HST 290: World War ISearching for Sources

Dr. Sue McCaffrayMs. Sue Cody

How are your research skills?

• Do you like doing research? – Why or why not?– What confuses/frustrates you

most about doing research?– What questions do you have

about conducting research for this class?

• How would you rate your current research skills?– Strong/Satisfactory/Needs

improvement/Poor

Our plan for the week

• Review Research Guide for this course.

• Explore various finding aids.

• Learn to identify primary sources.

• Become familiar with special services.– Interlibrary Loan– Getting help

How much do you know aboutWorld War I?Where do you plan to start?

Which finding aids are most useful?• For scholarly articles?• For articles written during

the time studied?• For books?• For government

documents?• For other primary

sources?

Database Exploration

• Historical Abstracts• Bibliography of British &

Irish History• JStor• Readers’ Guide to

Periodical Literature• Search your topic

Database Exploration

• What is the scope?– Subjects– Publication types– Publication dates

• Does this database provide access to relevant sources?– Citations, Citations & Abstracts,

Full-Text?

• How did you modify your search? Did it help?

Search tips• And, Or, Not

– And narrows– Or adds synonyms/related– Not excludes (use carefully)

• Truncate for word variations – (prison* = prison, prisons,

prisoner, prisoners)

• Words anywhere or phrase? – “trench warfare”

• Field-specific searches– “Lost Generation” in title (look for

pull-down menus)

Journal Holdings & Access

• Follow the citation trail!• Search your citation

– Does the library have it?– What format or location?– What online access?

Finding articles

• Sweetzer, A. , “A Diary from the Front.” World’s Work 29 (1915): 350-356.

• Moore, Gregory. “The Super-Hun and the Super-State: Allied Propaganda and German Philosophy during the First World War.” German Life & Letters 54 (2001): 310-330.

Finding articles

• Foley, Robert T., “The Real Schlieffen Plan.” War in History 13 (2006): 91-115.

• Jones, Edgar. “The Psychology of Killing: The Combat Experience of British Soldiers during the First World War.” Journal of Contemporary History 41 (2006): 229-246.

Next Class

Library Catalog, WorldCat, Primary Sources

HST 290: World War ISearching for SourcesDr. Sue McCaffrayMs. Sue Cody

Finding Books

• Library Catalog – local & UNCP/FSU

• WorldCat– 9,000 libraries

• Some databases lead to books– Cited directly– Book reviews

Randall Online Catalog – Keyword v. Subject

• Keyword - variations– World War I, World War 1,

World War One– Computers match character

strings (they aren’t smart!)– Arrangement = Relevance– What is the subject heading

for World War I?

Keyword/Subject features

• Keyword– Finds words

anywhere in record.

– Look at records to see subject headings.

– Search lots of terms, word variations

• Subject Headings– Controlled

vocabulary– May not be

“natural language” but may find more

– Hierarchical arrangement helps narrow topic

– Searches only the subject field

Searching Personal Names

– Keyword searches • Either order

– Woodrow Wilson– Wilson, Woodrow

– Author/Subject • Last name first, e.g.

Lloyd George, David

Online Catalog links

• Subjects for related items• Call numbers for related items

(usually)• Library of Congress outline

– http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/lcco.html

• SuDoc arranges by agency• Cover, summary, reviews• Location maps• Expanding search (UNCP &

FSU)• Repeating search

WorldCat

• UNCW Holdings • Finds items for ILL

requests– Link to ILLiad– Rare items not lent– Rare items may be

reprinted & available

• Websites included – often w/ free access!

• 1 billion records

Primary Sources

• Dairies, journals, other writings of “players”

• Eyewitness/Observer accounts• Memoirs, autobiographies

(written later)• Official documents

– Laws, treaties, reports, orders, transcripts of proceedings, addresses, etc.

• Images, Artifacts

Primary or Secondary?• Scholarly article on the use of

mustard gas during WWI.• Text of the Espionage Act of 1917• Encyclopedia of WWI.• Book compilation of British soldiers’

letters home from the warfront.• Biography of General Ludendorff.• Government publication from the

U.S. Army Center for Military History.• World War I chronology.

Primary or Secondary?• 1997 book by a historian about the

involvement of German middle class women in the war effort.

• English translation of a memoir by French historian Marc Bloch (1886-1944).

• 1915 article from the New York Times.

• New York Times articles on the 50th anniversary of the Armistice.

• President Wilson’s address to Congress severing diplomatic ties with Germany, found on the Presidential Library website.

Randall Online Catalog & WorldCat• Standard Subheadings

– Correspondence– Diaries– Personal narratives– Sources– Treaties– See guide for others

Randall Online Catalog

• Search general headings, use indexes– World War 1914 and sources

• Search specific headings or persons– David Lloyd George as author

• Look for items not tagged as primary source– Primary documents may be

included in secondary sources– Eyewitness authors may not be

tagged as sources

Newspapers & Magazines

• Readers’ Guide Retro– Magazines, mostly US

• New York Times Archive• Palmer’s Index to the

Times– Index is quarterly– Times is on microfilm

• Public Affairs Information Service Archive

Official Documents

• British documents (see guide)

• Foreign Relations of the United States

• Hein Online – U.S. Congressional

Documents

Bibliographies

• Book-length– World War I Memories

• Secondary sources (books and journal articles)

• Types– Classified (easiest to find

primary sources)– Alphabetical– Footnotes/Endnotes

Digital Collections• World War I Document Archive

http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/

• FirstWorldWar.com http://www.firstworldwar.com/index.htm

• World War I: Trenches on the Web http://www.worldwar1.com/

• The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century. http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/

• See Research Guide for more

Questions?

What will you do when you have questions?

Ask for help – it’s what we do!

codys@uncw.eduhttp://library.uncw.edu/ask