Sperm Whaling Hawaii 1833 http://www.corvalliscommunitypages.com/asia_pacific/hawaiians_in_corvallis.htm |
19th Century Pacific Basin Winter 2004~ D. Igler Library Research Guide |
**[Note: This guide is also linked from UCI Libraries Website/Services/Workshops & Classes/Webpages or @ http://course.lib.uci.edu/]
Library Contacts:
|
Joan Ariel 386 Langson Library 824-4970 jariel@uci.edu |
Kay Collins 108 Langson Library 824-7290 kcollins@uci.edu |
Bill Landis 500 Langson Library 824-3113 blandis@uci.edu |
This guide provides an introductory overview of library/bibliographic research in history focusing on key strategies and sources for researching topics related to the Pacific Basin in the 19th Century.
| 1. Historical Sources |
Primary sources: Firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation. The nature and value of a source cannot be determined without reference to the topic and questions it is meant to answer. The same document, or other piece of evidence, may be a primary source in one investigation and secondary in another. The search for primary sources does not, therefore, automatically include or exclude any format of research materials or type of records, documents, or publications.
Primary sources typically can include archives and manuscript material, photographs, letters and diaries, scrapbooks, newspapers and clippings, government publications, oral histories, magazines, published books, printed ephemera, and video and audio recordings.
Secondary sources: Sources that analyze, assess, or interpret a topic under investigation, typically utilizing primary sources to do so.
Tertiary sources: Sources that identify and locate primary and secondary sources; these include bibliographies, indexes, abstracts, encyclopedias, and other reference resources; available in multiple formats, ie. some are online, others only in print.
IMPORTANT: Note that these categories are not
mutually exclusive. A single item may be primary or secondary (or even
tertiary) depending on your research topic and the use you make of that
item.
| 2. Effective Research Skills |
2.1. Start with topic analysis
| 3. Search Types and Strategies |
In doing bibliographic or library-based research,
there are three key approaches to identifying information and materials
on a subject or topic: known item; keyword; and subject heading.
All are based on the "bibliographic record" for the book, article, or other
item.
| 3.1. Known Item |
Search on a known title or author, then use subject headings in the bibliographic record to expand your retrieval to related items. And, of course, in addition, use footnotes and bibliographic references.
Example: Title Northern California, Oregon, and the Sandwich Islands
| 3.2. Keyword |
In most library catalogs and databases, searches for your key words usually drawn from the following data fields:
Note:
| 3.3. Subject Heading(s) |
A subject heading is a word or term that describes, often quite broadly, the contents of an information resource. "Authorized" headings for U.S. libraries are generally determined by the Library of Congress (LCSH). In addition to usage in catalog records for books, videotapes, and other library resources, many abstracting and indexing databases of articles use LCSH as the basis for their subject indexing.
Searches for subject heading(s) assigned by the Library of Congress or descriptors assigned by the index/database producer use a "controlled vocabulary." The best way to identify subject heading(s) for your topic is to do a keyword search first, then note and link from subject headings of the most promising items.
Note:
Sample LC subject headings for topics related to the Pacific Basin in the 19th century.
| 3.4. Useful Search Strategies |
3.4.1. Truncation: Use trucation symbols (usually * and/or #) building on the root of a word to expand your retrieval
Using AND between terms will give you a smaller set of retrievals, while using OR will get you more retrievals. This is called "boolean logic." For more information, see Boolean Searching: A Primer
3.4.3. Limiting/Modifying Search Results:
| 4.
UCI Libraries Website
www.lib.uci.edu/ |
The UCI Libraries Website provides an organized gateway for research across the disciplines. Your familiarity with this resource will save you time and enhance your success in identifying research sources, services, and other useful information. The sections on Online Research and the Subject Guides, created by the Research Librarians for each UCI academic program, are especially recommended.
History
Subject Guide See last page of this guide for Table
of Contents.
A guide to key resources for research in History; includes catalogs, indexes,
online journals, and selected primary sources.
Note: This guide is updated regularly; I encourage your suggestions
via email for additional resources to include.
See also East
Asian Languages and Literatures Subject Guide
| 5. Guides to the Literature, Subject Dictionaries, and Other Reference Works |
Guides (or guides to the literature as they're sometimes called) provide the researcher with a basic introduction to the literature of a discipline. Guides list important bibliographies, dictionaries,directories, encyclopedias, periodical indexes, manuscript and statistical finding aids, etc. They may be a useful first step in beginning research, helpful both in acquainting the researcher with critical sources in the field and assisting in organization and evaluation of research strategies. In other words, guides offer a structured overview of an academic discipline.
The key guide for history is:
History Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, and Handbooks (PDF)To identify other available reference works, do a keyword search in ANTPAC (see below) and limit your result to Location: Langson Reference
| 6. Identifying and Locating Books and Other Monographs: Library Catalogs |
| 6.1 ANTPAC: UCI Catalog |
The most comprehensive and current catalog to all holdings in the UCI Libraries. Useful features include:
Guide to Call Number & Subject Locations
| 6.2. New (!) Melvyl Catalog and California Digital Library (CDL) |
6.2.1.
Melvyl®: UC
System Catalog
Melvyl is a web-based gateway to the library holdings
of the University of California Libraries and to those of the California
Academy of Sciences, California Historical Society, California State Library,
Center for Research Libraries, Graduate Theological Union, Hastings College
of Law, and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.
The database contains over 23,000,000 records, including books, periodicals or journal titles, videos, maps, sound recordings and much more. Melvyl allows you to browse records, save and mail items to your email account, set up a profile and Workspace so that you can save records and searches across sessions, and have email Updates automatically sent to you.
The new Melvyl catalog was released by CDL to the UC University community and public at large in April 2003. On August 1, 2003, "Legacy Melvyl" was retired and the new web-based version of Melvyl became the only union, or combined, catalog of the UC libraries.
Introduction and guides to New Melvyl
Highly Recommended: Establish your profile and "Workspace" in new Melvyl in order to:
| 6.3. WorldCat |
WorldCat is a"union catalog" databases for large groups of libraries that share cataloging information and access. To be fully comprehensive in your research, you may wish to search this resource.
Note: Watch for UCI holdings statements and/or click on
(where available) to link to holdings in UC libraries.
WorldCat: The Onlince Computer
Library Center (OCLC) union catalog for books and other materials in libraries
worldwide.
An even larger bibliographic database than MELVYL, WorldCat includes
citations for books, journals, manuscripts, maps, music scores, sound recordings,
films, computer files, newspapers, slides, videotapes, etc., in a variety
of languages, held in numerous libraries around the world. Coverage: 1000
A.D. - present.
| 7. Identifying and Locating Periodical Articles: Indexes and Abstracts |
| 7.1. Selected Useful Resources |
Tutorial: Find Articles in DatabasesArticle Databases: General access to periodical indexes and abstracts is provided through the UCI Libraries Website: Article Databases.
Below are selective listings of indexes most useful for history topics; depending on your topic, you may well need to consult other resources.
Note:
| 7.2. Journal Literature: Selected Web-Based Indexes and Abstracts |
7.2.1. History and Related Disciplines
America: History
and Life (AHL) 1964-present
The most authoritative listing of periodical literature,
book and media reviews, and dissertations in United States and Canadian
history. Covers over 1,700 journals published worldwide.
Search Hints: See AHL above.
Note: You can also search AHL and HA in combination with the following primary source database:
Ninteenth
Century Masterfile
19th Century Masterfile is the largest resource for pre-1920's
studies, with over 6 million citations online. Coverage ranges from
about 1774-1920 depending on the index searched. Includes Poole's,
William Frederick Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, which indexes
books, newspapers, periodicals and government documents on the 19th Century.
It is a continually expanding resource for the study of Nineteenth-Century
cultural and intellectual life.
[See Section 8 below for additional resources of primary source materials]
PAIS (Public
Affairs Information Service) International 1972-present
Contains references to more than 460,000 journal articles,
books, government documents, statistical directories, grey literature,
research reports, conference reports, publications of international agencies,
microfiche, Internet material, and more. Newspapers and newsletters are
not indexed.
7.2.2. Multidisciplinary: A Selective List
Current Contents.
1993-present.
Cover-to-cover indexing of journal articles, reviews,
meeting abstracts, editorials, etc., is provided for more than 7,500 internataional
journals covering all disciplines.
*Expanded
Academic Index ASAP 1980 - present
Provides multi-disciplinary coverage from arts and the
humanities to social sciences, science and technology; inlcudes scholarly
journals, news magazines, and newspapers - many with full text and images.
Includes both popular and scholarly literature; for scholarly only, limit
to refereed articles.
PCI: Periodical
Contents Index. (PCI) and *PCI
Full -Text 1770-1995
PCI: Covers 37 key subject areas in the humanities
and social sciences and currently indexes around 13.9 million articles
dating from as early as the eighteenth century up to 1995 .Cataloguing
in PCI is not limited by date or by language. Over two centuries of scholarly
publication in 40 languages and dialects are indexed, including English,
French, German, Italian, Spanish and other Western languages.
PCI Full-Text: Contains the contents of 259 journal
runs, providing access to over 5.4 million article pages - representing
over 860,000 articles. These are drawn from the 13 million-plus article
citation records in the PCI index. PCI Full Text is on target to grow to
300 journals by the end of 2003.
Reader's Guide
Retrospective 1890-1982
Provides citations (but not full text) the most
popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and
reflects the history of 20th century America. Coverage: 1890 -1982
Women's Studies
International 1972-current
Includes over 219,000 citations drawn from a variety
of essential women's studies databases, including Women Studies Abstracts
(1984-present), the Women's Studies Database (1972-present; U. of Toronto),
and many major bibliographies.
| 7.3. Historical Newspapers/Magazines |
Proquest Historical Newspapers Online:
HarpWeek
1857-1912
Full text, completely indexed electronic version of Harper's
Weekly, a major 19th century news and literary magazine. Database includes
illustrations and advertisements in addition to news articles, novel serializations,
and commentary on political, cultural and social life.
The Nation
Digital Archive
The Nation Digital Archive currently includes PDF page
images and searchable OCR text for all issues of The Nation, America's
oldest continuously published weekly, from 1865 through June 2002.
| 7.4. Periodicals: Selected Print Indexes |
Especially as historians, you can never forget those indexes still available only in print form. The following is a very selective list of available titles; check ANTPAC for others.
Multidisciplinary:
International Index to Periodicals. 1907-1965/65
Ref.
AI3 I58
subsequently: Humanities
and Social Sciences Index. 1965/66-1973/74
then separately: Humanities Index; Social Sciences Index 1973/74-
Index to academic journals in Humanities,
Social Sciences, and Sciences.
| 7.5. Full-Text Resources: Online/Electronic Journals |
Convenient access from:
CDL: History,
Electronic Journals available to UC Irvine
or
UCI Libraries Website / Full-Text
Journals
Specific Collections:
JSTOR (Retrospective
archive)
Provides searching and browsing access to the full text
of back files of over 100 scholarly publications in dozens of academic
disciplines, including History. Articles can be printed off using an Adobe
PDF reader plug in to your Web browser (available on all public terminals
in the UCI Libraries).
Note: for many journals does not include the latest 2-5
years, but often includes back issues from several decades past.
Project Muse
(Current)
Full text of over 40 journals in the humanities and social
sciences published by Johns Hopkins University Press. Full text coverage
varies by journal title but ranges from 1993 to the present. Links to the
full text of many articles available in CDL-hosted databases.
| 8. Primary Sources: Strategies and Selected Resources |
In addition to the suggestions below, you may wish to consult:
| 8.1. Books: Strategies to Identify Primary Sources in Library Collections |
Use or adapt these strategies in ANTPAC, MELVYL®, or WorldCat:
- Adding the subheading sources to the end of relevant Library of Congress Subject Heading (or use in a keyword search) often retrieves autobiographies, personal narratives, diaries, interviews, and other documentary/primary materials. Please note, however, that this strategy is by no means comprehensive; use other strategies to complement this.
- Use document* with keyword search; may retrieve collections of documents, documentary histories, etc.
- Limit to Year of Publication, e.g., after 1800 and before 1900.
- Limit to Location Special Collections (for ANTPAC searches)
| 8.2. Primary Sources Online and on the Web |
Early Encounters
in North America: People, Cultures, and the Environment
"Painstakingly assembled from hundreds of primary sources,
this project documents the relationships among peoples, and observations
of the environment, from 1534 to 1850. The collection presents unique perspectives
from traders, slaves, missionaries, explorers, soldiers, officials, and
others. It includes works by American Indians, Canadian First Peoples,
and many European groups, capturing firs impressions, hundreds of years
of observations of flora and fauna, descriptions of encounters with
indigenous peoples, and new language elements as they evolved. The collection
includes prints, drawings, paintings, maps, bibliographies, letters, photographs,
and original facsimile pages - all searchable by a standardized vocabulary."
(Publishers description) Click
here for a Guided Tour.
Making of
America (Michigan)
Making of America
(Cornell)
A collaborative project between the University of Michigan
and Cornell University, the Making of America (MoA) is a digital library
of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period
through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject
areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion,
and science and technology. The collection currently contains approximately
8,500 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints.
| 8.4. Internet Website Directories |
While Google (http://www.google.com/) can be an excellent internet search engine for finding resources, even better sometimes are searchable web directories, which provide sites that have been reviewed and selected by historians, librarians, and other experts. Such directories include:
| 9. Bibliographic Organization and Management: Introduction to EndNote |
EndNote is a bibliographic management software program used to develop, organize and manipulate bibliographic citations and facilitate the production of bibliographies and the publication process. EndNote allows the user to create a "library" to store and manage citations, similar to a set of index cards but with much more organizational power and flexibility. Additionally, EndNote allows the user to export citations from many (but not yet all) catalogs and databases (including, thankfully, Historical Abstracts) directly into your "library" bibliography and from your "library" into a word processor. You can thus produce a bibliography or manuscript automatically incorporating citations in a variety of publication styles (e.g., Chicago, APA, or journal-specific).
EndNote has recently been installed in open-access library computer labs including Science Library Interactive Learning Center (ILC) Room 164, in the LL TEC, Room 228, and in the LL Multimedia Resource Center (MRC). It is also available for purchase at educational discount in UCI Bookstore; : approx. $109.95 for students (with ID); $199.95 for faculty and staff; $99 to upgrade if you have an earlier version. In addition, you can download a FREE full-featured 30-day trial version from the ISI/EndNote website: www.endnote.com/endemo.asp
Recommended EndNote Workshops Winter 2004:
Wednesday, February 25: 12:00-1:30
in Langson Library TEC, Room 228
"Participants in this course will learn the basics
of Endnote by building a bibliographic database, by entering references
manually, and by capturing citations from several databases. More
advanced features such as producing bibliographies and creating manuscripts
with properly formatted references also will be covered."