Introduction to Historical Methods

When researching the internet anything and everything can be “Googled” or “Binged” (which sounds a bit dirty) , but of the sources they provide you with, are any worth your time?

Does a site cite primary sources in a bibliography or an index? Is the site associated with a particular University or scholar? If given a book, is it fiction or non-fiction and does it include some primary source analysis? These are just a few important things that I look for when searching for a reliable source.

Though I have this source in book form now, initially I found this diary to be very helpful and great source because it’s part managed by The University of North Carolina of Chapel Hill and part of a documents collection that’s primarily about the American South. Perfect!

Another source i found here is a bad source because there is no creditability. The site is a .net site and not an .edu which is initially alarming. Then looking into it the primary sources have no primary source associated with it. There’s not way to trace where the site got their information.

When it comes to knowing what sites to trust, there are a few general rules I follow.

Is it linked to any trusted academic institutions? i.e. A well known university…

Does it include a bibliography of some sort?

Is this a generally well thought of source for scholarly articles, or information about books? i.e google books etc.

For example, I’m using this source for my research paper. I trust it because it’s linked with Columbia University, a well know institution. Other clues to its validity lie in its professional appearance and wording, although that can sometimes be misleading. This site was also recommended to me by Dr. O’Brien, which admittedly makes it kind of a “gimme” as far as whether its trustworthy or not.

And yes, gimme is the scientific term.

On the other hand, a source I generally wouldn’t trust is this. The information may or may not be correct, as it is jot connected with any institution, nor is it linked with any scholarly database. One cannot tell what the reputation of the author is, other than she is an employee of the website and their “womens history” expert. If there had been any kind of bibliography, I could have at least looked there for perhaps a trusted source, even Wikipedia is good for that every once in a while. Unfortunately, there are none to be found The weight loss ads also add to its dubious appearance, in my opinion.

Here is an example of a good source that can be accessed in full text for any student at our college. That is one thing that I believe makes a good source, accessibility. A source can be really great,  but if you cannot get to it then it will not be able to help you.

1. Rodney Farnsworth, “JSTOR: Film Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 2 (Winter, 1998-1999), pp. 24-34,” http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.umw.edu:2048/stable/1213271.

Here is an example of a bad source that potentially looks good. The first thing that you notice is that it is a .net web address. This is often added to give website more credit, but after looking at the site you will realize that the publication is hard to find meaning that its probably not a very academic publication.

1. “uboat.net – The U-boat Wars 1939-1945 and 1914-1918 and Allied Warships of WWII,” http://www.uboat.net/.

Good sources: http://www.history.umd.edu/Freedmen/

http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/bingham/guides/cwdocs.html

Both of the above sites offer original documents from historical events during the civil war. Great primary sources, and come from respectable sources/archives.

Bad sources: http://www.civilwar.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War

Although these two sources may have some good information about the Civil War, they would not be the best ways to gain information on the topic in order to write a good rsearch paper.

Good sources: http://www.history.umd.edu/Freedmen/

http://library.duke.edu/specialcollections/bingham/guides/cwdocs.html

Both of the above sites offer original documents from historical events during the civil war. Great primary sources, and come from respectable sources/archives. These two sites would be great material for a research paper.

Bad sources: http://www.civilwar.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War

Although these two sources may have some good information about the Civil War, they would not be the best way to gain information on the topic in order to write a good research paper, and definatly not suitable for a primary source.

Choosing a topic ended up being both harder than I expected and somewhat easier than I expected at the same time. Initially I thought that I wanted to do something about colonial Virginia or the Civil War but I realized that those topics were sort of my safe zone. We’ve been learning about colonial Virginia since literally the third grade and I took a whole course on the Civil War last year so I decided that maybe I should challenge myself and go with something different. This led me to the question that Professor Fernsebner asked me the first day of class “What are your interests?” The role that women play has always interested me so that was something and to make it easier I picked a time period (the 1950s) To be honest, I just put it into Google, literally “Women/ 1950s.” Regardless of how elementary it was, it eventually led me to my raw topic: the birth control pill. After that I was able to narrow down a Professor that I thought would be helpful, Professor Moon. She gave me background on the birth control pill and offered some suggestions on primary sources that she thought would be helpful. So, as of right now I plan on seeing what I can find on how the creation of the birth control created a divide in the Catholic Church. 

In addition to your completed “Choosing a Topic” Worksheet, bring along other working materials and tools for your project, including laptop computers, one or two key primary or secondary sources, and notes from your meetings with UMW faculty.

We’ll have a workshop session to help get you ready for your first formal assignment — the Topic Statement that’s due Monday.

When adding citations to our course “History 299″  Zotero folders,  be sure to save your citation first to a file within your own library (“My Library” at the top of the left hand screen on Zotero) and then, next, click-and-drag your citation(s) to the folder in the “History 299″ Group Folder below the dotted line.

Be sure you’re putting it in the file that’s marked with your last name there (click the arrow next to the 299 folder to see subfolders)!

The “My Library” files are your home-base. These will be with you on your system even after this course ends. The individual folders in the online “Group” collections, however, are deleted at the end of the semester. Be sure you’ve got your own home copy first… you may want to use them again, especially as you look ahead toward building on this research for a possible History 485 senior thesis project.

This week, we’ll be talking about sources for research projects, good ways to find them, and preparing for next Monday’s Written Topic Statement assignment.  Here’s an outline of what you should prepare for our upcoming meetings:

For Wednesday:

a) complete the Zotero assignment that we discussed in class last week . We’ll have another quick look at Zotero at the start of class (feel free to bring a laptop computer if you have one, particularly if you have technical Q’s about using Zotero.)

b) read the “Howell #1″ selection from our Readings page here at this site (bring a copy to class too.) This reading excerpt (“Technical Analysis of Sources”) introduces and describes primary sources, the ways in which they may be preserved, and considerations for their critical use by those engaged in historical research. We’ll discuss issues and approaches on Wednesday, with an eye toward your own scouting of sources for this semester’s projects.

On Friday, be sure to bring your completed worksheet on “Choosing a Topic” (see “Reading/Exercises” page.) We’ll use Friday’s class as a workshop to target problems that may remain for your project and help you prepare for Monday’s assignment — namely, a 1-page Written Topic Statement and preparation of your own 1-2 minute oral presentation, to be shared in class, of your topic.

Remember to keep up with assignments for History 299. While I accepted late homework assignments for credit during our first week, amid add/drop, the late policy for course does apply now that we’ve moved into our second week. Remember, all assignments are due at the start of class on their due-date. For more details, see our syllabus. If you’re stuck on a problem with your project, feel free to drop me an email anytime.  – SF

Our Monday class will be held at the Simpson Library, room 225.

Jack Bales, UMW’s Reference and Humanities librarian (and published author), will be introducing successful research strategies, particularly those related to the library resources, collections, and databases.

Do be sure to be on time and also please leave your computers at home for this meeting.