HIST 301: Historian's Craft (Benes, Spring 2025)

We have over 500 databases of primary source materials. If not for this project, I very strongly suggest spending 30-90 minutes at some point skimming them just to see what we have.   Collections of historic children's board games, manuals on talking to ghosts, broadsides, advertisements, travel literature, letters, image collections -- it is really useful to know what, exactly, we have. Even if you don't use it in your work, you may want to use materials for lectures, or just for the "huh, neat!" value.

• Language has changed over the centuries.

• Most primary source databases will have "thematic" filters to get you started. Before keyword searching, start there. See what curated documents come up. From those documents, see what terminology is being used by contemporaries.   

• Begin with basic searches and do not be too complicated.  DO NOT USE TOO MANY TERMS AT ONCE

• Be sure to use period-specific language.

• Do NOT search a bunch of terms. This will give more, not less, false its.

• Pick keywords carefully -- remember that words and their meaning change over time
  • Example. Terms like "first world war" or "soviet union" may not be in use during your period of interest.
• Use the database limiting tools (publication date, place of publication, etc) to limit results. Do this instead of adding more search terms. 
• Use boolean (and or not) to make the best searches.

The main library catalog searches about 60% of our databases, including most of our primary source databases.  If you're not sure which databases to consult first, use the catalog and either narrow to publication period of interest or use genre headings (Ex "personal narratives" or diaries or broadsides) to find primary sources about your topic. Be sure to limit to books, ebooks, manuscripts, and archival documents.

Using the publication date limiters

• Search as you normally would for secondary sources. Interested in woman in France during WW1? Search war AND women AND france limited to publications 1914-1918
• Interested in sources about german espionage in ww1? Search german* AND espionage limited 1914-1919
• This same trick works in HathiTrust and Googlebook.

Using Subject Headings

Librarians assign Genre headings to all materials in the catalog. Search any of these as subject to find materials of that type. Do NOT limit publication date because it will exclude republished facsimiles or compiled sources.  Genre headings include

• Personal narratives 
• Correspondence
• Biography
• Interviews
• Letters
• Speeches
• Pamphlets
• Sermons
• Diaries
• Wills
• Logbooks
• Sources

EXAMPLE:

• ("World war" AND 1918) AND "personal narratives" 
• ("World war" AND 1918) AND speeches
• ("World war" AND 1918) AND interviews
• ("World war" AND 1918) AND Sermons
• ("World war" AND 1918) AND (music OR songs)

This exact same approach works perfectly in WorldCat, and I often start with WorldCat when trying to find primary sources. 

Most importantly, WorldCat will include archival and unpublished material in their listings. This is a great way to find archival collections.

 These are not approved Lib. of Congress terms, but some archives use them anyway.

• Account
• Archives
• Autobiography
• Collection
• Documents
• Documentary history
• Eye witness
• First hand account
• Letters
• Life stories
• Manuscript documents
• Manuscripts
• Minutes
• Oral history
• Papers
• Primary sources
• Primary documents