Information-Literate Historian

The Information-Literate Historian: A Guide to Research for History Students is the only book specifically designed to teach today's history students how to successfully select and use sources--primary, secondary, and electronic--to carry out and present their research.

List of contents

• Preface xv


• New to This Edition xvii


• Introduction: What It Means to Be a Historian 1


• Part I Basic Research 3


• 1. Historians and the Research Process: Getting Started 5


• How Scholarly Information Is Communicated 5


• What Historians Do and How They Do It 6


• How to Think Historically 8


• Beginning Your Research 13


• Where Do Viable and Interesting Topics Come From? 13


• Developing a Question and Formulating an Argument 14


• The Blueprint: Concept Maps, Storyboarding, and Outlines 16


• Taking Notes 19


• Creating Bibliographies and Documenting Sources 20


• The Changing Nature of Historical Research and What Remains the Same 23


• For Further Reading 23


• 2. Reference Resources 28


• What Are Reference Resources and When Are They Useful? 28


• How to Find Reference Resources 30


• Types of Reference Resources 30


• Encyclopedias 30


• Bibliographies 36


• Multivolume General Histories 38


• Biographical Resources 39


• Chronologies 42


• Dictionaries, Etymologies, and Word Origins 43


• Book Reviews 45


• Using the Internet as a Reference Resource 47


• Case Study: Using Reference Resources to Understand Herodotus 48


• 3. Searching Basics


• Searching For Sources: The Beginnings


• The Complexities of Searching for Information


• Strategic Searching: Keyword vs Subject


• Beginning a Search


• Planning a Search


• Alternative Searching: Using Facets to Limit a Search


• Advanced Searching: Using Subjects and Controlled Vocabulary


• Conclusion


• Further Reading


• 4. Finding Monographs and Using Catalogs 51


• What Is a Book? The Changing Nature of Monographs 51


• When Are Books the Right Choice for Information? 52


• How to Use a Book Artfully 54


• Finding Monographs and Using Catalogs 56


• Navigating a Library Portal/Finding the Catalog 56


• How to Read an Online Catalog Record 64


• Finding Monographs and Using Catalogs Outside of Your School 64


• Case Study: Finding and Using Monographs: The Spread of Islam in Western


• Africa 70


• 5. Finding Journals, Magazines, and Newspapers: Using Indexes 73


• What Are Periodicals (or Journals, Magazines, and Newspapers)? 73


• Journals vs. Magazines 75


• Commentary Periodicals 77


• The Role of Newspapers in Secondary Historical Research 78


• Journal Articles: The Core of Secondary Periodical Research 78


• How to Read a Journal Article 79


• How to Find Articles: Designing a Search and Using an Index 80


• Using an Online Database: Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life 83


• Entering a Keyword Search in Historical Abstracts 84


• What You Will Get: Looking at Your Results 86


• Selecting Other Indexes 88


• JSTOR


• Case Study: Searching for Periodical Articles: Canton Trade System 90


• Selected Historical Indexes 92


• Selected Periodical Indexes of Use to Historians 94


• 6. History and the Internet 164


• The Internet and Research 164


• When Is the Internet Appropriate for Historical Research? 165


• Searching the Internet


• Searching for Secondary Sources


• Searching for Primary Sources


• Historians Communicating: Using Listservs and Blogs for Information 181


• Case Study: Using the Internet: Japanese Americans and Internment Camps 185


• For Further Reading 186


• 7. Evaluating Your Sources 98


• Why Evaluate Your Sources? 98


• Basic Evaluation Criteria 99


• Perspective and Bias: Historians and Interpretation 102


• Scholarship or Propaganda? 102


• "Fake" News and Misinformation


• Case Study: Evaluating Sources: Holocaust Historians 106


• For Further Reading


• 8. The Thrill of Discovery: Primary Sources 108


• Definitions 109


• Nature and Categories of Primary Sources 110


• Planning Your Project with Primary Sources 112


• Locating Primary Sources 112


• Digitization and Electronic Access to Primary Sources 116


• Published Sources for Mass Consumption 117


• Books as Primary Sources 118


• Magazines and Journals as Primary Sources 121


• Newspapers as Primary Sources 124


• Unpublished Sources and Manuscripts 130


• Catalogs, Bibliographies, Directories, and Indexes for Manuscripts 133


• Documents from Governments and Other Official Bodies 136


• Indexes, Full-Text Sources, and Bibliographies of Government Documents 137


• Directories/Bibliographies for Governments/Guides to Government


• Publications 139


• Genealogy and Public Records 139


• Guides for Genealogy and Public Records 141


• Business Records 142


• Directories and Resources 143


• Oral History 143


• Guide to Oral History Repositories 144


• Material Culture: Buildings, Artifacts, and Objects 145


• History before 1400: Ancient and Medieval Cultures and Those with Substantial Oral


• and Material Culture Traditions 147


• Ancient History 148


• Medieval European History 150


• Indigenous Peoples, Former Colonial Nations, and African American


• History 153


• Using Bibliographies to Locate Primary Sources 155


• Bibliographies Containing References to Primary Sources 156


• Evaluation of Primary Sources


• Case Study: Finding Primary Sources: Tobacco through the Ages 158


• For Further Reading 160


• Bibliography of Advanced Indexes to Published Primary Sources 161


• Part II Advanced Research Techniques for Primary Sources 189


• 9. Maps: From Simple to Geographic Information Systems 199


• Maps as Representations of Our World 199


• A Short History of Maps and Cartography 200


• Maps for Navigation and Commercial Use 201


• Maps as Political Tools 201


• Maps as Propaganda 202


• Maps Marking Territory 203


• Maps in War 203


• Components of Modern Maps 203


• Finding Maps 205


• Categories of Historical Maps 205


• Map Resources 206


• Gazetteers 208


• How to Read a Map 209


• Questions to Ask When Reading a Map 209


• Planning Your Own Map: Simple to Complex 210


• For Further Reading 213


• 10. Beyond the Written Word: Finding, Evaluating, and Using Images,


• Motion Pictures, and Audio 218


• The Role of Media in Historical Research: Images throughout History 219


• Photography: Real Life Captured? 219


• Art as Visual Media: Painting and Drawing 222


• Moving Images: Fact and Fiction: Newsreels, Documentaries, Motion Pictures,


• and Television Programs 224


• Searching for Visual Media 227


• Collections of Historic Images 229


• Search Engines and Meta-Search Engines for Images and Indexes to Image


• Collections 231


• Images on the Internet: Some Cautions 231


• Digital Video: Using Moving Images 232


• Searching on the Web 233


• Audio, Music, and Speech Resources 234


• Searching for Audio Materials 237


• Copyright 239


• For Further Reading 240


• 11. Digital History and Big Data 191


• What Digital History Is and Is Not 191


• Approaches to Digital History 192


• How to Perform Simple Digital Textual Analysis 193


• Digital Textual Analysis Tools 193


• Examples of Digital History Projects 195


• Beginning Your Own Digital History Project 196


• For Further Reading 197


• 12. Statistics: Quantifying History 245


• A Society of Statistics 245


• A Short History of the Evolution of Statistical Collection and Analysis: What Can


• You Expect to Find? 246


• Categorizing Statistics: How They Are Collected and Organized 248


• Demographics/Vital Statistics/Census Data 248


• Economic Statistics 249


• Social Statistics 250


• Public Opinion and Consumer Preferences 250


• Gleaning Statistics from Primary Sources 251


• Finding Statistics 252


• How to Think about the Sources 252


• Search Strategies 253


• Evaluating Statistics: Common Problems with Data Collection and Results 258


• Questions to Evaluate Data 259


• Data Problems: Signs That Something Is Wrong 259


• Data Sets: Doing Your Own Thing 260


• Selected Resources 261


• Understanding Statistics 261


• Collections of General Statistics/Statistical Abstracts 262


• Almanacs and Yearbooks 263


• Economic, Financial, and Commercial Statistics 264


• General Demographics and Social Characteristics 265


• Censuses 266


• Polls/Public Opinion 266


• Market Research 268


• Major Social Surveys 268


• Bibliographies and Indexes for Statistics 269


• Finding and Using Data Sets 269


• For Further Reading 270


• Case Study: Contextualizing Statistics 270


• Part III Presenting Your Research 275


• 13. Presenting Your Research: Traditional Research Paper, Presentation,


• Poster, or Website? 277


• Creating a Research Paper 278


• Writing Style 278


• Formulating an Argument 280


• Paper Construction 281


• Ebb and Flow of Paragraphs 282


• Public Presenting 283


• Oral, Slide, and Poster Presentations 283


• Creating a Poster 286


• Creating Websites for Historical Research 287


• Historical and Scholarly Websites 287


• Website Design: How to Begin 290


• Other Forms of Presentation


• Case Study: A Student Paper: "Americans and the Bomb" 300


• For Further Reading 310


• Appendix A: Citation Examples 313


• Appendix B: Information Literacy Guidelines and Competencies for


• Undergraduate History Students 315


• Appendix C: Research Checklist 319


• Index 321

About the author

Jenny L. Presnell is a Humanities and Social Sciences Librarian at Miami University, Ohio

Summary

The Information-Literate Historian: A Guide to Research for History Students is the only book specifically designed to teach today's history students how to successfully select and use sources--primary, secondary, and electronic--to carry out and present their research.

Product details

• Authors: Jenny L. Presnell, Presnell Jenny L.
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 25.03.2024
• EAN: 9780197749869
• ISBN: 978-0-19-774986-9
• No. of pages: 328
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; History, History: theory & methods, HISTORY / Historiography, HISTORY / Study & Teaching, REFERENCE / Research, HISTORY / Reference, History: theory and methods