The document provides an overview of the library services available to support research for historians. It outlines a 4 step process for conducting effective research: 1) plan and prepare keywords for literature searching, 2) use the library search tools and subject resources to find information, 3) adapt searches as needed, and 4) manage references and generate bibliographies. It then walks through each step, explaining how to develop search strategies, select appropriate information sources, perform searches, evaluate results, and organize references for writing. Contact information is provided for any questions.

1. LibraryServices
Academic Skills:
Information Research for
Historians
libguides.rhul.ac.uk/
June 2014
Russell Burke

2. Library
Services
Aims of the session
• Overview of Library Services available to support your essay research
• Step 1 - Plan and prepare a literature search
• Step 2 - Use LibrarySearch and subject specific resources to find information
• Step 3 – Adapt & refine your searches
• Step 4 - Manage your references (& generate bibliographies using RefWorks)
• Access eresources off-campus
• Using other libraries
2

3. Step One:Think about your own research
topic & related concepts and write down the
keywords that you need to search for

4. Library
Services
My essay question / research topic:
What do I want to find out?
(Describe the next slide: what do you see?
What words would you search for to find
information on what is depicted?)

5. Library
Services
5

6. Library
Services
Developing your search strategy
6
My topic: ‘Emigration during the Great Famine’
Main concepts &
keywords
Alternative terms
1. Emigration migration, (Irish) diaspora
2. Great Famine Irish famine, Potato famine,
Great Irish famine

7. Library
Services
Developing your search strategy
7
Think carefully about which keywords you need to
search for:
Alternative terms
e.g. governance / policy / regulation
Alternative spellings
e.g. colour or color; organisation or organization
Changing terminology
e.g. consumption / tuberculosis

8. Step 2: Use your Library Subject Guide and select the
resources or types of resources you think you would need to
use to carry out your research

9. Library
Services
Now that I know what I want to find out:
What resources would I use?
See part 1 of the following prezi for an overview of the types of
material available via the Library:
http://prezi.com/24tl5r36eel5/developing-your-search-skills/

10. Library
Services
Selecting information sources
Library Subject Guides: libguides.rhul.ac.uk/
Online databases (eresources): libguides.rhul.ac.uk/Databases
LibrarySearch: librarysearch.rhul.ac.uk
Senate House Library & their eresources: senatehouselibrary.ac.uk/
Other internet resources…
e.g. public & private archives (you may have to visit
these in person to gain access)

11. Library
Services
Primary material and reference resources
See the E-resources section of the:
History Subject Guide
http://libguides.rhul.ac.uk/History
for lists of online primary material resources,
reference resources and much more!
(Listed by type in the drop-down menu.)

12. Library
Services
Secondary material resources
Full-text databases
• JSTOR
• Project Muse
Bibliographic databases
(no or some full text, can use Find It links to check for full text)
• Web of Knowledge
• MLA Bibliography

13. Library
Services
Why can’t I just use Google?
Evaluating information sources:
http://prezi.com/q5jglgamre6c/evaluating-information/
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14. Step three: think about how you will combing keywords
and enter your search queries in your selected eresources
(adjusting terms as you need to)

15. Library
Services
Now that I know what I want to find out
& where to find the resources:
How do I carry out searches to
find information on my topic?
(By combining your search terms in meaningful way!)
See your Library Subject Guide >Training > Searching for videos & more help

16. Library
Services
Combining keywords - AND
Narrow your search using AND (also useful if you have too many results)
e.g. emigration AND Ireland
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Results
containing
EMIGRATION
Results
containing
BOTH
TERMS
Results
containing
IRELAND
ie. only brings back results where all the words searched for
are included somewhere in the title, summary and/or full-text

17. Library
Services
Combining keywords - too few results?
Broaden your search using OR (also useful if you have too few results)
e.g. role OR function
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ie. brings back results where any the words searched for are
included somewhere in the title, summary and/or full-text

18. Library
Services
Making the most of synonyms
As well as searching for alternative terms, you can use wildcard characters ($ ?
* -) to replace letters in search terms or to truncate a term:
Examples
histor* - finds history, historical, historiography etc.
theat* - finds theatre, theater, theatrical, etc.
wom*n - finds women, woman.
NB: Help pages in the online resources will explain which character is used
as the wildcard
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19. Library
Services
Combining keywords – phrase searching
19
“HundredYearsWar”
“Great Irish Famine”
Use quotation (speech) marks to search for phrases where word need to appear
next to each other (e.g. specific terminology, title of books / films, names &
places).

20. Library
Services
Now that I have found information on
my topic:
How do I know that it is what I
want and good quality
material?
(see the ‘Evaluating information sources’ link
mentioned above)

21. Library
Services
Reviewing & evaluating your research
Do you have
enough / too
much
information?
Is it relevant to
your research?
Does it answer
the whole
question?
Is the
information
current / within
the date you
require
Do you need to
review your
underlying
research
question?

22. Step four: save the results that you need (references,
abstracts, URL links, full text) and organise these so that you
can find them when you need them & reference them in your
assignments

23. Library
Services
Now that I have the information (books,
chapters, journal articles, webpages
etc) that I need:
How do I manage &
reference them?
(You may have a lot of references and research material
to keep track of!)

24. Library
Services
Keeping track of useful items
• Emailing links to yourself
• Using the e-shelf in LibrarySearch
• Log in to LibrarySearch
• Click on the star icon beside useful results
• Go to ‘e-shelf’
• Create baskets, email, export results
• NB - most other eresources provide these functions (you can do the same in
JSTOR / ProjectMuse / MLA Bibliography
• OR you can keep all of your references in ONE PLACE and
organised them by topic, essay title or course etc. by exporting
references to RefWorks – this is really easy to do!
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25. Library
Services
RefWorks
Bibliographic reference management software
Capture, save and organise references
Create a bibliography for your essay from containing 1 to 1000
items in your Departments Referencing Style in seconds!
Access it via the Library Subject Guides (Citation & Referencing)
Contains online self-help tutorials
Sign up to a free Library RefWorks training session:
Check the Library Information SkillsTraining Session on the Subject guide:
http://libguides.rhul.ac.uk/

26. Library
Services
Access online resources off-campus
Royal Holloway ‘Campus Anywhere’ (VPN)
The only way to access all of our electronic resources off campus is
to install theVirtual Private Network (VPN) service, known as
'CampusAnywhere'.
This is quick and easy to set up and works on PCs, laptops & Macs
Go to the IT Services website to find out more:
http://www.rhul.ac.uk/it/home.aspx

27. Library
Services
Using other libraries
Royal Holloway students all get free access to Senate
House Library (SHL):
take along your RHUL Id card if you want to borrow books or
use the study space there.
Online registration for SHL’s eresources:
see the ‘Beyond RHUL’ section on the Library Subject Guides for
more information
Access to other Libraries using SCONUL Access:
see the ‘Beyond RHUL’ section on the Library Subject Guides for
more information

28. Library
Services
Questions?
Russell Burke
Information Consultant
2-07 Bedford Library
Royal Holloway University of London
Russell.Burke@rhul.ac.uk
01784 414065
Please remember to always check:
• LIBRARY SUBJECT GUIDES
• @RHUL_Library onTWITTER
• the Library’s FACEBOOK PAGE
for the latest information and updates!
28 Leo Reynolds. Flickr. CC-BY-NA