Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Similar to Researcher KnowHow: Using historical primary sources
Similar to Researcher KnowHow: Using historical primary sources (20)
More from LivUniLibrary
More from LivUniLibrary (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Researcher KnowHow: Using historical primary sources
- 1. Using Historical Primary Sources Jenny Higham & Catherine McManamon
- 2. TODAY: Research preparation Archival research Digitised vs original collections Q & A
- 3. Unpublished manuscripts & records Printed & published materials Maps, plans, architectural drawings Visual material incl. photographs Audio-visual materials Computer generated materials Artefacts, ephemera, & memorabilia Primary sources Primary sources develop our research questions and inform our arguments
- 4. Experiences so far: What types of primary source material have you used? What has been tricky or different about research using archives? Primary sources
- 5. Research preparation Before you start your search for primary sources
- 7. Individuals / organisations / institutions Geographical areas Periods Social movements Research preparation Don’t narrow too far beyond this before you access the archive…..
- 8. Research preparation What types of primary sources might have been produced that are relevant to the topic?
- 9. What types of primary sources might have been produced that are relevant to the topic? Bibliographic tracing –using reference and secondary sources for background information Research preparation
- 10. What types of primary sources might have been produced that are relevant to the topic? Research preparation Bibliographic tracing –using reference and secondary sources for background information Open online resources
- 11. & Archival Finding Aids Use online gateway tools to many national archives e.g. Archives Hub or TNA’s Discover Use university websites – indexes & catalogues Gateways, institutional websites
- 12. ProQuest Historical Newspapers Gale Primary Sources Early English Books Online PRIMARY SOURCES Online Library A-Z database list or History LibGuide
- 13. DIGITISED SOURCES vs. Original Provenance Why? How much? Ephemera
- 14. Over to you… Your research Q &A
- 15. Before you come to Special Collections….
- 16. COPYRIGHT Acquiring permission to publish is the responsibility of the user. Attribution/ fees Library guidance .
Editor's Notes
- Catherine
- Catherine A primary source might also be a building, a piece of art, a recording or an ephemeral object – a train ticket, or a poster. These are all 'sources' because they all provide us in different ways with information which can add to the sum of our knowledge of the past. Primary sources develop our research questions and inform our arguments. Important thing to recognise is that while you may go to an archive looking for answers, invariably archives throw up questions you’ve not thought about. It’s important not to be too rigid in your approach as ultimately it is difficult to know what you will find until you have visited and started reading!
- Catherine Any leftover of the past can be considered a source. It might well be a document, and we often think of history as a textual discipline, based on the interpretation of written texts, but it might also be lots of other ‘types’ of material. 5 minutes – share with the group primary sources you have used in your research up to this point.
- Catherine So now that we have very firmly established the types of material we are talking about in the context of this session when we use the term ‘primary source’, lets move on to think about tracking them down and the important first steps when it comes to identifying them.
- Catherine It is important to set aside enough time for archival research – recognise from the start that it can be time consuming. It will take time to identify appropriate archives to visit or access and it will take time to explore and read the content within that archive. You may have multiple archives or records offices to consult. It may be the best investment of time you make!
- Catherine Think carefully and gather the basic details. It will help to bring focus to what you are looking for. These details are obviously useful as keywords and for limiting/filtering your search appropriately.
- Catherine Would newspapers or periodicals contemporary with the events you are studying be available via a library subscription? Or would it be manuscript/ unpublished materials? This will dictate where you go to for the next stage of your search.
- Catherine Consult the bibliographies and footnotes of your secondary sources, as well as doing some classmark based shelf browsing. In many historical monographs you will find that the bibliographies are divided into primary and secondary sources.
- Catherine Consult the bibliographies and footnotes of your secondary sources, as well as doing some classmark based shelf browsing. In many historical monographs you will find that the bibliographies are divided into primary and secondary sources. Online resources such as Archives Hub is essentially the equivalent of COPAC for archives – it provides a location register of literary archives and manuscripts.
- JENNY Online resources such as Archives Hub are incredibly useful – this is essentially the equivalent of COPAC for archives – it provides a location register of literary archives and manuscripts. The National Archives Discover another useful example of this - but the focus there being government records and local record offices, with some HE. Demo – with introduction to hierarchical arrangement Demo – use university archive as an example to explain finding aids
- Catherine ProQuest Historical Newspapers offers full-text and full-image articles for newspapers dating back to the 18th century. As part of the ProQuest Historical Newspapers program, every issue of each title includes the complete paper–cover-to-cover–with full-page and article images in downloadable PDF. Our package contains: The Baltimore Afro-American from 1893-1988 The Guardian and The Observer from 1791 to 2003 The Irish Times and The Weekly Irish Times from 1859 – 2015 New York Amsterdam News from 1922 - 1993 New York Times 1851 – 2012 Artemis Primary Sources Integrated platform for our Gale Primary source collections – including 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection, ECCO, NCCO, Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers, The Economist Historical Archive, 1843-2012, The Financial Times Historical Archive, 1888-2010 and The Sunday Times Digital Archive, 1822-2006. Increases the discoverability of documents and allows you to see link with other material and track themes and term frequency.
- Jenny Provenance: You might not get this from a digitised book Ephemeral material related to printed books – e.g. info about publishers publishing related editions / if a book is part of a collection – what does this tell us about the collecting habits of the time? Why has the digitisation been undertaken? Is it partial? Is this significant? What aren’t you seeing? Catherine
- Jenny
- Jenny
- Catherine Your thesis may contain copyright-protected material from elsewhere (for example, maps, illustrations, text, images, diagrams etc.). Such material is known as ‘third party copyright’, and you must ensure you have permission from the rights holder to include it in your thesis before it is published online. Copyright is an intellectual property right, and like all property rights it can be exchanged, bought and sold. This means that the copyright in a work may not be held by its original creator. The person or organisation that owns the copyright in a work is the rights-holder If rights holder unavailable / not known, must show you’ve taken reasonable steps to acquire permission The library can provide you with a template for requesting permissions. Contact us for more info. There is a guide to this on the library website, lots of information about this accessible via: Postgraduate Research LibGuide: Copyright and your PhD research and thesis https://s3.amazonaws.com/libapps/sites/404/docs/16389938/Copyright_and_your_thesis.pdf?X-Amz-Content-Sha256=e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855&X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=0ED81C7CPQQADHEZG902%2F20160415%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20160415T134000Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=Host&X-Amz-Expires=60&X-Amz-Signature=e273e91b7ee04d81554f5cdb9ab10643c7ccd427afc19c50c051f5eb6c976672 Permission to reuse can be: one-off or ongoing specific to a purpose or general exclusive or nonexclusive or may be given as an open licence allowing liberal reuse rights