HIST 260: Historiography and Research Methods: Main

The Library section of History 260 is designed to give History students an overview of the research process.  During the sessions covering the use of the Library and information resources, we will discuss print and online sources to locate books and articles as part of a systematic research strategy.  We will also discuss how to evaluate sources and how to use some of these sources for your Historiographic Essay.  The end product of these sessions will be an Annotated Bibliography of sources you have explored for your Historiographic Essay.

Tuesday, March 15th:

• Introduction - why are we here?
• Finding and choosing a topic
  • What does a good topic look like?
• Finding books using OneSearch

Homework: Bring at least 3 potential sources (books, articles) to class on Thursday, March 17th. 

Thursday, March 17th:

• Choosing a citation manager - or not
• Chicago bibliography-style citations
  • Exercise
• Searching for articles in OneSearch
• Databases for history
• Getting materials from other libraries using PASCAL Delivers and Interlibrary Loan.

Homework: 20 citations related to your project in Chicago format (Bibliography style) will be due by 11:59PM Thursday, March 24, on Moodle.

Tuesday, March 29th:

• Determining scholarly authority: what does it mean to be a historian? How is scholarship published in history?
• How to write annotations

Homework: Five annotated sources will be due by 11:59PM Sunday, April 10, on Moodle.

Tuesday, April 12th:

• Organizing your resources
• Determining the scholarly conversation

Homework: Final annotated bibliography (ten sources annotated) due 11:59PM Tuesday, April 19th, on Moodle.