Subject Training for LSD

How to Find Secondary Sources: 

• Books: History students locating secondary sources for their research projects should explore the catalog to identify book-length works. Historians often produce scholarly monographs, so both books and articles should be on students' radar. Indeed, finding a monograph on a students' topic of interest can lead to many additional sources--both primary and secondary. Historians love footnotes and bibliographies!
• Articles: The two main databases that I direct students to are JSTOR (for full-text searches across disciplines) and American History and Life (to search titles, abstracts, etc. of US-history specific journals. When should students use which database? If students are getting an overwhelming number of only tangentially-related articles in JSTOR, direct them to American History and Life. Because of the way the search works, results are often more relevant to the topic. America History and Life also has an advanced search feature that is allows researchers to search by historical era, which can also be helpful in locating relevant works (See "historical period" in the screenshot below).

How to Find Primary Sources:

• Historical Newspapers: The most common questions from history students are how to locate relevant primary sources related to their topic. If they're not sure where to start, I often direct them to digitized historical newspapers. They are often more accessible and easier to interpret than other primary sources, but still produce original, strong papers. Where they go to find digital newspapers and if they're accessible, depends on a large number of factors including the date-span, and whether we subscribe to a given paper. You can find recommended databases on this Guide to US Newspapers but a good place to start is ProQuest Newspapers. It includes major daily metropolitan newspapers (New York Times, Washington Post), an excellent collection of major African American newspapers, Jewish newspapers, and other smaller but important collections (ie. communist newspapers).
• Other Primary Sources: If they are interested in other types of sources, you can direct them to me (berica@emory.edu) or to the primary source page on the US History Research Guide. It includes recommended databases for the colonial period, the 19th century and the 20th century.
• Physical Archives: Students also frequently ask for help locating physical archives at Emory and beyond. For tips on how to do this, visit the primary source page on the US History Research Guide. 

How to Use Primary Sources in their Writing/ Craft a Historical Research Paper: 

Students often ask for help with how to craft historical research papers. An excellent guide is Zachary Schrag's HistoryProfessor.Org. Of particular interest to students are the articles, "The Anatomy of a 30 page paper" and "The Anatomy of a 10 page paper" and the Thesis Statement template. These documents are specific to history and as such provide students who haven't incorporated historical sources into their writing a place to begin!