HISTORY 90 RESEARCH GUIDE, Fall 2003

"Witchcraft and Witch-Hunting in Early Modern Times"

by Kathe Morrow, Humanities Librarian



 

Contents :
Starting a Research Project
Databases and Indices
World Wide Web
ASA
Interlibrary Loan
Footnotes/citations

 

STARTING A RESEARCH PROJECT


Choosing a Topic:  if you need help choosing a topic try to:

Now ask yourself, What words, subjects or phrases should I search to get more information from books, articles, web resources or other resources?

Once you have selected words you can begin by doing a keyword search using a powerful feature available in our online resources called Boolean Logic. Boolean Logic uses the terms AND, OR and NOT to broaden or narrow your search and is available in most online databases, catalogs and Internet search tools. Online resources often retrieve many records so narrowing your results can be very useful. The way Boolean Logic works is fairly simple,
 
            AND retrieves results that contain BOTH search terms which narrows your search.

Example: russia and economics
 OR retrieves items that contain EITHER term in the record which broadens results.
Example:  women or females
 NOT retrieves records that include the first term but EXCLUDE the SECOND TERM which narrows your search.
Example:  microwave not ovens


Databases and Indices for Historical Research

Generally useful for finding articles in scholarly journals and other secondary sources, however some Primary Source Material may be uncovered. (The Database list link can be found on the Library Services home page and lists many more resources in a wide range of subjects)

Link to electronic databases list:   http://databases.lib.lehigh.edu/finder/

                print edition also in L-1-Index, 1890- 1992 Contents

World Wide Web

Useful Gateways for Historical Materials on the WWW:
 

InfoDome: Lehigh University's Scholarly Web Resource collection-History
http://www.lehigh.edu/library/infodome/humanities/history.html

Rhodes- History Resources
http://www.rhodes.edu/Histhtmls/histnet.html

WWW - Virtual Library: History
http://www.ukans.edu/history/VL/


  Evaluating Web resources:


In addition to the resources available from Lehigh Library Services you may wish to try searching your topic on the Internet with one of the many search engines available such as Yahoo, Google, etc. When you use search tools on the Internet the responsibility for selecting worthwhile resources is up to you, not a librarian or your instructor or the search engine! In fact, search engines can vary widely in accuracy and usefulness. If you want to know more about how search engines can be manipulated and how they may manipulate YOU check out the links in the resource section below.  How can you select and decide on the merit of information on the Internet? You consider the following:

ACCURACY
     • Is the site well researched and information properly cited?
     • Are facts and statistics documented?
AUTHORITY
     • Can you identify the author/sponsor?
     • Is contact information provided?
     • What are the qualifications or credentials of the author? What is the institutional affiliation?
     • Is copyright clearly stated where applicable?
OBJECTIVITY
     • Are the goals/aims of the authors clearly stated?
     • Are there biases in the document?
CURRENCY
     • When was the site last updated? Are the links up-to-date?
PUBLISHING BODY
     • Who "publishes" or sponsors the site? Is there a connection to a larger sponsoring web site? You can sometimes tell something  about the site from the URL  for the site by checking the letters to the left of the first (/). The abbreviations you see stand for the following information:
     .edu                   refers to a U.S. college or university
     .cc.(state).us      refers to a community college
     .k12.(state).us    refers to a school that has grades k-12
     .com                  refers to a business or commercial enterprise
     .org                   refers to a non-profit organization or trade association
     .mil                    refers to a military site
     .gov                   refers to a government agency, official, or organization
     .net                    refers to a network administration organization
     • How does the information compare with other sources available on the topic such as books or academic level journal articles?

For more information on evaluating web sites check the following two links:

Cowles, Susan. "Is it fools' gold or the real thing?" 5 Dec. 97. National Institute For Literacy. 10 Sept. 02 <http://novel.nifl.gov/susanc/foolsgld.htm>

 Tyburski, Genie. "Evaluating the quality of information on the Internet" 14 Sept. 01.  Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, 22 Sept. 02 <http://www.virtualchase.com/quality/index.html>

 

ASA:

Finding Journals, Books, Web resources and Media materials at Lehigh
 

Academic level material selected specifically for your use on many of the topics for this class can be found by searching our online catalog, ASA. From the Library Services home page link to http://asa.lib.lehigh.edu/uhtbin/webcat Try Keyword or Subject searches for your topics. Check our journal holdings by searching for the Journal Title in ASA.

Contents

InterLibrary Loan

Resources that you discover for your paper that are not available from Lehigh can often be gotten from other libraries through InterLibrary Loan (ILL). To learn more about this service and access the ILL form go to http://www.lehigh.edu/library/services/illform.html  from the Library Services home page.

Contents

Footnotes/Citations

The resources you use for your reports and term paper must be cited and cited correctly. To check examples of citing books, web sites, journal articles etc. you can access citation guides from the Library Services home page http://www.lehigh.edu/library/footnote/footnote.html There are many citation styles to use, check with Prof. Baylor to see which style he prefers for your paper.

Contents

Prepared, 08/19/03 If you have further questions, contact me at kem6 or 83041