Like Driving a Car: Historical Research
Students often get lost in the process of conducting research for papers and other assignments. We can divide research into two components- primary and secondary.
- Climb into the car- Starting point- the University Library Website. This will connect students to both primary and secondary databases.
- Put on your seatbelt- Discipline Guides- housed on the library website are guides for conducting both primary and secondary historical research.
- Put your hands on the wheel and start the engine- Locating a database- use one of the recommended primary or secondary databases from the research guide subpage. When you open the guide.
- Turning the wheel using search terms- use search terms on the database to locate information pertaining to your research topic. For example US History is too broad, and life in Southern Buffalo, New York in July 1952 is too specific. Think of your search terms like turning the wheel in a car, you can’t make rapid turns from left to right as you drive down the road, rather smaller corrections to maintain your path.
- Hit the Breaks! Sometimes your research may yield 10000s of responses, or none at all. At this point you need to hit the breaks because your search terms are too wide, or too small.
I have attached a chart with the types of sources to consider along the path, for these it would be going back to step 3- finding a new wheel to drive, to keep looking for results.
TweetExample for "Like Driving a Car: Historical Research":
https://bank.ecampusontario.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/histres.gif
Leave a Reply