History

Find Secondary Sources in Subject Specific Database: 

Still looking for information or overwhelmed by LibrarySearch results? Use one of history-specific journal article databases on the ARTICLES tab of this guide.  

Historical Abstracts: An important resource for history research. Try the advanced search function, which allows you to search for articles discussing specific historical time periods, or use the side filters to narrow results by date, subject or type of publication.

Jstor: Though not specific to History, this is a large journal database that has excellent history journal content. Use the filters on the side to limit to the discipline of History.

When searching, use keywords that represent only the important aspects of your topic, and avoid sentence fragments

Good search:
Nazi policy disabled
Poor search:
Nazi policy on treatment of disabled people 

Finding too much?

• Add an additional search term that narrows your topic
• Put “quotation marks around important phrases" to search for exact phrases, e.g., "world war II"

Finding too little?

• Remove a search term
• Put * after the root of a word to look for multiple endings, e.g, environ*
• Use OR between similar terms/ideas to search for EITHER word
  e.g., (authoritariam OR totalitarian) 

For better searching, think of multiple ways to describe your topic and switch terms occasionally e.g. World War II vs. Second World War

To find tertiary / background sources 

• Use very simple searches, usually just one or two words works best. e.g. Fascism Italy
• Pay close attention to the larger work (e.g., the encyclopedia) the source is found in, to make sure what you have found is relevant, e.g., an  entry in an encyclodia of American history will be more relevant than one on the history of another country.

Often spending a bit of time reading background information in a high quality, specialized encyclopedia, historical dictionary or other tertiary source can help you improve your understanding of the broad topic and also build your search vocabulary. Note that these types of sources are NOT peer reviewed.

You can find these background / reference / tertiary sources:

• On the Background Sources tab of this guide. Recommended background sources for this course can be found in:
  • Oxford Reference Online
  • CredoReference
  • World History in Context
• By searching in LibrarySearch and filtering by Resource Type: Reference Entries

Where to Find Primary Sources Relevant to this Course

The following collections are good starting points for finding documents related to this course. For a more exhaustive list of Canadian primary source collections, visit the Primary Sources for Canadian History tab of this research guide. 

​Canadiana Online: Includes early government documents/legislation, some early newspapers, religious tracts and special interest group publications of various kinds. Best for topics up to the early 20th century. 

Historical newspapers: Newspapers are an accessible form of primary source for those new to this type of research. MRU provides access to numerous papers, including some dating back to the mid-19th century (Toronto Star, Globe and Mail) and earlier.

Historical Debates of the Parliament of Canada (Hansard): Includes all verbatim accounts of all debates of the Canadian Senate and the House of Commons from the first session in 1867 to 1994 (House of Commons) and 1996 (Senate). 

Internet Archive: Not specific to Canada, this digital library includes a vast number of digitized primary document relating to Canada. Be sure to use the date limiter to ensure primary source results.

Peel's Prairie Provinces: Documents the settlement and development of the Canadian West, with a focus on Alberta, and dating back to the earliest days of exploration in the region. A good source of political and special interest related tracts and pamphlets (e.g. social reform and temperance organizations). 

University of Calgary Digital Collections - Includes a Louis Riel Collection, along with useful sources on the history of  Alberta, including early newspapers, legal history and a local history book collection. For best results, limit your search to only the most relevant collections for your topic. 

Other ways to find primary sources

•  On the Primary Sources tab of this guide, browse for relevant primary source collections. Look for the Primary Sources by Geographical Area of Study heading.
• On Google - add the terms primary sources or primary documents to your search query e.g., Canada immigration primary documents
• In LibrarySearch :
  • Add the word sources to your search query, or search for a specific source type e.g., speeches, correspondence, diaries, royal commission. E.g., Pierre Trudeau sources, or Pierre Trudeau speeches
  • Try using the drop down menu to search for your terms only in the subject of the results.
  • Use the creation date filter and specify dates or years relevant to your topic
  • Use the resource type filter and do a newspaper search

Primary Source Search Tips

• Dates: If the search tool offers the option to limit by date, use it. Be very specific to the time period you are studying, especially with newspapers

• Search terms: Use terminology from the time period and perspective you are studying - e.g., Great War vs. World War; Cuba Crisis vs. October Crisis; experiment with different terms, e.g. nuclear vs. atomic

• Advanced search tools: Try going to the advanced search and searching for your terms in the title of the articles, or look for the option to search in only specific types of documents (e.g., only front page news articles)

• Newspapers are one of the easiest types of primary source to find, and are a good starting point depending on the recency of your topic
   
• Be methodical - identity relevant document collections, and review them systematically to find the best/most relevant - not the first - documents, e.g., look at each issue of a newspaper from the time your event was happening
   
• More tips for finding primary sources