NHD Teacher Workshop2008

Finding and Using Quality Sources

Where do I find good sources?

• Scholarly books and journals – see what sources those authors and researchers used– For example, look at your McFarland

book.

Encyclopedias (to use or not to use)

• Don’t use the encyclopedia entry as a source but see who wrote it or if it lists additional readings.

• Example: Britannica.com’s entry on Ronald Reagan lists about 30 good sources in their additional reading section.

• WorldCat – Worldwide library catalog http://www.worldcat.org/

Last but not least . . .

• Theses and dissertations

• Photographs

• Archive.org – A digital library of Internet sites

• Ask an archivist or librarian!!

How do I know if it is a good source or not?

• You need to ask certain questions of all your sources.– Is this author an authority on the subject or

just some random guy off the street? For example: Would you use your Cousin Joe as a source of information about Queen Elizabeth and Tudor England?

– Are their sources of information well documented?

– Is the information current or recent?– Is the author biased? If so, proceed with

caution and don’t let their viewpoints dictate your own!

UC Berkeley has an excellent tutorial for evaluating websites and its guidelines can be used when evaluating any materials. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html

Sources never to use:

• Encyclopedias• Wikipedia and wikis• Flickr• Personal websites• Blogs• Websites that end in .com• Juvenile literature

Inappropriate Source• Larson, Eward J. A Magnificent Catastrophe, Simon and Schuster,

2007. http://books.google.com/books?id=MXcCdlmwwecC&rview=1 1 January 2008.

The 1800 presidential election, the last great contest of the founding period, was so convulsive and so momentous for American democracy that Jefferson would later dub it "America's second revolution." America's first true presidential campaign gave birth to our two-party system and etched the lines of partisanship that have shaped . . .

Students should not use reviews from sources like Google books or Amazon. They must read the material themselves.

Inappropriate source

• -"Patton, George Smith.“ Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 12 Dec. 2007 .

This article is linked to many others related to the war in general. It’s the one that led us initially to the “Patton Papers”. The information on Patton isn’t all that different from any of the other biographies, but it links us to other articles

• Students should never cite to an encyclopedia

Citations

How do I cite my sources?

All bibliography entries need full citations in either the MLA or Turabian style. The following websites offer good examples of how to cite various materials. With all of these style guides, be sure to follow the works cited/bibliography examples.

• MLA– http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/instruct/guides/mlastyle.pdf– http://www.libs.uga.edu/ref/mlastyle.html– http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocMLAWorksCited.html

• Turabian– http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/instruct/guides/chicago-

turabianstyle.pdf– http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocChiWorksCited.html– http://library.osu.edu/sites/guides/chicagonotesgd.php

• In addition, Indiana University has a guide to citing those pesky government publications.

• http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=2558• When citing archival materials it is always best to ask the

institution how they would like their collections noted. Always include the repository, the collection name, the box or volume number and the city and state where the repository is located.

Annotations

What should I include in my annotation?

• Annotations should answer the 5 “Ws:”– Who– What– When– Where

• And most importantly– WHY

• Why did the student include this in the project?• How did the student use in the his/her project

Examples of good and bad annotations

Bad Annotation

This source shows the front page of the Jerusalem Post Newspaper following the Six-Day War. This source told what the public was informed of and how detailed it was.

Good Annotation This press release was important to my research

because in this document, the Secretary of State, Cordell Hull provides instructions on how the United States should proceed. The Secretary asks the American Ambassador to immediately inform Foreign Minister Hirota of the attack and request that the Japanese Government take appropriate action. This information which is included on my exhibit in the diplomatic request panel is important because it provides information on what the American government wanted in the way of a response from Japan. I obtained it during my visit to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library in Hyde Park, New York.

Primary vs. Secondary

Primary vs. Secondary

• A student is preparing a project on the March on Washington. They are examining the march itself not the public perceptions. They have chosen an article from Los Angeles, CA on 28 August 1963. The author of the article was not in Washington, D.C. on the day of the march.

• Primary or secondary?

Secondary

• The topic is the March itself not public perceptions of the March. Therefore, since the author was neither a participant nor an eyewitness, this is a secondary source.

Primary vs. Secondary

• A student is doing a project on Ronald Reagan. The student finds a biography of Ronald Regan.

• Primary or secondary?

Secondary

• If it was an autobiography it would be a primary source. However, since it is an biography, it is secondary.

Primary vs. Secondary

• Students are doing a project on the Bisbee Deportation. They interview Dr. Jim McBride, a well known labor historian at Arizona State University.

• Primary or secondary?

Secondary

• Dr. McBride was neither a participant nor an eyewitness to the Bisbee Deportation.

• Experts in the field are not primary resources unless they were involved with the event or were an eyewitness.

Primary vs. Secondary

• A student is doing a project on Robin Hood. He/she wishes to include the Mel Brooks movie “Robin Hood: Men in Tights.”

• Primary or secondary?

Secondary

• Unless the student is conducting research on how popular culture portrays the fictional character of Robin Hood, it is a secondary source.

Primary vs. Secondary

• Students are doing a project on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. They locate a history book with excerpts of Dr. King’s speeches. They want to use the excerpts in their project.

• Primary or secondary?

Primary

• Since the excerpts are directly from Dr. King’s speeches, they are primary sources.

• However, students should attempt to locate the original source and not settle for the reprint.

Primary vs. Secondary

• Students are doing a project on Lou Gehrig. They locate a photograph of Lou Gehrig at the Library of Congress.

• Primary or secondary?

Primary

• Photographs of the person or event the project is about are always primary sources.

Inaccurate and incomplete citations.

-Bradley, Omar N.Personal friend to George Patton, Bradley served extensively with Patton, at first serving under him after West Point and again in North Arica and Sicily as a second in command of the second corps and seventh army. Then after a steep decline in Patton’s career he commanded George and all American forces in Western Europe. He wrote extensively about Patton both good and bad. We used quotes form him in our project.

Incomplete citation. Where is the publication information?

-Churchill, WinstonThe leader of the British Empire during the World War Two. Churchill spoke highly of Patton and his army’s exploits. Although Patton and Churchill spoke very infrequently, they met during the allied Casablanca conference in 1943. This was good background information on the British opinion on Patton.

Again, incomplete citation.

This is an incomplete sentence. Annotations should have full sentences.

Sources• WorldCat (Worldwide library catalog)

– www.worldcat.org• Internet Archives (An organization that captures and stores web

pages)– www.archive.org

• Evaluating websites– http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html

• MLA– http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/instruct/guides/mlastyle.pdf– http://www.libs.uga.edu/ref/mlastyle.html– http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocMLAWorksCited.html

• Turabian– http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/instruct/guides/chicago-turabianstyle.pdf– http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocChiWorksCited.html– http://library.osu.edu/sites/guides/chicagonotesgd.php

• Citing to government records– http://www.libraries.iub.edu/index.php?pageId=2558