Historical Research in the Modern Library

Originally developed for a class in the Society for Creative Anachronism, by Pani Jadwiga Zajaczkowa , Jennifer Heise
"In early days, I tried not to give librarians any trouble, which was where I made my primary mistake. Librarians like to be given trouble; they exist for it, they are geared to it. For the location of a mislaid volume, an uncatalogued item, your good librarian has a ferret’s nose. Give her a scent and she jumps the leash, her eye bright with battle."
 Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973), U.S. biographer. Adventures of a Biographer, ch. 9 (1959).

About Libraries * Reference  *  Serials/Periodicals * Special Collections/Rare Books * Dissertations and Theses * Microforms * Electronic Collections *  Photocopying * ILL: What to do if the Library doesn't have the item you want *  Classification Systems *  Reference Books * Finding Tools * Techniques of Searching *  Types of Sources * Copyright & Plagiarism * Internet Use * Citing What you Find * Other sites to check out

About Libraries

The first thing to do before beginning your research is to have a game plan. That means thinking about what you want to find out, then thinking about where you are likely to find it. 

For instance, are you interested in historical events? Or is there an object you want to research? Or are are you interested in researching a particular culture? If you are doing object oriented research, are you interested primarily in how to make one in the modern world, the appearance of the period object, the construction of the period object, or all three? How much information do you already have? If you are just starting out on A&S research, persona research, or learning a craft or activity, you may be looking for more generalized material; if you have mastered the basics of something and want period references and depictions to work from, you will be looking in different areas.

Different libraries have different types of collections, so you will want to plan your research and finding efforts based on the materials you are looking for. Also, different libraries offer different types of services, so that is a factor too.

Types of libraries:

What resources and what kind of help you can get often depends on what libraries you visit. It's often useful to start with the libraries that are most beholden to you, either because you are affiliated with them or they get public tax money. Even if the librarians cannot answer your question there, they can sometimes refer you to other libraries that can help you.

Before visiting a library, call (or email) to check out what access to the collections you may have. Certain private university and special libraries don't allow the public in, or require special ID or references, or limit times and collections that are available to the public. Some libraries will issue you a library card (for free or for a fee) to check out books even if you are not part of their primary clientele; others won't.

Most libraries have their catalogs available to the general public and searchable over the web-- check to see if the library has a web site and look for their catalog there. Checking the catalog before visiting the library can save you a lot of time!
The American Library Association Directory will help you find information about libraries in a given geographic area. Most libraries have a copy.

Just for fun, check out GABRIEL: Gateway to Europe's National Libraries, which gives information about the National Libraries of 39 European countries:  http://www.kb.nl/gabriel Also see Historical Research in Europe: A Guide to Archives and Libraries: http://webcat.library.wisc.edu:3200/HistResEur/

Many museums have library collections that may be open to the public. Call the museum or check out their web site to see what services are available. You may need a letter of recommendation or introduction-- if your local library is familiar with you, that's the first place to go for one of those.

Check with your local librarian for more cues about libraries to visit. One librarian put up a guide for people in her area: Libraries for Medievalists in the Delaware Valley: http://www3.villanova.edu/DVMA/dvmalib.html

Reference:

Reference librarians will help you use the finding tools and get the information you need. Also, the 'reference collection' holds information finding tools and 'reference works' (collections of facts and data for quick look-ups). Reference books generally don't circulate, i.e., they can't be checked out of the library.
Reference librarians at your library can often be reached by phone, email, or even online chat: check out your library's web site to find out. (Also, try the Ask-A directory: http://www.vrd.org/locator/subject.shtml). The Library of Congress has a page for its chat and email services, at: http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/
Online, the Internet Public Libraries' reference section http://www.ipl.org/ offers a collection of electronic resources on various topics. Some reference works are available online through  www.bartleby.com.

The best way to get help and make the best use of a library's resources is to inquire at the reference desk!

Librarian Marylaine Block says: "Even when we've found exactly what our user wanted, many of us will keep on looking, keep on playing because we became more curious about the topic than our user did. Knowledge is a lot like a ball of yarn, and what we all do is tug at the end and pull it out, a little at a time, until we have just as much as our user needs.  But we also know that every bit of information we find gives us more clues, and that we could keep tugging and tugging until the whole ball lies in a little puddle of yarn on the floor."

Collections

Serials or Periodicals

The terms 'serials' or 'periodicals' collections are used to refer to a library's collection of magazines and journal subscriptions. Current issues are usually shelved separately; older ones are bound or on microfilm. Many libraries, especially academic ones, have 'electronic journal' subscriptions as part of their collection: articles from certain journal issues/volumes are accessed through the World Wide Web as HTML or PDF documents. Access to electronic journals may be restricted to the campus or current users, and printing may be restricted or involve a fee.

Some general history magazines, such as History Today, Archaeology Today, Smithsonian, Discovering Archaeology, may be worth simply sitting down and scanning through. Table of contents services, such as Ingenta (www.ingenta.com), will let you search the tables of contents of multiple magazines/journals. To find periodical articles on particular subjects, however, you probably want to use an appropriate subject index.

Some journals and magazines are available free on the web: see http://www.findarticles.com and the Directory of Open Access Journals: http://www.doaj.org/ for examples.

'Circulating Collection' aka 'General Collection'

Library collections which can be checked out. Most can be searched using the catalog. Mainly books or 'monographs'; may include pamphlets, CD's, records, tapes, videotapes, CD-ROM, movies, and/or real objects along with books. (Monographs are one-off rather than 'serial' or repeating publications: sometimes monographs/books are published as part of series, and if you happen on the title of a relevant series, you can find other useful items in the series.) Generally circulating collections are in open stacks, where you can browse the shelves and retrieve the items yourself; older books are sometimes in closed stacks and you may need to request that they be retrieved for you.

Special Collections, Rare Books

Some libraries have collections of rare books and/or specific subject collections. You will want to call ahead before visiting special collections: they often have limited hours or hours by arrangement. There is a book (Subject collections : a guide to special book collections and subject emphases as reported by university, college, public, and special libraries and museums in the United States and Canada, by Lee Ash and William G. Miller), that lists some of them, and the American Library Directory will also tell you what special collections a library has. An online source that lists special collections departments is Repositories of Primary Sources  http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html. You may need to contact the special collections librarian to make an appointment to see the collections-- they are usually in closed stacks. Leave pens, ink, food and drink, and anything else that might damage a book in the car when you go to visit special collections.

PhD. Dissertations and Master's Theses:

These documents, written to fulfill the requirements for a PhD (Doctoral) or Master's degree program, are not commercially published. Each academic library will have a collection of Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses written at its institution; it may also have copies of a few dissertations and theses from other schools in its circulating collection. However, in some cases, no copy of the dissertation or thesis may have been deposited with the library, so no copy is available at all!