Searching for primary sources click version
- 1. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library Locating Primary Sources A tutorial on getting started
- 2. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library Get some leads … • Browse the InfoCentre catalog for books on your topic • Browse the same range of shelves where you previously found your secondary sources • As you browse look for …
- 3. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library Terms that indicate that a book might contain primary sources … “Primary Sources” “Reader”
- 4. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library Terms that indicate that a book might contain primary sources … “Voices” “Chronicles”
- 5. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library Terms that indicate that a book might contain primary sources … “Documents” “Eyewitness”
- 6. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library While browsing, look for … • Complete translations of works by primary source writers that you’ve read about or heard mentioned in class lectures
- 7. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library While browsing, look for … • Sourcebooks—Collections of primary sources that have been compiled and indexed together just to make your life easier!
- 8. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library Revisit secondary sources … • Primary sources can also often be found embedded within secondary sources • Look for publishers’ visual cues …
- 9. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library Visual cues in secondary sources … • Look for text in boxes Be sure that the text in the box is from a primary source writer rather than another academic researcher or prominent modern historian (this quote is from Plutarch)
- 10. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library Visual cues in secondary sources … • Look for blocks of indented text The paragraph just before or just after the block of text will often tell you where the quote is from. Be sure that the source quoted is primary.
- 11. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library Use help from publishers’… • Look in tables-of-contents
- 12. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library Use help from publishers … • Look in tables-of-contents The summaries indicate that chapter 1 of this book has two articles written by primary source writers.
- 13. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library Use help from publishers … • Look at bibliographies and lists of works cited This author lists “Ancient Sources” that were consulted. Search the library collection for these sources!
- 14. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library Use help from publishers … • Look at authors’ notes/footnotes/endnotes at the bottoms of pages, ends of chapters, and ends of books Look for the names of works written by primary source writers. Search the collection for those works and search writers’ names as authors in InfoCentre.
- 15. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library Use help from publishers … • Look at references or lists of books at the end of chapters This article lists the primary source writers and the names of the works used. Search the library collection and mine the sources for other useful quotes!
- 16. Harvard-Westlake Middle School Library End of tutorial