• Finding Articles in Magazines, Journals, and Newspapers
• Finding Books in the DePaul libraries
• Other Places to Look: Research Subject Guides

• Examples for Citing Resources for a Bibliography
• Finding Assistance in the DePaul libraries

Primary sources are generally considered to be materials produced at the time of the events you are studying such as diaries, news articles, interviews, letters and speeches. Sources produced after the fact which help explain or further explore historical events are generally considered to be secondary source materials. Be sure to discuss with your professor what might be important primary sources for your specific research. For a more in-depth guide to primary sources, see DePaul Libraries Primary Source Guide.

Finding Primary Sources

Library Catalog, Specific LC subheadings indicate primary sources. To narrow these down when searching the catalog:

Do a guided keyword search

Line 1: Enter subject words for topic (As always, be careful what you choose. "World War II" as subject yields nothing, the LC subject heading is "World War, 1939 -1945")

Line 2: Search for "interviews correspondence narratives sources" select drop down "any of these" select drop down search by "subject words"

By subject headings
China--History--1937-1945--Sources
Vincentians--China--Correspondence
X,Malcolm,1925-1965--Interviews
Soviet Union--History--Revolution,1917-1921--Personal narratives

As an author (Be sure to find the proper form of the name)
Guevara, Ernesto
John Paul II, Pope
Nicholas II, Emperor of Russia

Newspapers on Microform

New York Times 1851-
Chicago Tribune 1849-
London Times 1788-1911

Primary Sources in reference collection
If students are really stumped for primary sources there are always bibliographies and encyclopedias in reference to give some guidance. We have materials in archives, resources on microfilm (find through the catalog) older newspapers, journals. Some collections of primary sources are also located in the reference collection.

The American Decades series has a Primary Sources set that includes excerpts of documents, photos, speeches, and other sources from 1900-1999 (R. 973.9 A512p). Another option is the Historic Documents series from CQ Press (R. 917.303 H6732) which collects important documents, speeches, and other information from the early 1970's to the present day.

Many primary sources can also be found on the web, via various library, archival, and institutional web sites. Our web site links to many, many sites with excellent primary sources. You can begin at the History Subject Guide. A complex Google search may be necessary to find legitimate primary sources on the web. One strategy is to limit searches to particular domains, using this syntax: site:edu. Site:org can also be effective. Searching sites that aggregate the holdings of digital collections can also be very helpful such as Oaister.

Reference Sources

Manuals: Explain what to do with historical evidence once gathered.

History: illustrated search strategy and sources / Elizabeth Frick. 2nd ed. Ann Arbor, Mich : Pierian Press, 1995. (907.2F897H1995)  

The modern researcher / Jacques Barzun, Henry F. Graff. 5th ed. Fort Worth ; London : Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, c1992. 907 B296M1992

A short guide to writing about history / Richard Marius. 4th ed. New York : Longman, c2002. (907.2 M343sa2002)

A student's guide to history / Jules R. Benjamin. 8th ed. Boston : Bedford Books ; New York : St. Martin's, 2001. (907.1173 B468s2001)

Guides/Bibliographies:

The American Historical Association's guide to historical literature / eds. Mary Beth Norton, Pamela Gerardi. 3rd ed. New York : Oxford University Press, 1995 (R.900 A512G1995) (Over 20,000 annotated citations by historians providing commentary on the best and most useful works in their fields)

China bibliography : a research guide to reference works about China past and present / Harriet T. Zurndorfer. Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, c1999 (R951.016 Z96c1999)

China / Charles W. Hayford, compiler. Oxford, England : Santa Barbara, Calif. : Clio Press, c1997. R.951 H418C1997.

The Chinese Communist movement; an annotated bibliography of selected materials in the Chinese Collection of the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace. Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, Stanford University, 1960- 2v. (R 951.04 H873C)

Dictionaries:

Dictionary of concepts in history / Harry Ritter. Westport Conn. : Greenwood Press, c1986. (R907.2 R614D)

Historical Dictionary of revolutionary China, 1839-1976 / edited by Edwin Pak-Wah Leung. New York, [N.Y.]: Greenwood Press, 1992 (R.951 H673L1992)

Random House historical dictionary of American slang / editor, J.E. Lighter; assistant eds. J. Ball, J. O'Connor. 1st ed. New York : Random House, 1994- (R427.973 R194L)

Encyclopedias: (May be general or specialized)

The Cambridge encyclopedia of China / editor, Brian Hook ; consultant editor, Denis Twitchett. 2nd ed. Cambridge [England] ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 1991 (R.951.003 C178H2)

Modern China : an encyclopedia of history, culture, and nationalism / editor, Wang Ke-wen. New York : Garland Pub., 1998. (R.951.003 M689w1998)

The encyclopedia of religion / [editor in chief, Mircea Eliade ; Charles J. Adams...et al.]. New York, N.Y. : Macmillan, c1987 16v (R.200.321 E56E)

New Catholic Encyclopedia / prepared by an editorial staff at the Catholic University of America. New York : McGraw-Hill, [1967-79] 18v (R.282.03 N5322)

The Catholic Encyclopedia / New York, Appleton [1906-14] 16v. (R282 C286); also available at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/

Biographical dictionaries: (Contemporary, historical, and special interest)

Biography and genealogy master index : a consolidated index to more than 3,200,000 biographical sketches in over 350 current and retrospective biographical dictionaries / edited by Miranda C. Herbert and Barbara McNeil. 2nd ed. Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co. c1980 (R.920.073 B615H) Also available as online database.

Biographical dictionary of Republican China / Howard L. Boorman, editor; Richard C. Howard, associate editor. New York, Columbia University Press, 1967-79. 5v (R920.051 B615)

Other Ready-Reference Tools: (Statistics, Digests, Chronologies, and Atlases)

International Historical Statistics: Africa, Asia, and Oceania 1750-1993 / 3rd ed. London : Macmillan Reference ; New York : Grove's Dictionaries, 1998. (R.316 M684i1998)

Chronology of world history / H.E.L. Mellersh. Rev. and updated ed. Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-Clio. c1999. (R.902.02 M525c1999)

An historical atlas of China / by Albert Hermann ; General editor, Norton Ginsburg ; prefatory essay by Paul Wheatley. (R 912.51 H568H2)

Selected Indexes to Newspaper and Scholarly Articles:

• LexisNexis Academic
  An excellent source for U.S. and European newspaper articles, newswires, business information, state and federal court cases, regulations, law reviews, and government information.
   
• Historical Abstracts
  Indexes historical journal articles, dissertations and other publications on world history. Coverage is from 1954-present.
   
• Academic Search Premier
  Provides access to the citations of articles, and in many cases full-text of articles, in a wide variety of disciplines including the social sciences, humanities, science and technology, national news, and general interest.
   
• JSTOR
  Provides access to full-text of journal articles in social sciences and the humanities. Searchable and browseable by date.

 
• MUSE
  Provides access to full-text journal articles in the humanities and social sciences.

Additional Indexes

America: History and Life 1964 to present-Database and Print (R.973.05A513A)
Biography Index 1946 to present (R.920.0016 B61)
Catholic Periodical Index 1930 to present-Print (R.050 C363)
Humanities Abstracts 1984 to present-Database. 1974 to present-Print (R.050 I612)
Nineteenth Century Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature Print (R.050 N714)
Poole's Index to Periodical Literature 1802-1907 Print (R.050 P82)
Social Sciences Abstracts 1983 to Present-Database. 1973 to present-Print (R.050 I613)
Writings on American History 1902 to present-Print (R.906 A512wab)
Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature 1900 to present (R.050 R28)

To search for books on your topic, you will need to use DePaul's library catalog. The catalog includes materials owned and located in DePaul's Libraries, including: books, journals, government documents, microforms, videos/DVDs/CDs, etc. Library of Congress Subject Headings are listed in the library catalog and can help serve as a useful guide to terms related to your research topic.  I would recommend using LC subject headings to narrow your search or to focus on primary sources by adding primary source headings. The library's Special Collections has a wide variety of primary materials dating back to the 16th century including the Irish Collection. See DePaul's Special Collections.

• Saint Joseph University Library Research Guide
  An extensive resource guide to help you find information on a variety of topics including political party websites, peace process documents, and websites for organizations including the IRA & Sinn Fein.
• Nuzhound
  A current Northern Ireland news source with archives back to 1996.
• PRONI
  The major archive in Northern Ireland.
• University of Ulster
  A digital collection affiliated with the University of Ulster's Magee campus in Derry. From here you can search the other Northern Ireland Social and Political Archive sites found at http://www.ark.ac.uk  
• Linenhall Library
  For recent materials, 1960's to present day, the Northern Ireland political literature collection of fiche from the Linenhall Library in Belfast, includes contemporary pamphlet literature which can be found in the CRL catalog.
• Center for Research Libraries
  An international consortium of colleges, universities and libraries that provides journals, newspapers, archives and scholarly resources.

For information about evaluating resources see DePaul Libraries Criteria for Evaluating Sources.

• Examples of how to cite print and internet sources using DePaul's Citation Guides.
• Examples of how to cite resources using MLA style and Chicago/Turabian style.
• Review the parts of a citation: Searchpath (Western Michigan University) and Sydney (Bergen Community College).

• In person: Library Reference Desks located at Lincoln Park, Loop and our suburban campuses.
• By Phone: Lincoln Park (773) 325-7863, Loop (312) 362-8432.
• Online: try our "Ask a Librarian" service.
   

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Last updated: 9/12/2006