1. History of Sexuality Library Research and Tools www.lib.washington.edu/subject/bi/hsteu490

2. Research Process  Developing a topic  Selecting research tools  Creating search strategies  Locating material  Evaluating material

3. Developing a topic  Is the topic feasible? Is there a brief introduction/overview to the topic Is material readily available in the library? Is the topic too broad or too narrow? Is the material in a language I can read?

4. Selecting research tools  What tools to use? Depends on the topic – the discipline Depends on the format of material you want – books, scholarly journal articles, magazine or newspaper articles, dissertations, etc. Depends on the era for which you want material – primary or secondary sources

5. Types of Information Needed:  Background information to provide some context, important events, names of key people and organizations.  Secondary sources to discover how others have analyzed the topic, provide additional context, and leads to primary sources.  Primary sources for evidence -- contemporary accounts: diaries, government reports, news articles, memoirs, novels, art, etc.

6. Secondary Sources  Accounts written after the fact by scholars. Interpretations of history based on an analysis of primary sources.  Formats:  Books  Journal articles  Dissertations  Conference reports

7. Primary Sources: Definitions  “is material -- a document or other evidence -- that was created during the period or the event”  “historical raw materials”  “the leavings, the shards, the remnants of people who once lived and don't live anymore”

8. Historians & Primary Sources  Primary sources are the evidence used by historians in their analysis/interpretation of the past.  Good history books and scholarly journal articles (secondary sources) carefully cite the evidence in footnotes.  Primary sources help us make personal connections with the past.

9. Written primary sources  Public/published Newspapers Magazines Books  Written during time  Written later by participants (memoirs)  Collections of primary sources published at a later date Government reports

10. Unwritten primary sources  Graphics photographs posters art maps  Artifacts buildings furniture Coins clothing tombstones

11. Types of tools  Catalogs UW Libraries Catalog Summit  Indexes Current scholarly coverage  Historical Abstracts  International Medieval Bibliography  ATLA Religion Database Past magazine and newspaper coverage  19 th Century Masterfile  Palmer’s Index to the Times

12. Creating search strategies  Vocabulary of search terms Topical (include synonyms and broader/narrower concepts) Key people/organizations Geographical Events/chronological  Database speak Connecting search terms with Boolean operators/connectors  AND – narrows search by adding additional terms  OR – broadens a search by adding related terms Truncation/wild card

13. Locating material  Identify possible material by searching the appropriate search tools If books then the library location and call number is given in the UW Libraries Catalog. If articles then you may need to search the UW Libraries Catalog to locate the journal/magazine. If material is not available at the UW you can use Summit or UWorld Express to get materials at other libraries sent here.

14. Evaluating material  Questions to consider Who is the author? What type of publication is it? What biases? What sources are used to support the author’s argument? What is the historical context? How was it received?