An encyclopedia article is often the best place to look when you need to know the context of a situation, the basic outlines of a person’s life, or why a place is important. Encyclopedia articles are a great first step as they provide background material to help your understanding of the historical events. These are not materials to base your research papers on, but they can provide you with the knowledge and vocabulary necessary to search for more substantive material.
A good encyclopedia article is written (and signed) by an expert on the subject and represents the consensus of scholarly opinion. A good encyclopedia article should also have a short bibliography on the subject of each article, a list of sources for further reading.
There are several kinds of encyclopedias; general encyclopedias (e.g. Encyclopaedia Britannica), subject encyclopedias (e.g. The Canadian Encyclopedia), and biographical encyclopedias (e.g. Dictionary of Canadian Biography) to name some important categories.
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This link opens in a new windowFind more examples of encyclopedias and other sources to get started with choosing a topic on the Canadian History Subject Guide:
Use the Catalogue to find scholarly books. Most books you will find fall into this category. You can limit the results of your searches to books by selecting "Book" from the format menu on the left side of your list of search results.
One useful way is to find the appropriate subject headings. Subject headings are useful because they bring all the books on a given subject together, regardless of the keywords in the title or descriptions. There are several kinds of headings: people, places, events, and concepts being the most obvious.
The best way to approach subject headings is to start with some words you know to be appropriate for your topic and search them in the Catalogue. Then look at the records for the books you find and locate the subject headings, such as the example below. Each subject heading is a hyperlink that acts like a hashtag -- you can click on it to find other books on the same topic.
References in modern secondary works, either articles or chapters of books dealing with your topic are also a useful source for finding still more relevant works. But remember, while you can build up a very useful chain of references, it will only lead backwards in time (Citation Chaining). More recent references will only come from the Catalogue.
A recent book by a recognized scholar on any subject will usually be a good starting point for that subject. Review the points about scholarly and popular works mentioned above.
Once you find your book, ask yourself the following questions:
A recent scholarly book is not only a good starting point for your research, but it is also one of the best places to find more secondary and primary sources.
Use the Catalogue to find a book on your subject with a popular treatment. (Although this is an academic library, we do try to collect as much as we can on Canadian history, including popular works.) Review the points about scholarly and popular works mentioned here.
Just like with a scholarly book, the most useful way to find a popular book is to find the appropriate subject headings. The distinction between scholarly and popular does not refer to the content, but rather to the approach and intention. Subject headings reflect the subject matter only.
To find recent scholarly articles about Canadian history, the best database to search is:
This link opens in a new windowAll the journals indexed in these indexes are scholarly ones, but review the points about scholarly and popular works mentioned above, as not all items are peer-reviewed.
As with books, one useful way is to find the appropriate subject headings used by the index. Subject headings are useful because they bring all the articles on a given subject together, regardless of the keywords in the articles' title or abstract.
One way to approach subject headings is to start with some words you know to be appropriate for your topic. Look at the “full record” for the articles you find. What are the subject headings? Which of the headings on the records is the most appropriate for the aspects of your topic that you want to study? Click on that heading to search for more articles tagged with the same subject.
The “historical period” limiter in America: History and Life is particularly useful. Use this feature to narrow down your search by selecting the time period you are studying:
One type of article to beware of is book reviews. While these can be very interesting and will tell you a lot about the subject and the specific book they are reviewing, a book review is not an article about a subject; it is an article about a book, and that is a different matter. Consider excluding book reviews when searching for a peer-reviewed article.
Other databases to search include:
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The Dictionary of Canadian Biography, which currently covers people who died before 1930, is a useful source for secondary scholarly articles by and about individuals.
References in modern secondary works, either articles or chapters of books dealing with your topic are also a useful source for finding still more relevant works. But remember, while you can build up a very useful chain of references, it will only lead backwards in time. More recent references will only come from resources like America: History & Life (which automatically sorts results to newest, rather than by relevance).
A recent article by a recognized scholar on any subject will usually be a good starting point for that subject.
A recent scholarly article is not only a good starting point for your research, but it is also one of the best sources for all your other primary and secondary sources. If you are missing any of the items, you might be able to find them here.
To find recent popular articles about Canadian history, use one of these databases:
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Most of the magazines indexed in these indexes are popular ones, but review the points about scholarly and popular works to be sure.
As with all databases, one of the most useful things is to find the appropriate subject headings used.
As always, start with some words you know to be appropriate for your topic. Look at the “full record” for the articles you find. What are the subject headings? Which of the headings on the records is the most appropriate for the aspects of your topic that you want to study? Click on that heading and search for it.
Popular articles will rarely contain references to other secondary works. However, they will often have interesting insights into the subject that scholars may be reluctant to hazard, since they may involve speculation or leaps of logic that the primary sources cannot support.
Again, watch out for book reviews. While these can be very interesting and will tell you a lot about the subject and the specific book they are reviewing, a book review is not an article about a subject; it is an article about a book, and that is a different matter.
Review the criteria about the audience of a secondary scholarly work. Few websites today attempt the rigorous criteria of methodology of printed scholarly works or seriously try to advance scholarship or are peer-reviewed. Still, many websites are serious works of reliable secondary (analytical) scholarship, especially if created by a scholar, researcher, and/or librarian.
How can you tell if a website is scholarly or popular?
Ask yourself:
Evaluating electronic resources
This guide from Georgetown University Library is useful and comprehensive.
Review the criteria about the audience of a secondary popular work. Many websites make no pretense whatsoever of being serious works of scholarship: their purpose is to communicate and entertain.
How can you tell if a website is popular or scholarly?
Ask yourself:
Evaluating electronic resources
This guide from Georgetown University Library is useful and comprehensive.
The written presentation of research which results in the granting of a graduate degree, a PhD or MA, is called a thesis (or dissertation — at McGill the terms are used interchangeably). The research for a PhD is required to be an original contribution to knowledge and is guaranteed to be thoroughly researched and refereed. Theses (plural) usually have extensive bibliographies of primary and secondary sources consulted. Hence they are an excellent place to look for sources, especially on cutting-edge topics. They usually, however, concentrate on very narrow topics.
A great many theses have been written on Canadian history at McGill and most are available in electronic format in eScholarship@McGill. You can find all History PhD and select MA theses on the History Department Website. Additionally, some older McGill theses are available in print format in Rare Books and Special Collections and can be searched here; search your topic and limit by Format: "Thesis, Dissertation". Finding a recent McGill thesis on your topic is particularly useful, since most of the material used to write it is probably at McGill. Find a copy and look at the bibliography.
McGill University subscribes to ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, which allows online access to many theses produced in universities across Canada and the United States. You can also search Theses Canada to find French and English theses written by students at Canadian universities.
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