Forrer Learning Commons Library Services: ENG 110 Rouillon Class Guide: Finding Context

Examining Primary Sources

In order to better understand primary sources, we need to conduct research. This research will help us identify:

After completing this research, we are better able to make sense of the primary source image we are examining.

To do this, we can use a variety of sources:

Oxford Reference
Oxford Online is an entire suite of reference materials, including such encyclopedias as the Encyclopedia of African American History 1896 to the Present, Black Women in America, The Oxford Companion to World War II, and A Dictionary of Contemporary World History: From 1900 to the Present Day.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is the world's largest free encyclopedia, including more than sixty million articles in more than 200 languages.

Encyclopedia of African American Education
This encyclopedia looks into the significant issues, policies, historical events, laws, theories, organizations, institutions, and people related to African American education.
Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations
This encyclopedia includes information on over 500 organizations, their founders, and membership.

The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust
The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust offers readers and researchers a general history of the Holocaust while delving into the core issues and debates in the study of the Holocaust today.
Encyclopedia of Judaism
The Encyclopedia of Judaism provides complete and accurate coverage of Judaism—everything from its history, beliefs, and observances, from the beginning to modern times.

If you would like to explore the other digital encyclopedias available from the Forrer Learning Commons collection, click here.

Oxford English Dictionary
The standard for etymological dictionaries for the English language.

New York Times Digital Archive
The complete archive of The New York Times can now be searched from NYTimes.com — more than 13 million articles total.
*Note* ensure that you have activated your free Bridgewater College account.
The Times (London)
Access to the archives of the London newspaper's weekly editions (excluding Sundays) from 1785-2008.
Chronicling America
The Library of Congress has digitized many local and historic newspapers (1789 – 1963).

New York Times Online
Register first using the "New York Times Online Subscription". Once you've signed up, use this link to take you into the New York Times online. Click on the "account" link in the top right corner and log with your BC email address and password.
New York Times FREE Online Subscription
The library has already paid for subscriptions for all current students, faculty and staff. You just need to register. It's easy to do. Follow the above link. Find Bridgewater College on the list and sign up using your Bridgewater email (that's how NYT knows you've paid). Bookmark the online NYT for easy retrieval from your browser. You will need to "renew" your access once a year. To renew, use this link but choose the "already have an account" option to renew.
Newspaper Source Plus
Provides cover-to-cover full text for 131 national & international newspapers.

JSTOR
JSTOR is the online archives of scholarly journals in most fields. Full text begins with the first issue of many journals and ends with issues 5-7 years old.
Google Scholar
Google Scholar does a great job indexing our databases; you can use it to find full text. Articles are linked to our databases with the “Access at BC Library” link. For article not freely available, we will get them for you through interlibrary loan. Advance search is within the "pancake stack" on top left corner.
Academic Search Complete
Academic Search Complete is a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 4,600 peer-reviewed journals.
Education Research Complete
An online resource for education research covering all levels. Includes index/abstract access to over 2,000 journals and full text access to over 1,000.

Look for ways to limit your results:

Quotation marks will isolate that phrase: "natural selection" lists results containing only that specific phrase, but results for natural selection would contain natural AND selection somewhere, not necessarily side by side
Remember to use Boolean Operators to help make your search more efficient:
- AND will produce results that contain BOTH terms (e.g. birds AND bees)
- OR generates results that contain EITHER term (e.g. dogs OR canines)
- NOT results will include the first terms, but not the second (cats NOT musical)