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There is a wealth of information on the internet useful for historical research. The trick is being able to find it. Generally the only thing required to do quality research is common sense, a little knowledge of the subject being researched, and a minimum of technical ability. Do not assume there are any great tricks to finding information, there are not. In the following list I have tried to provide some general guidelines for internet research. They are geared to people looking to conduct academic research but anyone can use them, and not just for historical research.My specialty is military history so most of my site recommendations lean that way but there are plenty of sites out there that deal with political and civil history as well.
1. Google should be every researcher’s friend.
Even the simplest query on Google can lead a researcher to resources that you would never imagine were out there. The internet is vast and the amount of information that exists is amazing. I like Google because I think it is the most comprehensive search engine around but do not hesitate to use Yahoo!, Lycos, or other search engines as well. All the search engines use different algorithms so will give different results for the same query.
2. Know the difference between the so-called Deep Web and the Open Web.
The Deep Web is the part of the internet that you have to either pay to access or is somehow otherwise access controlled. Examples of Deep Web resources include but are not limited to Lexus-Nexus, Proquest, Ebsco, and JSTOR. All are either journal databases or news databases. There are plenty more out there but only those with permission can get in. The Open Web is that part of the internet that is accessible to anyone with a computer and internet connection. There are lots of great sites for research on the Open Web, but there are also lots of bad ones as well. It is up to the researcher to use common sense to determine which is which. If you are a college student it is likely that you can get access to many Deep Web sites through your student account and if not then your school library can probably get you copies of articles. If not, check with your local public library, even if they don?t have access they can probably assist you in getting what you need, that is what libraries are for.
3. When formulating search queries, start out with general searches and narrow your query as you gain more knowledge of the subject you are researching.
Often, general queries will point you to articles about aspects of your subject you did not know about. Be careful though that you do not get bogged down in minutiae or led astray while searching. It is quite possible to start researching casualty numbers on the Eastern Front during World War I and find yourself looking at a discussion of the role of manned spaceflight in solar system exploration.
4. Wikipedia is not a good resource, especially for academic work.
It is useful to point you in the right direction when tackling an unfamiliar subject but take anything you read on Wikipedia with a grain of salt. Any idiot with a grudge can manipulate the information on Wikipedia. This makes it a bad source because there is nothing to stop anyone from any mischief. For example, I once made the ninth century Frankish king Charlemagne a black man and it stayed up for two weeks before anybody caught it. If I can do this, so can anybody else. Wikipedia is unreliable and if you use it as a source in academic work you will at a minimum be penalized and at worst fail the assignment.
5. When doing historical research, don’t be afraid to look at newspaper websites.
Many newspapers have digitized their archives. Some are fee services but others have made their archives available for free. Two good examples are the New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/nytarchive.html has made their archives to 1851 available online free for most articles and The Times of London has made their archives since 1785 searchable online for a fee at http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/tol/archive/.
6. Use the government; you pay taxes so use their websites, so you are paying for them anyway.
Most governments have extensive archival holdings and much of it is available on the internet. Some great American sites are the Library of Congress at http://www.loc.gov and the US Army Center of Military History at http://www.history.army.mil. Every cabinet department of the US Government has a historical section on their department webpage, if nothing else these pages can give you ideas for further research. The British Ministry of Defense has a pretty good site as well, which can be found at http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/Home/.
7. Many foreign websites have English versions of their websites and if they do not, there are several free translation services on the web.
Be careful when having Google etc. translate a page as the translation is literal and often misses the context. But you can still get a good idea of what the page is saying. The new historian will be amazed at how different the rest of the world looks at history when compared to American historiography.
8. Look at university pages. Some of the best historical resource pages are run by universities.
There is Yale?s Avalon project at http://avalon.law.yale.edu/default.asp and the Internet History Sourcebooks project hosted by Fordham University at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/. These are both great portals for primary source material. There are many others out there that you will run across.
9. Do not be afraid to contact the owners of WebPages and ask them for more information.
Most website operators are friendly folks and love getting traffic to their sites and enjoy helping people if they can. For example, I got the complete order of battle for the Prussian and Austrian armies of 1866 from a site owner who had a history of the Seven Weeks War that was over 100 years old. I knew about the book but it was out of print and he graciously scanned the pages I needed and emailed them to me.
10. Lastly, never assume that what you are looking for is not available.
You will be amazed at the wealth of historical information on the internet. If you are doing academic research, the Wikipedia caveat applies to a lot of the material on the web. Apply the critical standards of evaluating sources to internet resources the same as if you were looking at printed sources. My general rule of thumb is that I try to avoid citing any source that does not have author attribution. This has served me in good stead so far. The hardest part about electronic research is separating the wheat from the chaff and common sense will be your best guide here.
This is a good list, and I'd like to expound on #4 Wikipedia for a moment. I agree that it should never be used as a source in any kind of paper (case in point – the black Charlemagne) but I have found it to be remarkably helpful in presenting broad overviews of somewhat obscure topics. I think that its enormous scope gives it a large advantage over other non-academic online sources, particularly since you know what to expect in entries. Also, articles should have citations in them that allow for further investigation, which obviously helps to separate fact from fiction or opinion. Its weakness, though, is obviously in its trustworthiness. In the end it can be a valuable took in certain situations, and only in those situations.
This is a good list, and I'd like to expound on #4 Wikipedia for a moment....In the end it can be a valuable took in certain situations, and only in those situations.
A quick and (often) dirty 1st approximation. In many cases the value is to find a direction to look... just need to understand the limits on it.Wally
I might add #11….don't use the internet if you are in walking distance of your local university library. 🙂
Basically I was told by my professors to never use the internet in a serious research project (by serious I mean term papers). You want to exclusively use monographs, peer reviewed journals, and archival records such as microfiche or microfilm. The internet is good for snooping around in a pinch, but not much else. Sorry if I sound snobbish, but that's how I was taught and I think it's sound. 🙂
Don, Have to disagree with you. Most of my MA papers have required at least one electronic source. The only caveat is that is must be from a reputable source.Today the internet is a recognized source for material even in serious academic work. There are many reputable resources available online. While I agree that a trip to the library is essential, there is more material available online. One resource I did not mention is Google books, Google has a couple of million titles available online with full-text for free. I challenge you to name a university library anywhere in the world that has that many volumes on their shelves. Google is in the process of digitizing and making searchable (including text searches) the libaraies of many of the major universities in America such as Duke and Cornell just to name two of them. The amount of material on the internet grows all of the time and it is now possible to write a serious academic paper without ever stepping foot in a library though I, like you, still like the feeling and atmosphere of a library.
I understand where you're coming from Scout, but the idea behind doing MA papers is to learn how to research, and that means doing the real leg work. The internet is too easy, and I think my professors wanted to remove those temptations because they understood that if and when a student wants to go to the next level (doctoral research), they must be able to find the rare sources, and not be too dependent on electronic media that is often both unreliable and inconclusive. I was advised to avoid the internet except for using online databases like JSTOR (which is an academic service such as online dissertations). So basically the only time you would use the internet is to download digitized media. NEVER should you use websites or message boards or any other non-sanctioned outlets if you are writing a paper that you would eventually try to get published. Now maybe this will change in the coming years as the internet becomes more standardized and the universities put more and more of their books into digital print, but until then, old fashioned paper trumps whitepapers everyday of the week and twice on Tuesdays. 🙂
I challenge you to name a university library anywhere in the world that has that many volumes on their shelves.
I can name five right off hand:1. University of Kentucky (over 4 million volumes)2. University of California Los Angeles (over 5 million volumes)3. University of Texas (over 5 million volumes)4. University of North Carolina (over 5 million volumes)5. University of Louisville (over 2 million volumes)I also think the universities of Michigan, Indiana, and several Ivy League schools have libraries with multiple million volume libraries. My alma mater (the University of Kentucky) has two libraries (M.I. King with over 4 million volumes), and the Life Sciences Library that holds over a million more in just scientific volumes alone! The Life Sciences Library cost over 80 million dollars to construct. Part of the requirements for being a Rank I/Tier I Research University is to have a library of over 2 million volumes. I might also add that the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville has a large library approaching a million volumes itself in mostly religious books and journals. But the things you won't and can't get on Google or anywhere online for that matter, is the rare collections that are held exclusively at university libraries and museums. For example if you want the writings of Henry Watterson (former editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal and Civil War reporter), you can only get them at the University of Louisville. Libraries are very covetous and jealous of regional artifacts and literature, and will not grant duplication rights to their collections (hence we have inter-library loan systems etc....). Google, if it's going to become a major academic outlet, is going to have to buy these kinds of items away from the library systems (and that isn't going to happen on the cheap). 😮
I should have thought of this before, since it bridges the electronic world and the world of “real leg work”. Here are two additional sources:1) WorldCat.org2) ILLiadThey actually work in conjunction, at least at my school. You can search for sources in libraries across the country and internationally through WorldCat. ILLiad is the system that I use for interlibrary loan. When the two of them are linked (like the are for me) I can basically find any book I want from my home through WorldCat, request it through ILLiad, and pick it up at the university library (usually in a matter of days). I can even get dissertations on microfiche if need be through this arrangement.I find both of these tools pretty sweet. I should have thought of them sooner.
My point is that through Google many works are available to people that do not have access to a university library. Google also makes the holdings of many universities available from one location. I agree with you that archives are best visited in person because there is a wealth of source material but for people in my situation (living somewhere where we dont have access to a university library), Google is a godsend. I just think that your dismissal of the internet as a legitimate research tool is invalid. It may have been true years ago, but not anymore. Google eventually hopes to have as many as 32 million titles online as described here: Google and It's Enemies. As you can see, the University of Michigan is one of the schools that is allowing Google to digitize its holdings. Eventually Google Books will rival, even best, the holdings of any university, at least for general research. Private and regional archives will always be important though because they do have material available nowhere else.
I think its great that they are making this stuff available to people without the means or ability to travel to these great libraries. I would still like to go though. I think the library experience is something only geeks like me truly understand. I think sitting in a library with a bunch of rare and good books is a sublime experience. I just love the way they feel.
I guess I?m late to this discussion, but I want to throw my 2 cents into the pot.I believe that the Internet is an essential tool for research. The argument that some academics throw out ? that it?s too easy ? well, I?d equate that to saying ?go to the library, but dig into the stacks, don?t use the card catalog, that?s too easy!?Now, using the Internet is definitely a case of caveat emptor. There?s a lot of trash and out and out BS out there, but there are essential archives and source documents out there too. The number of archives with source documents out there is phenomenal. I?d much rather use the Internet to access the U.S. Army or Marine Corps archives collections of original source documents (unpublished memoirs, division war diaries, original operations orders, casualty reports, logistics reports, oral histories) than drive to Ft. Leavenworth, Carlisle, PA, or Quantico ? not to mention the National Archives or the Navy historical center?s website (http://www.history.navy.mil). Then there are sources like the Avalon Project at Yale University (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/wwii.asp). As a student of history is my research through the web somehow less valid than if I were to drive/fly to New Haven ? where chances are I?d have to either handle facsimiles of these documents, or more likely, be restricted to viewing them online on a computer in the library?As far as digital books ? I do prefer to hold a copy of the book in my hand and I make great use of my local public research library. However, digital libraries can do one thing that dusty libraries cannot ? that is, they can guarantee that a copy of the book that I need (if it is in their collection) is available for my use. It will never be checked out by someone else, it will never be mistakenly filed on the wrong shelf, it will never be in use in another part of the library, and I will never be placed on a waiting list.Personally, I find the arguments against using APPROPRIATE Internet research sites akin to the ivory tower arguments against reading Homer or Thucydides in anything other than the original Greek. It?s not about how hard or easy the work is -- it is about how thorough your research is and how cogently you present that information. It is about how you use that information to refine, create, or advance knowledge.
