History of Sexuality

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 • 19th 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?