Welcome to the History subject guide - your guide to using the library resources, services and facilities for your subject.
While your course Resource Lists are were you would normally start when beginning to explore a topic, a major part of "doing history" is carrying out research - discovering the historiography (historian's interpretations of the past) and/or relevant primary source documents.
This means you need to be able to do a comprehensive search for books, journal articles, and other sources relevant to a specific topic that provides a base of knowledge. This is often referred to as literature searching.
To search for this literature you need to use Library resources, such as DiscoverEd, Library research databases, etc.
You also need to be able to search for relevant primary source documents, whether that be through digital resources or physical archives.
You can use the Library's research databases to search for journal articles, book chapters, book reviews, theses, conference reports, etc. Research databases usually cover specific subject areas and these databases are recommended for History.
If you know exactly what you're looking for e.g. a journal article, book, etc., then you should search for it in DiscoverEd as it searches both the Library's online and physical collection
However, you can also use DiscoverEd to do some basic literature searching and can be a good place to start.
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Like DiscoverEd, Google Scholar can be a good place to start your search but it does not allow for advanced or complex searching as in the Research Databases.
Access eresources using Google Scholar
Google Scholar may not provide access to full-text, however, by linking to the Library you can access full-text where there is a University subscription.
You will now see FindIt@Edinburgh links next to items in your Google Scholar results that you can use to access the full-text.
This short video below demonstrates how to do this.
The University has access to an extensive range of online primary source and archival collections covering 100s of years of world history. These databases contain digitised copies of a vast range of primary source documents and material.
Not sure what database to use to search for primary source material or documents? Don't worry, these guides will help you identify primary source databases by time period, country/region or theme, as well as useful cross-searching tools and platforms.
The Centre for Research Collections (CRC) is the main space for anyone using the University of Edinburgh's historic, cultural and heritage collections, including rare books and manuscripts, University of Edinburgh archives, personal and institutional archives, Lothian Health Services Archives (LHSA), University of Edinburgh PhD theses, art collection, musical instrument collection and a wide range of other museum objects from geological specimens to anatomical models.
The CRC are based on the 6th floor, Main Library.
While it can be tempting to launch straight into a search, knowing how to search effectively and planning your search before you begin wil save you time and ensure your search results are relevant.
It can be useful to think about the following:
Some useful tips if trying to search for primary source documents and material using the digital primary source databases:
You may find it useful to watch this presentation on Finding historical documents and primary sources online, which covers the range of primary source databases available at the Library and how to access them, search techniques and tips to search and explore the databases, and common issues to be aware of when using these databases. This presentation was done for the Historical Research: Skills & Sources (online) course.
These are just a selection of the books available to you that detail extensively how to use primary source material:
You might also be interested in an example of not using primary sources correctly, or at least someone misinterpreting the information provided in original primary source documents.
You can listen to the full episode on the BBC website:
If the library does not have what you want then there are different ways of getting access to the material:
The Inter-Library Loan (ILL) Service:
This allows you to request material either held at distant university library sites including the University Collections Facility, or material not held by the university.
Book Recommendations:
If you are unable to find the book that you need for your studies then use the Student Request a Book (RaB) service to recommend a purchase.
Visit another library:
It may be possible (and sometimes quicker) to visit another library to get access to the item you require. Some reciprocal schemes and agreements allow our staff and students access to some other libraries
For further help or advice contact your Academic Support Librarian (ASL):
SAGE Research Methods is a great resource to use when you are planning and conducting your research.
While it's more aimed at the Social Sciences it covers key research methodology topics that are applicable across subject areas. It includes books, case studies, videos, datasets and much more.
SAGE Research Methods also includes a project planner designed to guide you through a research project.