HIST 398 History Senior Capstone (BMC)

It is much easier to locate primary sources once you have specific information related to your topic. Identifying people, events, publications, organizations related to your topic provide a focus for your primary source hunt.

• Background readings - help to identify relevant people/terms/events that are good starting points for your search
• Scholarly sources -  pay attention to the notes, citations and bibliography. This is a great way to find sources of interest! 
• Databases - The TriCo subscribes to many online databases. A search in our database finder for primary sources would produce over 150 results! The next section on this page explains the types of databases and collections you have access to. 
• Special Collections - The College's holdings in Special Collections include a wide variety of materials, including college archives; personal papers; handwritten manuscripts; art and cultural artifacts; rare and illustrated books; rocks and minerals; children's books; and digital and digitized collections. 
• Archives and Research Libraries - We are fortunate to reside near a city full of resources for the historian. Here are local institutions to explore. For national and international topics, you may need to identify and explore regional archives and special collections online. There are often digital collections that may be of value to your research. Another great tool for helping to locate specific collections is:

Databases like the ones contained in this guide (Accessible Archives, Gale, etc), act as platforms housing a large number of subcollections. Given the embedded nature of subcollections within databases and their volume, not all of them appear directly in the  A-Z  database list or in Tripod, so this guide contains a description of the collections users will find when searching these databases.