HIST 001M: History of Food (SC)

This Research Guide will point you to databases, books, primary sources, and other resources that may be useful for your project.

Contact Simon Elichko (Social Sciences Librarian) to talk about finding sources for your research project. Email Simon (selichk1@swarthmore.edu) with your questions or to find a time to meet.

Some things you can ask Simon (or other librarians) about:

• Finding information (scholarly articles and books, primary source documents, multimedia)
• Improving your search skills
• Citing sources and creating a bibliography
• Organizing your research (including using Zotero or Endnote)

1. Use relevant bibliographies.
   Once you have found a good article or book on your topic, look at the references that author cites.  You'll probably find many sources that you can use.  The author(s) may cite archival collections and primary source documents as well as scholarly books and articles.
    
2. Search historically.
   Spelling, word choice, and geographic names may have been different during the time period you are researching.  So if you are searching for primary source documents, you may need to use these older spellings and terms to find relevant sources.
    
3. Need background info? Try reference books.
   Print and online reference works can give you the basic historical context for your topic, and enable you to identify key participants, dates, events, and concepts. Check out the Overviews page for suggested reference works related to this course.
   
   You can also browse the reference collection in the appropriate call number range--D for world history, E and F for U.S. and Latin American history. When you've found books on your topic in the general collection (books on the lower and upper levels of McCabe), you can also browse in the same call number range in the reference collection.
    
4. See how often a particular article or author has been cited
   Citations provide one clue to an article or author's level of influence on their field. You can look up a book or article in Google Scholar to see which works have cited it.
    
5. Ask for help when you need it.
   Don't hesitate to ask a librarian or your professor for assistance with finding and analyzing sources.