Anne L. Foster, CA

ALHFAM Joint Western Conference 2013

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Find little that is not (false hits)

Save time

Develop authenticity

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Find stories that

resonate

Secondary Sources

Site resources

Stories & legends

Books & articles Read footnotes

Follow the threads

Be critical & skeptical

Don’t skip this step

Yes, Google

Ok and Wikipedia

Be critical & skeptical

Internet

Select keywords thoughtfully Look for unique terms or combinations

Be generous in your synonyms

Use controlled vocabulary when available

Use advanced search when possible

Study good hits for clues

Learn your search engine

•AND•OR•NOT

•Wildcards•Truncation•Nesting

Google: pickles recipe "hot water bath" extension .edu -.com

Ebay: (antique, victorian, vintage) (garter, garters) -(secret,belt,belts,new,mug,lace,stocking,stockings,shapewear,hollywood,1950s,girdle,g-string)

Worldcat: 'su:frontier life montana ti:homestead*' > '1860..1920' > 'Archival material‘

ContentDM: Coverage: 1896 to 1913 (and) All fields: woman or women (and) Description: fairbanks (50 results)

Search Engine

Boolean Default Proximity Truncation Fields Limits Stop Sorting

Google -, OR and Phrase NoAuto stemword in phrase

intitle, inurl, link, site, more

Language, filetype, date, domain

Varies Relevance, site

Bing AND, OR, NOT,( ), -, +

and Phrase NoAuto stem

intitle, inurl, link, site, more

Language, filetype, date, domain

No Relevance, site

Blekko - and Phrase No site date, slashtags

No Relevance, date

Procog - and Phrase No No Relevance

Gigablast AND, OR, AND NOT, ( ), +, -

and Phrase No title, site, ip, more

Domain, type

Varies, + searches

Relevance

Exalead AND, OR, NOT,( ),-

and Phrase, NEAR

Yes and stems

intitle, inurl, link, site

Language, file type, date, domain

Varies, + searches

Relevance

Find a Collection

The Hidden Web

Records ABOUT a place

are often not IN that place.

Archives follow the

principal of provenance.

Provenance is like

following a family tree.

Trace the Family/Corporate Tree

Who Might Have Created a Document?

What Would They Have Documented? It is often not what we

now want . . .

Where Are They From?

Where Did They Go?

Follow the Money

Government

Expeditions/Surveys

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Land Management

Big Business

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Railroads

Home

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Newspapers

Common “Roots”

Library catalogs

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No one-stop shopping

Not everyone is online

Not everything is online

Minorities, women, children

Always a challenge

Think outside the box Clubs, organizations Newspapers, especially local & later

Society pagesClub newsAdvertisements

Women’s club cookbooks

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State what you’ve already done/viewed

Include full contact info.

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Bring only what you need

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Don’t leave the housekeeping to the last minute

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Be prepared for gaps, conflicts, and challenges

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Handwriting

Faded, fragile, incomplete documents

Incomplete or broad cataloging

Bias, perspective, personality

Vagaries of records management

Track repositories

Track collections/items Note boxes & folders

Box & folder #s may change!

Know enough about the document to find a new location

Take notes

Track next steps/leads

Zotero (www.zotero.org) Free

Easy website citing

Includes full text and/or notes

Not supported by major bibliographic catalogs

Commercial Utilities ProCite, EndNote, RefWorks

Employer, school, library network may have subscription

Supported by bibliographic catalogs

Level of notation/full text varies

Old school index cards Still works great!

Publish—traditional, web, conference

Cite sources Footnotes or endnotes

Skip the bibliographic chapter summary

Use catalog numbers for images

Use the repository’s recommended citation

Offer SELECTED notes, lists, ids to repository

Don’t take offense if the archives says no