FINDING PRIMARY SOURCES ON THE

WEB

February 20, 2014

HIST 6002

Gena Chattin, Digital Initiatives LibrarianEarl K. Long Library, University of New Orleans

Who Can Help? Gena Chattin, Digital Initiatives Librarian

(M-F 8-4:30 by appointment) E-mail: gchattin@uno.edu

Phone: 504-280-6554

General Reference(Usually, same hours as the library.) E-mail: libref@uno.edu

Phone: 504-280-6549 IM: http://library.uno.edu/helpfiles/ask.cfm (chat box on site)Twitter: @ekl_library or #unolib

UNO Library Website and Catalog: http://www.library.uno.edu Digital Collections at UNO: http://libguides.uno.edu/ekldigital Archives and Manuscripts at UNO: http://

library.uno.edu/specialcollections/lacol_findingaids.cfm

TERMINOLOGY

It is useful to know certain library and archival terms whether searching for physical or digital collections. Our software uses a lot of this jargon, which

can make a difficult research task even harder.

Arm yourself with terminology!

Special Collections, Archives, and Manuscript Collections

Special Collections Archives Manuscript Collections

Library items separated from the main collection

usually due to rarity, fragility, value, theme, etc. (examples are rare books,

manuscripts, papers, etc.).

Materials created or received by a person,

family, or organization in the conduct of their affairs

and preserved due to enduring value or as

evidence (i.e. business records, personal papers,

etc.)

Usually indicates mixed-media collections of

predominantly unpublished materials.

May include typescripts, photographs, diaries,

scrapbooks, news clippings, printed works,

and more.

(Often used interchangeably, but some organizations may make distinctions.)

Institutional RepositoriesSoftware/system housing digital materials produced by an organization

(i.e. dissertations, creative work, datasets, and research).

For example:UNO ScholarWorkshttp://scholarworks.uno.edu

Finding AidA document that describes an archival and/or manuscript collection including:

its history, its “provenance” (where it came from, how it came to be

here, where it’s been before), its location, and, sometimes, an inventory.

At UNO, these are often called “inventories,” although an inventory is only a part of a full finding aid.

A finding aid encoded as XML may also be referred to as: “EAD” (Encoded Archival Description)

For Example:the Marda Burton Collection(http://library.uno.edu/specialcollections/inventories/370.htm)

Can you find: Inclusive Dates? Bulk Dates? Biographical Note? Series List? Container List?

Boxes? Folders Items? (NOTE: Item-level processing is unusual. See http://

archives.lib.cua.edu/findingaid/dubois.cfm for an example of a finding aid at item level.)

Index Terms?

Catalog / “OPAC”(Online Public Access Catalog)

A searchable database of all the materials a library/an organization has.

UNO Library Website: http://library.uno.edu

Archival materials may or may not appear here depending on the organization. UNO’s currently do not, but we’re working on it.

Searching a Catalog for an Archival Collection:

MetadataMetadata is the data that describes materials (“data about data”) and comes in many different formats/standards. There are three main types, and you may see these terms in a digital library/online catalog:

Descriptive Metadata: describes the material (i.e. URL/location, physical attributes, title, creator, etc.)

Structural Metadata: gives structure to the materials and identifies relationships between them (i.e. book chapter, page, paragraph, photo caption, etc.)

Administrative Metadata: technical data such as scanner used to create digital file, resolution, file format, copyright and license information, etc.

What is a Digital Library?

a software/system housing digital collections (which house digital objects (which may contain digital items))

CONTENTdm is the software used by the LOUISiana Digital Library. The CONTENTdm object model goes something like this (see next slide):

Digital Collection

A group of digital materials with

enough description to make them

searchable. Materials are usually related

somehow.

(i.e. a collection of books)

Digital Object

Abstract Concept: a work that has been

digitized (i.e. a book, a photograph, an

music album, etc.). May contain one or many digital items (i.e. images, song tracks, metadata

file/description, etc.).

Digital Item

Part of a digital object. For example, a book (digital object) contains many pages (items). Or the record

for a photo (digital object) may have scans of the front and back of the

photo (digital items).

In action!Orleans Parish School Board Collection Minute Books:

Object = VolumeItem = Page Image

Volume: 9/9/1862 – 11/29/1863 (“Object Description”)

Section: Meeting-Public School, Second District, 9/9/1862 (“Desciption”)

PAGE LINK: http://cdm16313.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15140coll4/id/9991

Research Tools:Now that you know the lingo, where do you find the collections?

Two main types of search tools for primary sources:

Systems that Search Finding Aids

Systems that Search Digital Collections and/or Library Catalogs

Tools that Search EVERYTHING: WorldCat

(searches library catalogs “worldwide”)

Two flavors of WorldCat: FirstSearch WorldCat (Subscription Database – Go

through UNO Library Website): http://libguides.uno.edu/databases/w and scroll down

Open WorldCat (Free Version – Get there through Google or however you like): http://www.worldcat.org/

“Subject” searches can be very powerful in WorldCat if you use a controlled vocabulary (i.e. Library of Congress Subject Heads)

WorldCat (FirstSearch) Search Screen

Digital Collections Digital Public Library of America (DPLA)

(everything)http://dp.la

Hathi Trust (book collections, partnership of several large academic and research libraries)http://www.hathitrust.org/

Internet Archive(everything from old magazines to concert recordings – check the source in the metadata)http://www.archive.org

Internet Archive “Wayback Machine”(archives of old websites)https://archive.org/web/

Digital Collections (cont.) Library of Congress: American Memory

(digitized materials from the Library of Congress)http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

National Archives Online Public Access(digitized materials from NARA)http://www.archives.gov/research/search/

Getty Research Portal(Digitized texts, rare books, and related literature. Contributors include the Getty, the Smithsonian, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.)http://portal.getty.edu/portal/landing

Digital Collections (cont.) Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog

(Searchable database of photos held by the Library of Congress. Digital versions may be available where copyright allows.)http://www.loc.gov/pictures/

OAIster(Searchable database of freely available digital libraries, institutional repositories, and online journals.)http://oaister.worldcat.org/  or   http://www.oclc.org/oaister/

Finding Aids:

(In addition to some of the above resources and Web search engines…)

ArchiveGridhttp://beta.worldcat.org/archivegrid/Spotty history, support. Currently a beta site. Not fully supported but is still updated with new archival collections.

State and Regional ResourcesLibrary of Congress listings, resources:

State Digital Resources: Memory Projects, Online Encyclopedias, Historical and Cultural Materials Collections (grouped by STATE): http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/statememory/

State Resource Guides (Library of Congress holdings organized by STATE): http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/states/

Library of Congress Virtual Programs and Services (Library of Congress Holdings and External Sites organized by TOPIC): http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/

International Resources

Europeanahttp://www.europeana.eu

France: Gallica (BNF – Bibliothèque Nationale Française)http://gallica.bnf.fr

Germany: Deutsche National Bibliothekhttp://www.dnb.de/EN/Netzpublikationen/netzpublikationen_node.html

United Kingdom: The British Libraryhttp://www.bl.uk (Collections tab – Digital collections)

Louisiana and UNO-Hosted Resources

UNO: Portal to all UNO Earl K. Long Library digital collections:

http://libguides.uno.edu/ekldigital UNO EKL Finding Aids: http://

library.uno.edu/specialcollections/lacol_findingaids.cfm

LOUISiana Digital Library: http://www.louisianadigitallibrary.org

Historical Archives of the Louisiana Supreme Court: http://libguides.uno.edu/lasupremecourt

KnowLA: Encyclopedia of Louisiana History, Culture and Community (LEH): http://www.knowla.org

Louisiana Secretary of State: Historical Resources: http://www.sos.la.gov/HistoricalResources/Pages/default.aspx

Which source to find…

• Bootlegs from a 1993 Grateful Dead concert in Ohio?• A list of the state digital library projects in Alabama?• A scan of a 17th century printing of Traité de la mécanique by René

Descartes?• A finding aid for the Salman Rushdie collection (which you think is at

Emory University but you’re not sure…)?• A photo of Richard Nixon posing with Elvis Presley?

Search Tips!When searching (esp. in WorldCat), here are some helpful terms to try searching in addition to your topic:

sources documents correspondence interviews personal narratives speeches pictorial works diaries oral histories

Search Tips! (cont.)

Topic/Subject Searches – “Controlled Vocabularies!”

Library of Congress Authorities – http://id.loc.gov or http://authorities.loc.gov

Includes: Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF) – people,

companies, etc. Thesaurus of Graphic Materials (TGM)

Search Tips! (cont.)Controlled Vocabularies (cont.)

Getty Vocabularies (The Getty Research Institute) – http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabularies/ Art and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) Cultural Objects Name Authority – search on “Mona Lisa” or

“La Gioconda?” Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN) Union List of Artist Names (ULAN) – search using “Titian” or

“Tiziano Vecellio?”

Sometimes you can click on subject terms in the search results and be taken to a list of items classified under that term.

Where to find out…

Whether it’s better to search for “Burnett, Chester Arthur, 1910-1976” or for “Howlin’ Wolf, 1910-1976?”

Whether it’s better to search for “St. Louis,” “Saint Louis,” or “Saint Louis (Mo.)?”

Questions?

Gena Chattin

gchattin@uno.edu

504-280-6554

http://libguides.uno.edu/webprimarysources

Please fill out survey (five questions!), and hand them to me before you go. Thanks!