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THIST 380 History Methods Research and Writing - Sundermann: Secondary Sources

What is a Secondary Source?

Secondary sources analyze a scholarly question and often use primary sources as evidence.

Secondary sources include books and articles about a topic. They may include lists of sources, i.e. bibliographies, that may lead you to other primary or secondary sources.

Databases help you identify articles in scholarly journals or books on a particular topic. Below are some links to help you locate books and articles.

Searching for books

 

UW Libraries Search logo  

Advanced Search | FAQ | Known Issues

Tips for Searching:

Once you've run a search, use the "Refine My Results" options on the left side of the page.  It's a quick way to drill down to the most useful results without paging through a lot of items you're not really interested inOptions often include:

  • Resource type (examples: book, article)
  • Library (example: UW Tacoma)
  • Creation date
  • Language
  • Topic
  • Classification LCC (Library of Congress call numbers)

 

Searching for articles

Using Google Scholar

Google Scholar

Google Scholar searches across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. These resources can be very useful, but keep in mind not all of them are peer-reviewed.

How to access UW Restricted materials in Google Scholar:

  1. From the Google Scholar homepage, open the menu in the upper left hand corner of the screen.
  2. Open the Settings menu and click the "Library links" option on the left side of the screen.
  3. Using the search box, search on "University of Washington" to reveal the access link labeled "University of Washington - Full Text @ UW." Check the box next to this option, then click "save."

Tip: If you don't see the "University of Washington - Full Text @ UW" link on the first page of results, click the ">" icon to see more results. 

Learn More
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