Research Tools and Strategies

The databases and other items listed on this bibliography are useful in finding primary and secondary sources dealing with U.S. - Mexican relations during the 1930s and 40s.

Using Secondary Sources to Find Primary Sources

Secondary sources, scholarly journal articles and books, are a great source for identifying potential primary sources. Find a few articles, books or dissertations related to your topic and then mine the footnotes and bibliography.



Books & Dissertations


Journal Articles
  • Find articles by searching relevant databases listed on the History Subject Page. The most important one for U.S. history is America: History & Life and for world history, Historical Abstracts. For Latin American studies, the Handbook of Latin American Studies, is especially useful in identifying Spanish language sources as well as English language materials. The Hispanic American Periodical Index (HAPI) can also be useful [Reference index area Z1605.H492]
  • Two collections of electronic journals contain some history journals and can also sometimes be useful (depending on your topic): JSTOR and Project Muse.
  • Once you find some likely articles on your topic, locate them in the library by searching for the journal title in the UW Libraries Catalog. (If we do not have the journal, get a photocopy of the article through Interlibrary Borrowing.)
  • Examine the footnotes used in the article for published material (we are much more likely to have published items than manuscript sources).
  • Search the UW Libraries Catalog for these items.

Finding Primary Sources -- Books

The UW Libraries has a strong collection of books that can be considered primary sources for history. These include books written during the period for your topic (i.e., during the 1940s), books written by participants, published collections of correspondence and other personal writings, memoirs and reprints of collections of primary source material.

  • Limit your search by publication date.
  • Search for books written by key participants and organizations.
  • Browse the shelves in the appropriate subject area.
  • Use special subject headings that designate primary sources:
    sources, personal narratives, diaries, correspondence, interviews
  • Example:
    • mexican americans and su:sources

Finding Primary Sources -- Articles

The UW Libraries has a strong collection of magazines and journals from the 20th century. Many of them are in print (either in Suzzallo Periodicals or in a storage area), others are on microfilm. There is limited electronic indexing for early 20th century material.

The libraries also has a basic collection of major U.S. newspapers on microfilm for the 20th centuries. Complete runs are available for such papers as the New York Times, Chicago Tribune Los Angeles Timesand Washington Post. The libraries has a strong collection on Northwest papers. Newspapers are housed in the Microform and Newspaper Collections on the first floor of Suzzallo.

Magazines and Journals
  • For general magazines, try the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature which covers American magazines from 1890 to the present. [Reference index area AI3 .R48]
  • For coverage of political/economic journals and selected books and government reports from 1915 to the present, try Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS) [Reference index area Z7163 .P9; 1972 onward available as a database]
  • For coverage in selected social sciences and humanities journals, PCI may be useful [CD-ROM network] as well as International Index [Reference index area AI3 .R49]

Newspapers
  • There a few indexes to newspapers predating the 1970s. To see what indexing is available, use the Searchable Guide to Indexes.
  • The New York Times is the only major American paper completely indexed. The Historical Index to the New York Times covers 1863-1905 and 1913-1922. The complete index is available in print in the Suzzallo Reference Index area [AI21 .N44].
  • An additional index that may be useful is the San Francisco newspapers index, 1904-1959 available on microfilm [Newspaper and Microforms collection M-2810].
  • If you are using a paper without an index, use the one for the New York Times to pinpoint dates. If you are working on a particular event, then you can just browse newspapers from that week.

Finding Primary Sources -- Government Reports

The UW Libraries has a strong collection of U.S. government documents including federal agency publications, congressional hearings and reports and other material. Some material is printed while others are available on microfilm. The Government Publications section is in the basement of Suzzallo.

  • Congressional hearings and reports dating back to 1789 are indexed in Congressional Masterfile which is available on CD-ROM in Government Publications.
  • Other federal documents can be found by using the Monthly Catalog to United States Government Publications (GovPub. 328.73 Un37m) and its predecessors.
  • For diplomatic papers, see the State Department collection Foreign relations of the United States [GovPub 327.73 Un3p or S 1.1:]
  • The National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) has digitized a tiny portion (124,000) of their collection (a hodgepodge of material). These can be searched by using the NAIL database.

Theresa Mudrock / mudrock@u.washington.edu

17 Jan. 2001