THE LIBRARY: OLD TASKS, NEW METHODS

9:00 - 10:00 Plenary Session:

Primary and Secondary Sources

Mary George, Princeton University Library, Head of General and Humanities Reference

1. Distinction between Sources and Tools
   1. Sources as "containers" of information and knowledge
      1. Primary vs. secondary sources
      2. Characteristics of primary sources
      3. Example of a primary source in social history: Godey's Lady's Book

   2. Tools as aids to research
      1. To summarize
      2. To clarify
      3. To indicate

2. Research planning: Issues to explore at the outset

3. Types of research tools and how they function
   1. Hybrid reference tools that summarize knowledge and provide references to major sources:
      • Encyclopaedia Britannica in print and on the Web (search Native American studies)
      • Contemporary Authors (search Steiner, George)

   2. Hybrid Web sites that combine full-text resources with related reference books:
      • ORB: Online Reference Book for Medieval Studies (Encyclopedia, bibliographies, texts, and sources)
      • Sermon of the Wolf to the English (Alternate text versions and glossary)

   3. Fact tools:
      • Oxford English Dictionary (Princeton only; search Nabokov as quoted author)
      • Bartlett's Familiar Quotations in print and on the Web (search Thrale as a quoted person)

   4. Finding tools:
      • RLIN Eureka (Princeton only)
      • Cornell Library Catalog via telnet and on the Web
      • Princeton's Manuscript, Archives, and Special Collections database

   5. Meta tools: Directories of directories; bibliographies of bibliographies:
      • Scholarly: Argos
      • Eclectic: Yahoo
   More examples of tools.

Return to the NTTR Schedule page

Audrey W right and Michael Engle
Updated September 23, 1997
URL: http://www.princeton.edu/~humcomp/nttr/intro.htm