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Honors History Research Seminar: Secondary Sources: Books and Articles

This guide is designed to support the work of students in the elective Honors Research Seminar.

What are secondary sources?

Secondary sources are scholarly materials created after an event or time period, and which offer discussion or analysis of that event or period of time. Secondary sources usually use primary sources to make an argument. For your purposes, secondary sources will likely take the form of single-topic nonfiction books (called monographs) or scholarly articles. You will use books and articles to understand the scholarship that has already been written about a topic. You will need to know what arguments have been made in order to make your own argument and counterargument, and be able to incorporate those arguments into your own analysis. 

You should be able to identify 5-7 books as well as articles that are authoritative on your topic. You may need to use more secondary sources than this. However, 5-7 is a minimum as you consider your research process.

Using the Putnam Library Catalog

Here is a video that shows you how to search the Putnam Library catalog. Make the video full screen to see it better.

If you need help searching, check out the search tips below the video or on our "Research Tips" page.

  • Use keywords to search.
  • It is better to use broader search terms and then narrow them down.
  • Spelling is important!
  • Click on a record for a summary or to see the table of contents.
  • The location on the shelf is listed on the results page.
  • You can narrow by collection (Reference, Non-Fiction) or type (Books, Videos), which can be helpful.
  • If you are looking for a book or article and can't seem to find it among our resources, check out the box on this page called "Interlibrary Loan" for information about borrowing resources from other libraries.

Books

Single-topic nonfiction books (called monographs) are especially helpful for reading a detailed account of events, learning about an event in historical context, finding both general and specific information about an event or person, reading a scholar’s arguments, and finding primary sources. 

The books (monographs) you use:

  • Should be written or edited by a scholar or expert (it's good to read about the author's credentials and/or potential biases).
  • Should be written about one specific aspect of a time period or event. Monographs are not reference books.
  • Should include both factual information and an author's argument. (Remember: reference books do not include arguments.)
  • Should include a source list and/or source notes (good places to look for possible primary sources or further reading), and might include excerpts from primary sources.
  • Does NOT have to be read cover-to-cover!
    • Sometimes only a chapter or a few sections of a book are relevant.
    • We highly recommend reading the introduction and the conclusion to find out what the author's argument is.
    • Always check the source list and/or source notes for the reasons listed above.

You can access the Putnam Library Catalog here. Consult the search tips in the box to the left if you need help searching the catalog.

Journal Articles

Journal articles are pieces of scholarly writing published in academic journals. They can vary in length, but are often the equivalent of a chapter in a monograph. Journal articles are especially helpful for finding information about a narrow topic, reading a scholar’s arguments, getting an overview of several scholars’ arguments about a topic, and finding more resources on a topic. Scholarly journal articles are peer-reviewed, make an argument, and cite their sources. JSTOR, Academic OneFile, and Academic Search Complete are three databases that prioritize scholarly articles.

You can also find scholarly journal articles in many of our other, more general databases. Look for the keywords "Academic Journals", "Peer-Reviewed Articles", or "Scholarly Articles". 

Interlibrary Loan

We are able to borrow books and articles from other libraries. If you are looking for a book or article that we do not have, follow these steps:

For books:

  1. Try searching the Minuteman Library catalog (this is the library network to which the town of Dedham belongs), the Boston Public Library catalog, or WorldCat (this is a global catalog of libraries both near and far, and can help us determine if there is an item nearby that we can borrow). 
  2. If you are able to find the book that you are looking for in that catalog, let a librarian know. We will borrow it, either have it mailed to us or pick it up, and get it to you.
  3. If you are not able to find the book you are looking for, please see a librarian - we will look in other interlibrary loan networks.

For articles:

  1. Let a librarian know as much information about the article as possible (title, author, journal, and publication date if possible). We will search for it, borrow it, and get it to you.

Quick Links

EBSCO Discovery Service

EBSCO Discovery Service allows you to search all of our databases at one time. It is a great tool, but is very powerful and will likely return many results, and so may be overwhelming. We recommend waiting to use it until you are familiar with your topic and you have an idea what you need to search for.