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Prof. Keefe’s Humanities Research Guide: Start Here - Using The Online Databases

Locating Databases

Hi class! The below video will walk you through how to locate scholarly sources for Prof. Keefe’s Humanities courses.

What type of sources are found in an 'A' paper?

For college research assignments, your professors are generally looking for a combination of primary and secondary sources. Watch this video to identify the differences between the two types of sources. 

Here are some important things to keep in mind when researching history and humanities

  • Look for sources published during the time of your topic such as The Historic NY Times
  • When looking for primary sources (published during the time of the event), use the historic terminology. 
    • Example: WWI was not called WWI in 1915 because WWI had not happened yet. It would be called "The Great War. You should use an academic encyclopedia for this background research. 

Watch this video for a walkthrough of the online library and how to access scholarly sources. 

Connect to the Online Library

To complete your research assignment you'll need to access the online library. Follow these steps to get started.

To Connect to the Library via Atlas:

1. Log in to Atlas: http://atlas.valenciacollege.edu.
2. Go to the MyAtlas tab, Courses tab, or Employees tab.
3. Under Libraries, click Search the Library.

Contact Emilie

Primary Sources

Locating Primary Sources

When you conduct research for these disciplines, you will want to focus on using as many primary sources as possible. 

Watch the below video to learn the difference between primary and secondary sources.

Primary, secondary, tertiary sources. Your professor may have given you requirements for sources, but what do they mean?
Helpful hints:

  • Try searching your topic in Google and then adding "+ museum" or  "+library"
  • Who might know a lot about this topic? Search for key people within your topic.
  • Looking for information on a major event or public figure? Look for the speeches they've given. Try searching for person +speeches

American History/Humanities
National Archives
Library of Congress
Humanities
Project Gutenberg
Archive.org