3 Building a bibliography
The existing body of historical work on a topic is called historiography. Knowing what has already been written on your topic is a good point of departure to propose an original contribution. The bibliography – the list of sources that you consult – is the foundation of your paper: you cannot write a good paper based on a bad bibliography. Part of the work of building a good bibliography is choosing the best sources from the mass of material that is available in the library and on the internet. Take advantage of the workshops offered by the Library – they will provide you with information about using the full potential of the Library.
Like any other encyclopedia, Wikipedia can be a starting point, but it is neither scholarly nor always accurate. Beware of relying on it! Do not just Google your topic either – you will miss most of the scholarly literature.
Finding materials relevant to your topic:
- Specialized encyclopedias and bibliographies: There are a number of good, specialized historical encyclopedias and bibliographies. These are useful for background reading. They are not always up-to-date, so make sure to check the publication date or last update (if online). Examples: Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History; Encyclopedia of World War II; Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History. You can find what resources exist for your topic on the library website listed next.
- Online history research guide: This guide provides links to many online databases and history websites that you can search for relevant materials, such as books, articles, newspapers, archives, art, video, etc.
- Library discovery tool: The discovery tool, Omni, allows you to search for books, journals, and other content that the library either owns or has access to. You can search by keyword, subject, title, author, etc. Omni also searches across the collections of 16 different universities in Ontario. It is a good place to start, but ultimately insufficient: each search will provide limited results.
- Recent books: review the footnotes and bibliographies in recent books and articles.
- Shelf search: Once you find a relevant book, search the library shelf nearby to find related books. Note however, that most recent acquisitions are digital and will not be on the library shelf. To find them, you will need to use Omni.
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