Skip to Main Content

Canadian History Research Guide

Welcome

The library has a multitude of resources for people doing research in Canadian History.   This guide will point out the ones that I think will be most useful in helping you do research.

If you have any ideas about how to make this guide better, please get in contact with me (my contact information is just to the right).

Introduction to Research Tools in Canadian History

A good place to start your research is by getting a general overview of your topic. You can do so by using an Encyclopedia or Dictionary. Once you have a grasp of the subject  you can then look for either Primary or Secondary materials.

A primary source is a document, recording, or other source of information that was created at roughly the time being studied by an authoritative source, (i.e one with direct personal knowledge of the events being described.) These include diaries, treaties, letters, newspaper articles, etc.  Some of these documents can be found through the library's Primary Resource Collectionsothers via the S.J. McKee Archives.

A secondary source is a document or recording that relates or discusses information originally presented elsewhere. These typically include Books, Journal Articles, Theses, Reports, or any document where individuals have taken primary sources and constructed an argument. 

Books, Reports and Theses can be found by searching the Library Catalog.

Journal Articles can be found by searching Library Databases.