Primary and Secondary Sources
Campus Libraries
Reference Sources: Getting Started
MadCat: Finding Books, Journals, and Other Materials
Databases: Finding Journal and Newspaper Articles and Other Materials
RefWorks: Organizing Sources and Creating Notes/Bibliography
Writing Center's Documentation Style Guide
Getting Help

For your final essay, you will need primary sources (original materials from the time and place you are researching) as well as secondary sources (books and articles written after-the-fact which analyze or reflect on a historical event or subject). Primary sources include: newspapers, government publications, correspondence, collected works and collections of documents, memoirs, personal narratives, diaries, eyewitness accounts, periodical articles from the time or place you are studying, etc. Secondary sources can be books or articles. Both primary sources and secondary sources can be found in campus libraries. They can be found in paper form, microform (microfilm, microfiche), and electronic form.

The two major campus libraries for historical materials are the Wisconsin Historical Society Library/Archives and Memorial Library. The Wisconsin Historical Society Library/Archives holds materials related to American and Wisconsin history. Memorial Library holds materials related to the history of the United States and the rest of the world. Search MadCat to identify books, journals, and other materials and their location. Research assistance is available on the second floors of both libraries.

Bibliographies

The Korean War: an annotated bibliography. Compiled by Paul M. Edwards. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998.
Memorial Library Reference Stacks Room 262
DS918 E3 1998

The Korean War, an annotated bibliography. Keith D. McFarland. New York: Garland Pub., 1986.
Memorial Library Reference Stacks Room 262, Historical Society Library Reading Room
DS918 M38 1986 (Memorial), ZZ3319 K6 M38 1986 (Historical Society)

Korean War bibliography and maps of Korea. [by] Carroll H. Blanchard, Jr. [Albany]: Korean Conflict Research Foundation, [1964].
Memorial Library East Asian Reference Collection Room 412, Historical Society Library Stacks
Z3319 K6 B5

Korean War filmography: 91 English language features through 2000. Robert J. Lentz. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., c2003.
Memorial Library Reference Stacks Room 262
DS918.16 L46 2003

Dictionaries

The Korean War: a historical dictionary. Paul M. Edwards. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 2003.
Memorial Library East Asian Reference Collection Room 412
DS918 E363 2003

Encyclopedias

Conflict in Korea: an encyclopedia. James Hoare and Susan Pares. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, c1999.
Memorial Library Reference Stacks Room 262, College Library Reference Collection 1st Floor
DS916 H62 1999

Encyclopedia of the Korean War: a political, social, and military history . Spencer C. Tucker, editor; Jinwung Kim ... [et al.], assistant editors. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO, c2000.
Memorial Library Reference Stacks Room 262, Historical Society Library Reading Room, College Library Reference Collection 1st floor
DS918 E53 2000

The Korean War: an encyclopedia . Edited by Stanley Sandler. New York: Garland Pub., 1995.
Memorial Library Reference Stacks Room 262, Historical Society Library Reading Room, College Library Reference Collection 1st floor
DS918 K5645 1995

Guides/Handbooks

A guide to films on the Korean War. Paul M. Edwards. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997.
Memorial Library Reference Stacks Room 262
DS918.16 E38 1997

Korean War almanac. Harry G. Summers, Jr. New York: Facts on File, c1990.
Memorial Library Reference Stacks Room 262, Historical Society Library Reading Room
DS918 S86 1990

The Korean War: handbook of the literature and research . Edited by Lester H. Brune; Robin Higman, advisory editor. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 1996.
Memorial Library Reference Stacks Room 262
DS918 A1 K7 1996

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(A) Searching by Subject -- Start with your own words (keywords) and then use the language or words of the database (subjects) to locate other items. The "official" language of a database is often referred to as subject headings or descriptors.

For example:

Start with a Guided Search using your own keywords (example: korean war).

Once you find a title that looks promising, look at the full record to determine if there are any useful subject headings, for example:

Korean War , 1950-1953
Korean War, 1950-1953 -- Prisoners and prisons
Korean War, 1950-1953 -- United States

Use these subject headings in the following two ways:

1. Click on a subject heading within the full record to link to other records with the subject heading.
2. Use a subject heading within a Guided Search. You may want to include terms for places, events, or people to narrow your search.

Tip: Before doing a Guided Search, you can set limits. For example, you can limit your search to only English-language materials or to one type of material such as books.

(B) Finding Published Primary Sources -- To find published primary sources, you can combine in a Guided Search terms describing your subject or topic (e.g., Korean War) with terms used to describe types of primary sources such as documents, sources, correspondence, personal narratives, etc. appearing as part of subject headings.

(C) Browsing by Call Number -- Notice similar call numbers for books on your topic. Call numbers have subject meaning. Browse collections (or MadCat) for those call number areas for reference books (Memorial Library, 2nd Floor South Stacks, College Library Reference Collection, Historical Society Library Reading Room) and for other books (Memorial Library, 7th Floor South Stacks).

Useful Call Numbers:

DS901-937: Korea
DS904.8-922.4642: History
DS918-921.8 War and intervention, 1950-1953

Citation Databases

The two broadest ranging databases for history are produced by the same company and complement one another.

America: History and Life [Location: UW-Madison Libraries Web Site. Click on "Journals, Magazines and Newspapers," then on "A" for America: History and Life, and then "America: History and Life."]

Indexes and abstracts over 2000 journals covering all aspects of North American history. Links to full-text articles are included when available. Includes articles, book reviews, dissertations, and media reviews. 90 percent of the articles are in English.

Historical Abstracts [Location: UW-Madison Libraries Web Site. Click on "Journals, Magazines and Newspapers," then on "H" for Historical Abstracts, and then "Historical Abstracts."]

Indexes and abstracts over 2000 journals covering the rest of the world, beginning with the modern era (c. 1450). It includes articles in many languages, but you can limit your search to specific languages (e.g., English). Links to full-text articles are included when available. Includes articles, books, and dissertations.

Search tips: Use Advanced Search for more search fields. Limit results by specifiying Document Type (For example, click on magnifying glass icon next to Document Type field, check Article, and click "Paste Terms" button.). Limit results also by specifying time period (For example, click on magnifying glass icon next to Time Period field, check decades, such as 1950, and click "Paste Terms" button.). Find subject terms used in the database (Click on magnifying glass icon next to Subject field, find and check term and then click "Paste Terms" button.). Historical Abstracts includes articles in many languages; limit results with language field (For example, click on magnifying glass icon next to Language field, check English, and click "Paste Terms" button.). Look at subject terms in the Full Entry Display and use appropriate terms as keywords in a new search. Use an asterix (*) to find variations and plural forms of words (for example, korea* will bring up records with Korea and Korean.

Full-Text Databases

JSTOR [Location: UW-Madison Libraries Web Site. Click on "Journals, Magazines and Newspapers," then on "J" for JSTOR, and then "JSTOR." ]

A database containing fully searchable full-text of over 800 major journals in various disciplines. Currently there are 40 journals in the History Collection, including such important titles as the Journal of American History, American Historical Review, Journal of Modern History, etc. JSTOR includes the entire run of journal, except for the most recent 3-5 years.

Search tips: From JSTOR home page, click "Search" and then Advanced Search. Type in keywords. All content in all journals is searched by default. You can limit search to articles and to journals of a particular discipline (e.g. history).

Proquest Historical Newspapers: New York Times, 1851-1999 [Location: UW-Madison Libraries Web Site. Click on "Journals, Magazines and Newspapers," then on "P" for Proquest Historical Newspapers: New York Times, and then "ProQuest Historical Newspapers: New York Times"]

This version of The New York Times includes full-text and full-image articles since its beginning year. Digital reproductions of every page and every article from every issue are available in downloadable PDF files. It is possible to display the complete image of any page in any issue or even browse individual issues page by page.
Search tips: Use quotation marks (e.g.,"prisoners of war ") to search for exact phrases. 2 word queries are searched as an exact phrase by default. 3 word queries are searched as words that need to be in proximity to each other. Use truncation symbol (*) to find variations of words (e.g., Korea* to find Korea and Korean). To narrow your search, search in specific data fields (e.g., Article Title instead of Article Text) and/or limit to a specific date or date range. Enter front_page as Article Type to find front page for a specific date.

How to Find a Journal When the Full Text is Not Available in the Database

Click on the Find It button. If full text is available, you will be able to link to the article from the Find It menu. If full text is not available, click on the MadCat library catalog link. Clicking on the MadCat link automatically will search the library catalog for the journal title.

If there is no record for the journal and you want to be absolutely sure the library does not own the journal, use MadCat's Basic Search to search for the journal title. Type in the name of the journal. Select "journal title" to search by journal title. Check the "Library Has" part of the record to check the library or database that has the date, volume, and issue you need.

Copy down the call number and, if in Memorial Library, use the Memorial Library Stack Guide to locate the stack level and section.

From the database, note the journal title, volume number, issue number, and page numbers.

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RefWorks is a Web-based bibliography manager.

With RefWorks you can:
1. Import citation information from online journal databases and MadCat.
2. Organize citation information into folders for courses and projects.
3. Create formatted bibliographies and cite sources in your paper in all the major citation styles.

RefWorks Handout for History 600: Korean War Seminar

To obtain assistance via phone, email, or the Live Help online service, see the campus-wide library assistance page ( Reference and Research Assistance).

Or contact Rebecca Payne by phone at 262-2387 or email at rpayne@library.wisc.edu.