The Research Process

1. Archival Research Basics with the National Archives Lesson # 1 The Research Process The National Archives and Records Administration Pacific Alaska Region Seattle, Washington & Anchorage, Alaska 9/1/2009

2. Setting goals

3. Carefully define your goals • What are you trying to accomplish? • Fill in a gap in your lesson plans? • Find a way to engage and interest students? • Study and write a historical book about a topic that interests you? • Write a historical paper that includes the use of primary sources?

4. Write your goal down and put it where you can see it throughout the research process(like your notebook or the worksheet provided with this lesson!! )

5. Determining Focus

6. Figure out what your focus will be. • A local community focus that echoes elements of global importance? • Looking at individual people and their contributions to a greater whole? • Examining a fascinating document that raises many questions that beg to be answered? • Examining a social movement or cause? Lack of focus often leads to confusing information and doing a lot more research than necessary!

7. If you were using this document as a starting place you could (for instance) be • Looking at the history of this particular military campaign, OR … • Investigating the individuals in the photograph and their personal histories relative to this event, OR … • Using the photograph to illustrate the general hardships of war, OR … • Including it in a historical overview of the development of war photography Soldiers of an Inf. haul their 37mm gun up a Mt. pass through the snow and over the rough terrain. Alaska., ca. 1942 ARC Identifier 196202 (www.archives.gov/research/arc/ ) Item from Collection FDR-PHOCO: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Public Domain Photographs, 1882 – 1962

8. Be prepared for changes in direction

9. Determine how thorough you plan to be • Secondary sources are sometimes incorrect. Do you plan to check each one for accuracy? • Are you prepared to dive into previously unused primary sources to examine the validity of a new idea? • Are you prepared to change directions if the evidence supports your doing that? • How important is the accuracy of small details to the question at hand?

10. For instance …. The following document might take you down a different road than you had previously planned … do you have enough time to follow it?

11. [The transcription of this single page of the St George Island Logbooks, was done specifically to illustrate the kinds of details and changes in direction that might be found in one primary source document. This transcription was not checked against other documents for accuracy or spelling.] (Pribilof Island Logbook, St. George Island, 12/1884 - 12/1884 ARC Identifier 297033(www.archives.gov/research/arc/ ) Item from Record Group 22: Records of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1868 - 2005

12. Realizing limitations

13. Important questions …. • How much time do you have for research? How much time will actually be allowed for this subject in the classroom? Be realistic. • How much money can you spend? Again, realism really helps here. Research trips to far-away archives can be costly. • If there is a lot of information readily available on your subject, what part it will you focus on in order to keep it manageable? • Is one element more important than another? How important is it? (Does anybody care?) • Have certain portions (or all) of your topic already been covered by others adequately?

14. Why do I need to do all of this preliminary thinking? • Documented proof with primary sources is necessary for any well-crafted historical project. • There are billions of documents in the National Archives alone. And there are hundreds of thousands of libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and other heritage organizations that may have original records on your topic and there are countless “facts” and documents online. • Bottom line: to save valuable time in research while still doing the most thorough examination that is possible. (Or to convince you to choose a different, more realistic topic.)

15. Organizing your research

16. Notebooks or files or electronic copies or ….. ? Use whatever system you feel most comfortable with. Just use one! It is VERY important to be able to find your material later. Slow and steady wins the race.

17. Research Logs • (see sample Research Log listed in class outline) • Keep at least one research log for every project. These are very important and prevent your looking many times for the same document or piece of information in the same place over and over again. The log should contain the following at the very least: • What were you looking for? • In what facility/website/location did you look? • What have you found and where exactly did you find it? • What have you NOT found? • This is actually a key element in log-keeping and the one most often overlooked. You need to have a record of what was NOT in a particular research facility or online location, so you don’t inadvertently look for there again for the same item.

18. A record of your citations • Do not forget to make a list of citations as you go • This is particularly important with primary sources (but also important with others). • Remember that a citation is designed to get a reader BACK TO THE ORIGINAL document, if at all possible. [If you found it online, try to figure out where the original is as well … online web pages tend to DISAPPEAR over time.]

19. The Research Cycle What documents were created at the time? 8. Organize and reorganize 1. Set a goal 7. Use the results 2. Decide which source to use Do this VERY CAREFULLY See Lesson 2 – “Knowing where to look” 3. Locate the source 6. Evaluate the information 4. Search the source 5. Copy the information

20. Now, let’s think for a minute about finding the documents themselves. This is just a quick thought process at this point. This subject will be covered in more detail in Lesson #2

21. What types of documents do you need or want to use? • Books • Papers • Photographs • Maps • Electronic records • Journals or Diaries • Oral histories • Interviews • Moving images • Newspapers • Scholarly Journals

22. Where might these documents be? • Libraries primarily hold published materials such as books, maps, government reports … • Archives and special collections primarily hold unpublished materials such as letters, other correspondence, reports, lists, censuses, maps, photos, moving pictures, sound recordings, architectural drawings … • Museums primarily hold artifacts, art, and objects ... • Societies (Historical, Genealogical, Fraternal, etc.) might hold any of the above.

23. ASSIGNMENT 1 How has the ethnic composition of YOUR community changed over time? • Think about the question above and then keep a careful research log (included with this lesson) while you • Do an internet search on the topic • Locate books and articles at your local college or public library about your subject • Complete a project analysis sheet (included with this lesson) and think seriously about how you could narrow this topic enough to complete a project in just a few days, with limited resources, while still including • Accurate information • At least three PRIMARY sources • Please send a copy of the completed analysis sheet and research log to carol.buswell@nara.gov or Carol Buswell, 6125 Sand Point Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115 for review. If you are taking this course for credit, this is aGRADEDassignment.

24. The National Archives Is always willing to help you with your research questions (one at a time, please) Facilities in the Pacific-Alaska Region