I had a question this afternoon on locating primary source documents from the period 1800-1909 on women and china. The assignment sounded broad (focused more on locating primary source documents than on finding out about a particular subject). She didn’t have a specific topic in mind yet. (I didn’t catch the course title and number- I’ll shoot for doing that next time!)
– We started by me letting the patron know about the Asian Library (closed today, but she could go by there tomorrow, Monday).
– The we went to the Asian Studies subject guide to find some resources to get some ideas about a topic. I mentioned that she could also check out the History subject guide, and browse the subject guides list for other possibilities. On the Asian Studies site, The Encyclopedia of Asian Studies looked like a good start for finding a topic, since it was available here in Koerner and she could physically browse it on the shelf right now.
– I showed her how to get into the ProQuest Historical database, the Times (London) database (historical) and the New York Times database (and how to do the advanced search in their historical archives). We found a few interesting hits by searching women and china (and variations of those terms) and limiting by date.
– I recommended to her, again, to check out the Asian Library if she has a chance, and speak with one of the reference librarians during their reference hours.
Any other suggestions on sources/ strategies?
Thanks,
Christina H
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Hi Christina,
There are many approaches to a question like this so I thought I would throw my hat into the ring with a few suggestions.
First of all, this question offers an excellent opportunity for a training week refresher.
I might have started by visiting the HSS branch page for some ideas from the Primary Sources Guide located under the “Quick Start Guides” menu. If you look under “disciplines” and select “Women’s Studies” you will see a list of good starting places. I would probably look at Defining Gender and Oral History Online. North American Immigrant Letters would also be a good suggestion if she were still looking for a topic she might find something there relating to Chinese women who immigrated to Canada, which is always a fascinating topic in my view.
Since the topic is women, I might have suggested the Women’s Studies page which takes into account historical points of view. It also includes a link to the WMST research wiki (at the bottom of the page) which can help students work through selecting a topic as well as selecting resources: http://wmst100.pbwiki.com/FrontPage
I would also see what was available in the catalogue. Try typing: “women china” into a subject search and browse through the categories. I was particularly intrigued by the section on Women Air Pilots in China, although this is somewhat beyond the temporal scope of the question.
Finally, RBSC houses the Chung Collection, including a number of digital documents: http://www.library.ubc.ca/chung/main.html
Broad questions like this can be tricky. Finding out the course is definitely a first step, but also finding out more about the assignment itself, if possible, would help.
Another way to elicit help from the student is to ask what type of materials have come up in class that are related. Is there any topic on the syllabus that could help the student focus? Can she identify a group of interest based on class, region, religion, marital status, relationship (ie mothers, daughters,)?
I hope this has been helpful. I certainly had fun replying!
Best,
Tara