This module will guide you through an exercise that introduces skills and strategies for microform research, focusing on historical newspapers from British Columbia held by the UBC Library. At the end, you will understand how to load, read (browse and search), and unload both microfiche and microfilm. You will also know how to use the BC Newspapers Index to find newspaper articles on specific topics in British Columbian history; this is an incredible and invaluable resource if you are researching historical topics in this area, and it is usually a fairly easy path to a rich and fascinating body of sources.
If your research interests lie outside of BC or its newspapers, don’t fret: this research exercise should still be useful. Many other kinds of sources are available on microform, too – in Koerner, and in other libraries and archives. This means that while the specific sources and local procedures may vary for you, this exercise will still introduce key principles and practices for an important form of historical research.
Your research exercise for this module will involve the following:
- Based on your research exercises and interests so far, you should now choose one topic (eg. a person or event) related to British Columbia between 1858 and 1900. If you don’t have a topic yet, then use Wellington Delaney Moses (well-known as a black barber and prolific diarist in the gold-rush town of Barkerville, discussed by Gold Rush Program student Alice Gorton here) or J. A. McCrea (a merchant in Victoria, and the author of many of the letters in the transcription module).
- Over the next two pages, you will locate and use the microfiched BC Newspaper Index in order to find a list of newspaper articles on your topic.
- Then you will locate and read those articles using the newspapers on microfilm. Keep notes on your findings.
- Then you will select one nineteenth-century British Columbian newspaper, and browse its issues for at least a month. Again, keep notes on what you find – any patterns you notice, or any articles that interest and surprise you given your understanding of the historical context from scholarly secondary sources and/or your other research so far.
- Finally, you will reflect on the skills and findings covered in this module.
Make sure that you have chosen your topic now, and then navigate to the next page to get started. If you need to review the previous page, you can do so here.