 Okay, so welcome to Using Online Primary Sources Workshop. Today I'll be covering some techniques for locating, evaluating, and using online primary sources, and I'll also be introducing you to a few digital repositories that contain primary sources, including our own CSUSB ScholarWorks. Before we get started, a little bit about me, so my name is Eric Milankiewicz and I'm the University Archivist in the John M. Fowl Library Special Collections and University Archives. In this position, I oversee the selection, description, management, and preservation of archival collections within the library. I also perform outreach to the CSU community on its history, deliver instructional workshops pertaining to archives like this one, and also provide reference assistance and research consultations on accessing and using archival collections. I want to take a moment real quick to draw your attention to the image of the Grand Canyon that's on the slide here. So for one, it represents an online primary source from the California State Library. But more importantly, the Grand Canyon is a vast space where it can be difficult to isolate individual features when viewing it. Similarly, the web is also a vast environment, and oftentimes it's difficult to pinpoint online primary sources because of the amount of information resources available online. However, the deeper you look, the more you'll discover, and that is what I'll show you how to do today. So to begin with, let's briefly define the term primary source. Primary sources are materials that provide a firsthand account of an event or topic. They're the most direct evidence of a timer event because they were created by people from that time or at that event. These sources have not been modified by interpretation and offer original socks or new information. Examples can include everything from letters, diaries, and newspapers to photographs, sound and video recordings, and artifacts. Primary sources are original materials regardless of format. So when we say online primary sources, we are simply referring to physical primary sources that have been digitized or primary sources that were originally created in digital format, typically referred to as born digital. Online primary sources can be found all throughout the web. But for our purposes here today, I'll be focusing solely on locating resources from trusted repositories like libraries, archives, and museums. Access to digitized born digital primary sources from these trusted repositories is generally provided in one of two ways, either through an open access digital repository that is publicly available online for free or through a subscription-based database that users must pay forward to gain access. Within these platforms, online primary sources are typically integrated into digital collections that are arranged topically, thematically, or by creator. Keep in mind that while many primary sources are available online today, there are many more that are still only available in their physical format in libraries, archives, and museums. So if you cannot find what you're looking for online, your next step would be to contact a librarian or archivist at one of those types of institutions to assist you. So let's start by talking to you by taking a closer look at some open access digital repositories. The first I'd like to share with you is Calisphere. Calisphere provides online access to unique and historically important primary source materials from libraries, archives, and museums located throughout the state of California. There's an emphasis on materials pertaining to the western U.S., but its coverage does extend beyond that to include national and international topics. Similar to Calisphere is California Revealed, which provides online access to archival materials such as books, newspapers, photographs, and audio-visual recordings. All of these materials focus on stories and themes pertaining to the Golden State. So it is California-centric and it also primarily contains audio-visual recordings, though they are starting to add additional content to that platform. Next, the Library of Congress, which as you may have heard, it's the largest library in the world with millions of books, recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps, and manuscripts in its collection. They have digitized select materials from the staff's collection and have made them publicly available online through their own website. The National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA, they also host an online catalog that contains digital versions of the U.S. government's enormous collection of documents that record important events in American history. Finally, on this page, the Digital Public Library of America, or DPLA, which is commonly referred to as, was designed to connect people with digital resources found in U.S. libraries, archives, and museums. This site will select digital content from all of those sites I just mentioned and many more into a single website. So the DPLA is a really good starting point for your research, as it will allow you to not only locate some online primary sources pertaining to your needs, but it'll also direct you to other sites that may have additional content. So while you can look at these sites all individually, I would really suggest starting with DPLA because it's aggregating content from all of those sites, and it'll display it in one simple interface so that you can just start there and then extend your research further depending on your needs. Another open access digital repository that we host here at Cal State University San Bernardino is the CSUSB Scholarworks, and this site is dedicated to online primary sources from our university. Much of this content comes from the John M. Fowl Library Special Collections in the University Archives and includes historical university materials, like our campus newspaper, course catalog, commencement programs, departmental publications, and more. It also contains digitized local history newspapers, such as the Black Voice News, the In Learn Empire Hispanic News, oral history interviews from the South Colton Oral History Project, and photographs from the Latino Baseball History Project. We continue to digitize materials from our holdings and regularly add digital content to the site. A benefit of using content on Scholarworks is that a physical copy is also held locally if you need to do the original, and oftentimes we have additional complementary materials in our holdings that might benefit your research as well. So CSUSB Scholarworks can be accessed through the main page of the library website or at the web address listed on the slide. Now let's turn our attention to some subscription database that you have access to through the library. All of these sites are listed on the library website and will require you to log in using your Coyote ID for access. The first is American History by InfoBase. This database contains a selection of primary documents concerning American history from colonial times through the present. We've got Academic Video Online, or AVON, which provides access to 68,000 streaming video titles from producers such as California Newsreel, PBS, Bloomberg, Annenberg Learner, Sony Picture Classics, and others. We've got Ethnic News Watch, which provides historical coverage of Native American, African American, and Hispanic American periodicals from 1959 through 1989. Highline Online, which includes many historical collections such as the Congressional Serial Set, Federal Legislative History, Agency Reports and Decisions, and Foreign Relations of the United States. And finally, World News Digest Historical Documents is a database that contains a selection of primary sources and historical documents concerning major world events and politics from the 1940s to present day. A current list of repositories and databases available to you, including those that I just covered, is maintained on the Finding Primary Sources Library Guide under the In-Digital Collections tab. And again, this library guide can be accessed through the main pages of the library website or at the web address listed on the fly. So now that you're a little bit more familiar with some of the available sites that contain online primary sources, here's some basic search tips to help you find those materials that pertain to your own research. The two most effective ways to search for online primary sources are either by subject or topic keyword, or by the title of a specific primary source if you have that information. When you don't have a specific primary source title, you'll want to search using your subject or topic keyword and add the terms primary sources or archives after that. So for example, you put Los Angeles Riots and then follow that by primary sources or Long Beach followed by archives, because that's going to pinpoint the search engine to focus in on primary source archival collection materials. If you do have a specific title of a primary source that you found cited in a book or in an article, then try entering that title in quotes. This will also work for famous primary sources like the Constitution of the United States. Those simple searches should return a number of results for you that you will then need to sort through further. It really depends on your topic. Sometimes you're going to get an overwhelming number of responses. Sometimes you may get very few, but again, it should give you enough results to get started. Both the repository and database platforms we covered should have available options for you to refine search results by date range, by format type, by creator, etc. These will be helpful in helping you narrow down search results to just those items that meet your needs. So once you've found an online primary source, the next step will be to evaluate it. Online primary sources from the trusted repositories that we've reviewed today are likely to be reliable and authentic. But as I said earlier, online primary sources can be found all throughout the web. And if you can't find what you're looking for on any of those sites, you may need to extend your search deeper into the web. For cases like this, you'll need to more closely evaluate the online primary source and website they're hosted on to ensure their authenticity. You want to make sure that the online version of the primary source is an accurate representation of the original item and that it has not been altered in any way after its creation. Your evaluation should begin with the organization or individual responsible for creating the website rather than the online primary source itself. The goal here is to see if the organization or individual hosting the site are credible. Do they have the appropriate background, credentials, or qualifications with relation to the online primary sources they're providing access to? This information might be found on the sites about background or FAQ pages. If no pages like that exist, you can try searching for the name of the organization or individual online to see if you can find any additional information on them and the relation to the online primary sources they're providing. Looking at the URL or web address can also help you identify the source of a website. So for example, trusted repositories that we cover typically end in a .edu.gov or a .org whereas commercial sites are often a .com and personal sites can also be a .net. These types of sites should be evaluated more closely because they are less regulated and the quality of information that is provided can vary dramatically. So to determine this, you need to understand what the purpose of the site is, right? So this can be done by reviewing the types of language and imagery used. Is the language and imagery designed to, one, disseminate information? Is it to provide access to collections, support teaching, sell something, or to persuade people? Determining the purpose can help you determine the quality of the online primary sources that are being provided. If the purpose of the site is for propaganda or to somehow persuade you into something, then you should examine the online primary sources they present very closely before accepting them as genuine. It is also helpful to determine the origin of the online primary source, meaning where did the website owner acquire this material from. Trusted sites clearly state where the original material was acquired from through the use of citations. This allows you, the researcher, to track down the original material if there are any concerns about whether the version available online basically represents the original. In some cases, the original might be born digital where no physical item exists, but again, this should be clearly stated through the use of citations. And trusted repositories often use transparent methods to illustrate the authenticity of these born digital files to their users. The very wary of online primary sources without citations because the site creator is not allowing the researcher an easy way to verify the authenticity of the content. And this could be because they've altered the materials in some way from their original form. Transcribed documents that don't illustrate the original document, but only provide the content in text form are also problematic if the original isn't cited because the text of the original can easily be manipulated using word processing software. And without a proper citation, there's no way for you to verify something has been changed on that document or not. So now that you've located and evaluated the online primary sources, it's time to use it, right? So primary sources in general are the building blocks of historical research and should provide the foundation that your argument, interpretation, and theories are based upon. Primary sources should be used to drive your research and serve as the evidence for the case that you're trying to make. Once identified, it's necessary to examine the online primary source itself that you found with the critical eye. Some questions that might help guide this process are who creates the source and what message are they trying to convey with it? What biases or assumptions may have influenced the creator? Has the source been edited or translated, thus potentially altering the original intent or purpose? What, if any, are the limitations of this source? Considering questions such as these will help you better analyze, interpret, and utilize the primary sources in your research. Also, be sure to use the online primary sources that you find ethically. Using materials for academic assignments and scholarly research is usually considered fair use. However, if you plan to integrate these items into something that you publish or make publicly available, then you need to consider copyright restrictions. There are a few copyright scenarios that you may encounter when working with online primary sources. First is the public domain. These items can be used by anyone for any purpose, so you're in the free and clear for using these. As of 2020, materials published before 1924 will fall into this category. Then there are copyrighted materials where you need the explicit permission of the copyright holders to publish and make the item publicly available. So you will need to find out who this individual organization is, reach out to them to gain the proper permission to use in a public venue. There are some instances, especially when dealing with primary sources, where copyright will be unknown and it is unclear whether it can be legally used or not. For those cases, you'll need to look into the matter further or contact a librarian or archivist who can provide you with some guidance on your available options. And lastly, more recent works may be assigned a Creative Commons license by the creator themselves that includes specific approved uses that are clearly stated on the Creative Commons website and linked from the online primary source itself. It is important to be aware of these different copyright scenarios and also how you're using the online primary sources to determine if usage permissions need to be acquired. And finally, don't forget to cite your sources. It is important that you properly cite where you access the online primary source from so that others can better follow your research or even extend upon it with their own project. Styleguides like APA or Chicago Style can help you with formatting these citations in your research. So that's all I've got. I'm going to drop a link into an instruction survey in the chat. Please take a moment to complete this if you can so that I know how useful you found the workshop today. So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to stop the recording. I'm going to unmute everyone. And if you've got any questions, feel free to ask them now. So one moment.