Pick a research topic

• Read your assignment instructions carefully
• Pick a research topic that interests you and meets the assignment criteria
• Identify the key concepts of your research topic

If you need help:

• Use Choosing an essay topic
• Do some background reading on your topic using Wikipedia, and watch the Using Wikipedia wisely video
• Read Developing strong research questions

Use guides, dictionaries, and encyclopedias to find authoritative definitions, and useful bibliographies.

• Canadian Encyclopedia
• Canadiana (contains all 'Early Canadiana' content)
• Canadian Journal of Native Studies
• Encyclopedia of Canada's peoples (print only)
• Historica.ca
• Historical dictionary of Canada (print only)
• Indigenous writes : a guide to First Nations, Métis, & Inuit issues in Canada
• Place names of Canada

 

Begin with:

• Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources 

To find Primary sources in Omni:

• Search your topic (or historical person of interest) using the library's main search box Omni
• A keyword search that includes one of the following terms will identify primary materials in most cases:
  • Diar* (for diary or diaries)
  • Correspondence
  • Letters
  • Memoir
  • Personal narrative
  • Recollections
  • Reminiscences
  • Journal
  • Sources

 Other search tips:

• Check the bibliographies and footnotes of secondary sources on your topic to help identify primary source material.
• Useful book: History Beyond the Text : A Student's Guide to Approaching Alternative Sources
• Some original documents can also be found by searching our archival collections, or by contacting the Archives and Special Collections (ASC) staff for help. The library has many microform collections of primary sources as well. Please ask for help.

Library and Archives Canada: key historical sources by selected topic:

• Canada and the First World War
• Canada in the Making
• Canadian Confederation
• Canadian Historical Booklets
• Early Chinese Canadians, 1858-1947
• Exploration and Settlement
• First Among Equals - the Canadian Prime Minister in Canadian Life and Politics
• Genealogy and Family History
• Home Children Records, 1869-1932
• Indian Affairs Annual Reports, 1864-1990
• Indigenous Heritage
• Military and Peacekeeping
• The Call to Duty: Canada's Nursing Sisters

​CIHM (Canadian Institute for Historical Micro-reproductions)

• Historical microfiche reproductions from the time of the first European settlers to the 1920s can be searched by entering relevant keywords and adding and CIHM to the search in the library's main search box, Omni.

Digital Archives

• Archives Canada
• Canada in the Making - Internet Archive
• Canadian Letters and Images Project
• Canadiana 
• Empire Club of Canada
• Empire Online
• HathiTrust Digital Library
• Historical Atlas of Canada - Online learning project
• Internet Archive
• Libraries and Cultrual Resources Digital Collections - University of Calgary
• Primary Documents.ca

Historical Newspapers

Canadian

• The British Colonist
• Canada Gazette
• Globe and Mail: Canada's Heritage from 1844
• Google Newspaper Archive
• Library and Archives Canada - Collections of Canadian Newspapers
• Toronto Star: Pages of the Past (1894-2012)

British

• Times Digital Archive (1785-1985)
• The Guardian (1821-2003)
• The Observer (1791-2003)