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 extra help, click on Choosing an essay topic
• Do some background reading on your topic using Wikipedia
  • Using Wikipedia wisely (video)

Use guides, dictionaries, and encyclopedias to find authoritative definitions

• A concise history of modern India
• A Dictionary of Asian Mythology
• A history of India
• Encyclopedia of India

Begin with:

• Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources 

Searching for primary sources:

Search your topic (or historical person of interest) using Omni, the library's main search box to find primary sources (or reproductions) in our collection. Keyword searches that include the following terms will identify primary materials most of the time.

• Diar* (for diary or diaries)
• Correspondence
• Letters
• Memoir
• Personal narrative
• Recollections
• Reminiscences
• Journal
• Sources

 Other search tips:

• Use 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
• Original documents can also be found by searching our archival collections or by contacting the Archives and Special Collections (ASC) staff for help. 

Historical Newspaper Databases

• Historical Archives of newspapers

Primary Sources on the web

• Archives and Primary Sources Databases
• Digital Public Library of America
• Internet Archive
• Hathi Trust Digital Library
• Library of Congress Digital Collections
• National Archives (UK)
• New York Public Library Digital Collections
• RUSA Primary Sources on the web guide

Other libraries with significant primary source collections:

• Center for Research Libraries (CRL) - Carleton University Library is a member of the CRL consortium. It regularly acquires and preserves newspapers, journals, documents, archives, and other traditional and digital resources for research and teaching and makes them available to member institutions through your RACER account.
• Bhagat Singh Internet Archive
• Empire Online
• Eighteenth Century Collections Online
• Eighteenth Century Journals
• Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports
• House of Commons Parliamentary Papers
• Punch Magazine Cartoon Archive