|
Credits: The Women's Library, London Metropolitan University
This image illustrates the variety of research sources available for consultation at The Women's Library. The primary sources in the image are found in the archive of barrister and feminist campaigner Helena Florence Normanton (1883-1957) (7HLN). Archives contain an individual's or organisation's papers or oral histories, and can include objects, visual materials, textiles as well as printed materials. The archive can contain earlier materials than the archive itself and include secondary or tertiary printed matierals but in the context of the archive they tell us about the interests of the organisation or individual whose archive it is. The above image includes Normanton's writings: the pamphlet "Sex differentiation in salary" and the book "Everyday law for women". These are primary sources and are found alongside the pictured secondary sources in the printed materials collection. For further details see the image references below. The same sources can tell many stories. The above image of primary and secondary sources document Helena's life, women's work experience in law, campaigns for equal representation in law, how women have been and are represented by the law and case law.
Your lecturer may ask you to simply find a "primary source" or undertake a literature review of your dissertation's subject area. To undertake either of these or any type of research you need to understand what primary, secondary and tertiary sources are. The Women's Library's collections document women's lives and the issues that women have campaigned on and include a wealth of primary sources alongside secondary and tertiary sources for learning and teaching.
Primary sources
Secondary sources
Tertiary sources
Key references for research
Looking for a research topic
Primary sources are materials which provide original ideas, first hand accounts or evidence in the form of raw data. Primary sources are specific to the time when they were created. The earliest item in the collections dates back to the 16th century and is evidence of that time. Primary sources in their original state are unevaluated as is the letter below.
Image detail: This letter is to Helena from Wallis Simpson and on the second sheet you can see Wallis's signature.
Examples of primary sources include archives (personal or an organisation's papers and oral histories), museum artefacts (objects, textiles and visual materials), printed materials (which include books and pamphlets, newsletters or magazines, press cuttings, ephemera (a flyer, leaflet or small pamphlet), zines and artist books) and audio-visual materials
Ephemera or a pamphlets are often the first stage in the creation and dissemination of ideas prior to the ideas being formally developed into a published form.
Image detail: Both of these documents contain Helena's opinions on the topics held within them.
Autobiographies, memoirs and oral histories are subjective recounts of occurances. Press cuttings are documentary evidence of what happened at certain time especially if written by the subject of your research.
Image detail: this is a scrapbook collated by Helena of presscuttings of articles written by or relevant to herself
Most of the primary sources in The Women's Library's collections have to be requested as they are located in our on-site vaults, however there are also many available in the reading room .
Primary sources readily available in the reading room
Explore the periodical collection and autobiography located at 920.
Explore copies of original texts, for example National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies pamphlets to 1914 and the collected Whore biographies 1700-1825
Explore microfilmed or digitised collections:
- Post 1960s influential feminist texts available in the Fragen database
Warning: Although copies of primary sources are valid and allow the experience of interpretion, the researcher is not seeing the item in its true entity. The researcher cannot not interpret how the original material was created or its composition, for example the paper and binding of a book, the fabric of a banner.
Primary sources exist in their unevaluated state. Researchers analyse and evaluate primary sources in order to interpret them. These interpretations form the basis of secondary sources.
Secondary sources and their online equivalents
When asked to find the latest academic research on your subject area you will need to explore journal articles. Researchers will often publish their research in journal article format prior to publishing as a book. The most efficient way to search across the journals is through the use of databases. You may want to search across relevant journal titles only. If you do not have access to these as e-resources you will need to browse the hard copy journals' table of contents or use abstract services such as Studies on women and gender abstracts and Women Studies Abstracts.
I enclose a list of the academic journals The Women's Library subscribes to.
Stella Brown's recently published secondary source The life and times of Stella Brown: feminist and free spirit lists the primary and secondary sources referred to in its footnotes and bibliography. The Women's Library holds many fo these sources. You might want look at these sources yourself to see if you hold the same opinion as the author.
Press cuttings can also be described as secondary sources as they provide interpretations of an occurances. The Women's Library comprehensive collection of biographical press cuttings largely stem from obituaries and are an excellent example of a secondary source.
Warning: although secondary sources such as press cuttings are a good source of information their content is not totally reliable. As you research you may find anomalies or incorrect information.
Tertiary sources and their online equivalents are compilations of information, for example a bibliography, directory, encyclopedia, glossary, index, reference book, library catalogue.....there are many more. Many tertiary sources will be located in a quick reference section but they will also be located throughout the collections.
Tertiary sources can be the starting point of your research or have a supporting role:
- Bibliographies are lists of sources that a subject expert deems an important contribution to knowledge. A bibliography published in 1960 will allow the researcher to examine what was deemed important in a field of study in 1960. A bibliography compiled by an expert in 2012 on the same subject should list more recently published materials and may represent different research focuses.
- Catalogues are searchable databases. A database is composed of records of descriptions of materials. The library catalogue contains descriptions of printed and audio-visual materials. An archive and museum catalogue contains descriptions of personal or organisation's papers, oral histories, objects, textiles and visual materials with a record of the materials provenance.
- Directories can provide lists of individuals or organisations relevant to your research. For example Women's Issues provides a list of woman focussed web sites.
- Encyclopaedias are books or a set of books containing articles on various topics, usually in alphabetical arrangement, covering all branches of knowledge or, less commonly, all aspects of one subject.
- Glossaries is a list of specialised words with their definitions.
- Index or indicies are alphabetical listings of names, places, and topics along with the numbers of pages or abstracts where you will find the relevant information.
- Reference book or materials are intended to be used when you need a fact or piece of information.
Check your University's printed catalogue to see if they include e-tertiary sources that can be accessed remotely.
Key references for research
Image References
Primary sources
Normanton, H. Sex differentiation in salary. London : National Federation of Women Teachers, [ca. 1914]
Normanton, H. Everyday law for women. London : Ivor Nicholson and Watson, 1932
7HLN/A/09 First case Searle v Searle. 1922
7HLN/G/01 Robe, worn by Helena Normanton as barrister. 1920s
7HLN/E/11 Photograph of Helena Normanton. 1930s
7HLN/C/11 1 folder concerning Mrs Wallis Simpson. 1936-1941. Includes Mrs Wallis Simpson's letter to Helena Normanton
7HLN/A/03 Scrapbook of cuttings. 1917-1920
Secondary sources
Barnett, Hilaire A. Sourcebook on feminist jurisprudence. London : Cavendish, 1997
Leckey, R, Brooks, Kim. (eds) Queer theory : law, culture, empire. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2010
Beveridge, F., Nott, S. and Stephen, K. (eds) Making women count : integrating gender into law and policy-making. Aldershot : Ashgate, 2000
Tucker, J. Women, family, and gender in Islamic law Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2008
Ellis, E. Sex discrimination law Aldershot : Gower, 1988
|
