Digital resources for researchers

[Sigaba]

Twenty years or so ago, Robert Divine looked at some of his students and wistfully commented that when he was learning his craft, historians had to turn physically the pages of newspapers, magazines, and other documents when researching. He clearly envied--and maybe also resented--that the growing availability of collections on microfilm and microfiche, as well as the expanding number of digital finding aids (such as on-line library card catalogs), increased greatly one's ability to find primary sources and secondary works.

Now, as more resources are digitized it is increasingly clear that the jump from 1990 to 2010 is several orders of magnitude greater than what Divine experienced from his days as a graduate student to a career that earned him the George W. Littlefield Chair.*

Consequently, the purpose of this thread is to provide links to the growing collection of digital archives available on line. The objective of this first post is to provide links to the Library of Congress's (hereafter LOC) growing collection of digital archives available on line, as well as the LOC's efforts to serve as a portal to other institutions' digital archives.

Before turning to the LOC's collections, a couple of general caveats are in order. These advisories are applicable to all digital resources.

First, those using digital archives might benefit from reviewing guidelines on how to document the use of digital materials accessed on line on a case by case basis.

Second, researchers may also benefit from reviewing the terms of use for each and every collection accessed, especially those not controlled directly by the federal government. If the terms of use allow, I strongly suggest that researchers download digital materials for one's own convenience, peace of mind, and risk management.

Third, from what I've seen so far, the archiving of the materials was driven by what was more convenient for those doing the archiving than for the end user. Often, a little patience will go a long way for those who don't have deep pockets or a thick skull and cannot afford to pound one's head against one's laptop.

Fourth, in some cases the search functions of some of the digital archives leave a lot to be desired. Meticulous research may still require the time-tested tactic of looking at every page. (On the upside, doing this kind of research in a place and at a time of one's own choosing beats the hell out of trying to ignore the alarming behavior of a library's denizens.)

Now, for the LOC's digital archives. (Could I have gotten here sooner? Maybe. But if historians said in ten words what they can say in two hundred, they would not be practicing a dying craft. Oh, that sounds a little bitter...)

The LOC American Memory homepage
List of LOC American Memory holdings by subject

Collections of Interest (YMMV!)
A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates
American State Papers, 1789-1838 (38 vols.)
Fifty Years of Coca-Cola Television Advertisements: Highlights from the Motion Picture Archives at the Library of Congress
The Nineteenth Century in Print: The Making of America in Books and PeriodicalsUnited States Congress Serial Set (selected documents and reports from 1838 to 1917)

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* if a professor holding an endowed chair ever invites you to a luncheon funded by the endowment, clear your calendar and go!

[nmap]

Have you been using Endnote in combination with Adobe's PDF maker?

I've got all my references stored as local copies (and yes, they ARE backed up!), and arranged through Endnote. With PDF's, it's possible to search the entire collection for words or phrases. And, I can hi-lite and bookmark sections of interest.

Your history references appear to be a good fit for those tools...

There's also a plugin for Endnote called RefViz. It probes the abstract and notes for keywords, then creates a visual map of related material. Since you can see clusterings of items, it becomes possible to create subdivisions of 3-5 references within a work.

[Sigaba]

Originally Posted by nmap

Have you been using Endnote in combination with Adobe's PDF maker?

The answer to your question is no. I've not upgraded to the most recent version of Endnote nor have I installed the versions that I have onto this machine.

(I was rather disappointed by the functionality of the last version I purchased in comparison to its previous iteration.)

And, proving yet again that they don't call me stupid for nothing, why use documentation software when one can type every reference manually? (This task is slightly less onerous using Microsoft Word 2007. IMO, Microsoft hit it out of the park with Office 2007. YMMV.)

The RefViz plug in sounds promising. I generally run PDFs through Google Desktop and Copernic Desktop Search and between the two I most often find what I need. Also, when dealing with secondary works written by academic historians, one can often find clusters by reading the footnotes first.

In regards to Adobe, which version of Acrobat are you using? I've noticed that the gap between Acrobat 9's standard and professional versions are not as vast as they are between Acrobat 7's respective counterparts.

Also, have you had the opportunity to use Adobe Bridge? It was a throw-in application in Adobe CS2 that can be helpful when looking through a folder with dozens of PDFs.

[nmap]

I use Endnote 12 and Acrobat 9 pro.

Typing citations is only one issue - keeping everything together is, for me at least, much more important. I have a PDF of every document, all marked up so I can find the salient points easily. I have notes and codes that make searching references lightning quick. And subdividing a mass of references is, for me at least, easier with the software.

For example - I might have the keyword LOC for locus of control. I can pull up all the references with that keyword and double check some connection I want to examine.

I can also store lots of documents for each file entry. So I might have a PDF of a paper, an image of a test instrument (like the LOC questionnaire, a PDF of the test instrument, and a Word version, all in the same spot.

I don't notice reference export capability in the links you mention - however, on some of the databases I use such as ProQuest, one can mark documents and automatically export the necessary information directly to Endnote. BTW - I believe ProQuest has some history publications, if you haven't used it.

Using footnotes from other papers is nice - I found some dissertations on the subject I'm working on, then poached their citations shamelessly. The problem is, they aren't fine-grained enough in all cases. Let's suppose you have 20 references on some small issue - say, student learning in online environments in higher education. But wouldn't it be nice to break those into 4 or 5 logical pieces? RefViz lets one do exactly that. No, it isn't perfect - but as a first run, it works pretty well.

I didn't really need the pro version - but, from time to time, I want to redact some material. I can do that with Pro. In addition, the 9 version does an outstanding job of converting PDF images to searchable text. That approaches must-have status for me.

I haven't tried Bridge. In essence, I try to use Endnote and search capabilities so I don't need to work my way through lots of PDFs. YMMV.

Oh, and there is one other piece of software...my secret weapon, if you will...Dragon naturally speaking. I talk to the computer, it transcribes the material, and life is good. I can use all the nice, big 50-cent words and not have to type them.

BTW - an old CS (computer science) rule of thumb is to avoid having more than 8 files in a folder. If you get above that number, consider sub-folders. It makes finding things quite a lot easier...

Originally Posted by Sigaba

The answer to your question is no. I've not upgraded to the most recent version of Endnote nor have I installed the versions that I have onto this machine.

[Warrior-Mentor]

Thanks for the concept for this thread and the links.

Originally Posted by Sigaba

Now, for the LOC's digital archives. (Could I have gotten here sooner? Maybe. But if historians said in ten words what they can say in two hundred, they would not be practicing a dying craft. Oh, that sounds a little bitter...)

Sounds like you should consider going into politics.

Not that I agree with your likely policy positions, but politicians are known for having the same problem.

[Surf n Turf]

Sigaba,
Lacking your eloquence, and propensity to say in three paragraphs, what could be said in one sentence --- attached are some additional sources for research that I hope are helpful.
I also notice that you and nmap have access to expensive software (I priced Adobe) that is not available to the non-academics.
SnT

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - = subject
Foreign Policy Research Institute
Council on Foreign Relations
U.S. Army War College - Strategic Studies Institute
National Defense Intelligence College
National Security Archive - George Washington University
Terrorism Research Initiative - Perspectives on Terrorism
Center for the Study of Intelligence – CIA
DOD Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms
Institute for the Study of War
On War - General Carl Von Clausewitz
Project Gutenberg – USA
Project Gutenberg – Australia

[nmap]

Originally Posted by Surf n Turf

I also notice that you and nmap have access to expensive software (I priced Adobe) that is not available to the non-academics.

There are ways....

Sign up for a course at the local community college. Take something you enjoy. Get the student ID, and then go to such places as http://www.academicsuperstore.com/ and buy to your heart's content. Or - find a course you can teach, talk to the local department chair, and proceed that way.

Failing that, one can often find a relative, friend, or neighbor with a connection to a student. On that, I shall say no more.

[Sigaba]

Originally Posted by Warrior-Mentor

Sounds like you should consider going into politics.

Not that I agree with your likely policy positions, but politicians are known for having the same problem.

WM--

I don't know if you and I would be that far apart on a lot of issues. For example, while we both have different perspectives on GWOT, we both agree that the U.S. is in (a) a war of necessity and that the conflict is: (b) global in scope, (c) ideological in nature, and (d) generational in duration. While we disagree over (c), the fact that we agree on the other points place us in stark contrast to the Clintonian Democrats who contend that we are not really at war.

That being said, I don't think I'd be effective in today's political arena. I was inculcated with what Louis Bronlow called "a passion for anonymity." These days, too many politicians want the spot light. Besides, what I really want to do is direct.

Originally Posted by Surf n Turf

Sigaba,
Lacking your eloquence, and propensity to say in three paragraphs, what could be said in one sentence

Oh, the barbs and arrows! I can only imagine what would be said if I didn't edit every post at least twice for length.

In any case, thank you for adding to the collection.

Originally Posted by nmap

There are ways....

Sign up for a course at the local community college. Take something you enjoy. Get the student ID, and then go to such places as http://www.academicsuperstore.com/ and buy to your heart's content. Or - find a course you can teach, talk to the local department chair, and proceed that way.

Failing that, one can often find a relative, friend, or neighbor with a connection to a student. On that, I shall say no more.

nmap--

I could have not said no more better myself.

I do offer the following caveat. It is in the best interest of each end user to have a copy of software installed on his or her machine as well as the required license key and also a copy of the receipt. Having all three can prevent a lot of heartache when (not if) an application starts to run sideways and one needs to make repairs.

The public papers of the presidents (PPP) are collections of a president's public statements, announcements, speeches, and open letters. One should note that the collections are not as comprehensive as the Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents or its current iteration, the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents. These compilations include a variety of documents that are administrative and/or technical in nature. (Can you guess during whose administration the change was made from a weekly publication to a daily one? Yes, I know that correlation is not causation but still, are the production costs of a daily publication the best use of public funds during a time of extended economic crisis?)

In my opinion, PPPs are underutilized by academics who are driven to find inside information. While the drive is understandable, especially among historians, it can cloud the fact that much of what is unknown will remain unknowable during the lifetime of a researcher studying contemporary events.

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents (1993-2009)
Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents (2009-present)
UCSB American Presidency Project (1929-present)
Truman
Eisenhower [use UCSB link]
Kennedy
Johnson [use UCSB link]
Ford [use UCSB link]
Carter [use UCSB link]
Reagan
Bush the Elder
Clinton
Bush the Younger
The forty fourth President of the United States of America

Comment: IMO, the search engine for the Truman PPPs is the most robust of the lot and is the same engine used for UCSB American Presidency Project. The short coming of the UCSB site is that it has so many resources moshed together. This moshing means that a researcher may need to be so specific in his or her searches that a researcher's fourth best friend--luck--may be shut out when it is most needed.

[Richard]

A few links I find useful:

The Vietnam Center and Archive at Texas Tech University

http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/

World War 2 Database

http://ww2db.com/index.php

Imperial Japanese Navy

http://www.combinedfleet.com/kaigun.htm

The American Experience

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/

Texans in the Civil War

http://www.angelfire.com/tx/RandysTexas/index.html

National Archives and Records Administration Holdings

http://www.archives.gov/research/

[Sigaba]

Footage and transcripts of William F. Buckley, Jr.'s television show, Firing Line (1966-1999), are available here.

This collection is maintained and hosted by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. The Hoover Institution asks for feedback on what footage from the show should be digitized. The on line form for providing feedback is available here.

[Requiem]

Gentlemen, thank you for posting these sites. Living in a somewhat remote part of the U.S., I've come to rely on internet research. I'll be sure to use some of these sources.

I've found The Command and General Staff College's Combined Arms Research Library's digital library helpful.

-Susan

[Sigaba]

A number of think tanks still have publications available for free but this pattern is changing.

In addition to links provided in post #5, above, here are some resources.

• The Brookings Institution has privatized most of its content. One can keep track of daily developments by monitoring its website or subscribing to its RSS feeds. <<LINK>>
• The Center for Naval Analyses has, sadly, closed the gap that allowed one to see its entire archive of published reports at once. (Sometimes, I really miss the 1990s. But not to the point where I want a return of acid wash jeans, extraordinarily crappy R&B groups, or "New Jack" hip hop.) One can find announcements of its publications here.
• The Congressional Research Service works for Congress and is funded by the American tax payer yet its publications are not readily available. Fortunately, one can find many CRS reports at the OpenCRS portal, here.
  The RAND Corporation has a number of its 'classic' publications available here. Three documents that may be of interest to members of this BB are:
  • Bernard Brodie, Strategy in the Missile Age (This work is important because it helped to challenge the armed service's expertise on strategic thinking after the Second World War.)
  • Stephen T. Hosmer, Sibylle O. Crane, Counterinsurgency: A Symposium, April 16-20, 1962
  • David Galula, Pacification in Algeria, 1956-1958

[Sigaba]

QP BMT provided information about this collection in 2008 <<LINK>>.

The link in BMT's post has expired but the same information is available here.

The archive is available here. The digital archive is 1.58 gigabites in 7824 PDF files. The folders in the archive are available here.

The collection is relevant to the following subjects.

United States. Central Intelligence Agency -- History.
United States. Foreign Service.
United States. Office of Strategic Services.
Intelligence officers -- United States -- 20th century.
Intelligence service -- United States -- 20th century.
Spies -- United States -- 20th century -- Correspondence.
World War, 1939 - 1945 -- Secret service -- United States.
United States -- Foreign relations -- Soviet Union -- 20th century.
United States -- Foreign relations -- 20th century.

[Sigaba]

Yale University has a digital collection of primary source material available here. The materials span the arc of western civilization.

ETA. Project Avalon now has a Major Document Collections page that may aid researches find materials relevant to their interests more efficiently. That page is here.

I'd have provided this link sooner but well, the second thing one learns when studying the craft of history is to horde resources. (I need every advantage I can find when debating certain topics with various members of this BB. )

[Sigaba]

The ANES Guide to Public Opinion and Electoral Behavior website has data on electoral demographics and views on policy issues.

The Guide provides immediate access to tables and graphs that display the ebb and flow of public opinion, electoral behavior, and choice in American politics over time. It serves as a resource for political observers, policy makers, and journalists, teachers, students, and social scientists.

The Guide currently contains data from 1948 through 2008. (NOTE: no ANES time series study was conducted in 2006).

Displays in the Guide are organized into nine topics:

1. Social and Religious Characteristics of the Electorate (such as age, race, gender, education, and religion)
2. Partisanship and Evaluation of the Political Parties
3. Ideological Self-Identification
4. Public Opinion on Public Policy Issues (such as health care, affirmative action, abortion, the military, and the economy)
5. Support for the Political System (such as trust in government and government responsiveness)
6. Political Involvement and Participation in Politics (such as voter turnout, campaign contributions and other activities, attention to the campaign in the media, and interest in politics)
7. Evaluation of the Presidential Candidates
8. Evaluation of Congressional Candidates
9. Vote Choice (for president, for U.S. House of Representatives, and split-ticket voting)

Questions represented in the Guide are a small but significant portion of the questions that have been asked in the American National Election Studies time series. Guide data have been produced from the ANES Cumulative Data File, which combines data from the individual ANES time series studies for selected questions.*

The Guide's homepage is here.

The tables and graphs are there.


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* Source is here.