Research Guides: DSCI 350M/LIB 350M Humanities Research Data Management: Your Research Tools

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Public Scholarship Librarian

Kate Thornhill

she/her/hers

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Contact:

541-346-3714

Subjects: Digital Research, Grants / Foundations

Your Research Tools

Research tools will be crucial for successfully accomplishing your term-based project. Many are supplied to you through the UO Libraries either free or paid with student tuition dollars.

What can you find on this page?

The Oregon Encyclopedia
Library and Archives Databases
Internet Search Engines and Crowd Sourced Information
Citation Management and Style Guides
Tools for Collecting Objects and Metadata for Your Term-Project

It's important to note that after graduation you may lose or have limited access to the tools listed on this page. Check-in with the UO Libraries if this is a concern of yours.

Oregon Encyclopedia - Great for Topic Selection and Background Research

The Oregon Encyclopedia

The Oregon Encyclopedia is is an authoritative publication about the history of Oregon. This is a great place to start your research when figuring out what topics interest you.

Library & Archive Databases - Background Research & Primary Sources

This is just a sample of what Library and Archive Databases are available. Talk with your teacher and librarians to learn more about what is available to you. Make sure to talk to them about your research topic during office hours or a consultation.

Archives West This link opens in a new window
Descriptions of primary sources in the Northwestern United States, including correspondence, diaries, or photographs. Digital reproductions of primary sources are available in some cases.
Women and social movements in the United States 1600-2000 This link opens in a new window
Primary sources dealing with U.S. women's history from 1600 to 2000
Archives of sexuality & gender This link opens in a new window
If searches in this database retrieve incorrect results, clear cache/cookies to resolve the problem.
Primary source documents from major international activist organizations and local grassroots organizations providing information on social, political, health and legal issues impacting LGBTQ communities. Includes often-excluded groups, even within the LGBTQ community, and enables users to draw new connections across the development of LGBTQ culture and activism.
Gale in Context. U.S. history This link opens in a new window
If searches in this database retrieve incorrect results, clear cache/cookies to resolve the problem.
Coverage - scholarly articles, primary sources, encyclopedia entries, audio, video, - of topics in U.S. History, from the arrival of Vikings to Vietnam, Watergate and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
ARTstor This link opens in a new window
Search over one million digital images in the fields of the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences.
As of August 1, 2024 the former Artstor website is now completely incorporated into JSTOR. All content is now located there.
HistoryMakers This link opens in a new window
By recording, preserving and sharing the life stories of thousands of African Americans, from President Barack Obama to the oldest living black cowboy, The HistoryMakers is a leader in helping to educate and enlighten millions worldwide through refashioning a more inclusive record of American history.
ProQuest historical newspapers: Oregon collection‎ This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: U.S. State Collections empower researchers to digitally travel back through centuries to become eyewitnesses to local and regional history by revealing state and local news coverage valued by researchers. Each title includes the complete paper, cover-to-cover, with full-page images in PDF format. For newspapers still publishing, coverage extends to within days of the current issue.
Dissertations & Theses @ University of Oregon This link opens in a new window
Database of dissertations completed at the University of Oregon. Dissertations completed after 1996 are available in full text to current UO faculty, staff and students and on-campus users.
Historic Oregon Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Historic Oregon Newspapers provides digitized versions of selected Oregon newspapers published between 1846 and 2017. Approximately 200 newspapers are included in this collection. Dates of coverage vary from newspaper to newspaper.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Online archive of peer reviewed/scholarly journals in all disciplines.
Oregon Digital This link opens in a new window
Oregon Digital provides discovery of and access to unique digitized and born-digital materials, including photographs, articles, sheet music, manuscripts, ephemera, and more. Materials in the broad collection are contributed from the University of Oregon and Oregon State University.
Food and drink in history This link opens in a new window
Explore a wide range of primary source material including printed and manuscript cookbooks, advertising ephemera, government reports, films and illustrated content – revealing the evolution of food and drink within everyday life and the public sphere. The unique material in this collection has been sourced from across the globe to reflect a wide range of food cultures and traditions, creating an unparalleled research resource.
UO has access to Module 1.

Google & Wikipedia

Google Images This link opens in a new window
A place to find images on the web via Google.
Wikipedia - English This link opens in a new window
Web-based encyclopedia, written collaboratively by people from all around the world. Wikipedia's articles provide links to guide the user to related pages with additional information.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Covers scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, including theses, books, abstracts and articles. Access Google Scholar items from off-campus.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Using Generative AI in DSCI 350M/LIB 350M means being transparent, honest, and learning-centric.

Generative AI is still developing and will keep evolving. You will most likely encounter it at some point during your personal and academic life. In fact, engagement with it will increase for the foreseeable future. You should ALWAYS check what answers Generative AI supplies you. Confirming truth and fact is important when making claims and assertions.

Generative AI bots like ChatGPT, Dall-E, Poe, Bard, Co-Point all have use pros and cons when it comes to research. Key points that you should be away of when using Generative AI include:

Plagiarism - When you steal and/or do not give credit to someone's work.
Security & Privacy Vulnerabilities - Your personal information supplied to the bots and used without your consent.
Inaccurate or Fake Information - Asking a question and getting an answer from a bot won't always be correct. You can ask if it supply you with a list of books about "Women Workers in Oregon between 1930-1950" and have fake or unfactual information shared.
Dishonesty - Generative AI can write for you. Claiming its work as your own lack integrity. Don't do it.

Approaches to using Generative AI to support your research digital collection project. These are only a few.

Copyediting
Brainstorming Keywords for Searching
Research topic ideation
Transforming text into Markdown or HTML code
Making checklists

Citation Management & MLA Style

Citation Management Tool Recommendation

Zotero - A citation management tool used for collection articles, book chapters, web pages, and documents.

Zotero is a free, open source desktop application that allows you to collect, organize, cite, and share research. It works on Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. This guide has information on how to get started with using Zotero, from installing the application and its plugins, to adding sources to your library, to generating in-text citations and reference lists.

MLA Style Guide is used in this course.

Object and Metadata Collecting

Links and information about these resources and their access are available on the UO Canvas Course website.

Digital Storage

Dropbox
Google Drive
Microsoft SharePoint

Spreadsheets

Microsoft Excel
Google Sheets

Word Processing

Microsoft Word
Plain Text Editors for Mac and Windows

CollectionBuilder - A Digital Collection and Exhibit Platform

CollectionBuilder is an open source framework for creating digital collection and exhibit websites that are driven by metadata and powered by modern static web technology.

Example CollectionBuilder Projects found around the world!
DSCI 350M/LIB 350M Exemplar Class Project: The Oregon Forest Industry