{"id":7,"date":"2020-09-02T09:36:13","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T08:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/?page_id=7"},"modified":"2026-03-23T12:16:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T12:16:36","slug":"start-here","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Getting started"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This Library Resource Guide is designed to be used alongside <a href=\"https:\/\/librarysearch.kent.ac.uk\/client\/en_GB\/kent\"><strong>LibrarySearch<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The guide is structured along the idea of starting your research journey by developing your understanding of your research topic by consulting reference resources. Once you have a deeper understanding you move on to consult existing research in books and journal articles before moving on to finally exploring primary sources and archive collections.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/reference-sources\/\">Reference sources<\/a>:<\/strong> start your research journey by building an overview of your topic and help you establish suitable keywords.<\/p>\n<p><strong style=\"font-size: 14px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/journal-articles\/\">Journal articles<\/a>:<\/strong><span style=\"font-size: 14px\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14px\">use our journal databases to find original research on a specific topic from reliable sources.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/primary-source-and-archive-collections\/\">Primary sources<\/a>: <\/strong>find the raw data you need to analyse and test your working hypothesis and then to evidence and support your claims. There is one page listing <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/primary-source-and-archive-collections\/\"><strong>general and topic specific archive collections<\/strong><\/a> and one listing <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/primary-sources-news-sources-and-official-publications\/\">news sources and official publications<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4>Finding material outside of the Templeman Library<\/h4>\n<p>There may well be an occasion where you are searching for a book or journal article that&#8217;s not available in theTempleman Library.<\/p>\n<p>In this cases you may want to visit another library that holds the relevant material or request a copy form elewhere using our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kent.ac.uk\/guides\/document-delivery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Document Delivery Service.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<h4><\/h4>\n<h4>More advice on research sk<span style=\"color: inherit;font-family: inherit\">ills<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.history.ac.uk\/library\/collections\/online-resources\/open-access-resources\"><strong>The Institute of Historical Studies<\/strong><\/a> have a very helpful guide for finding and evaluating suitable materials for research.<\/p>\n<p>Also recommended is Dr David Rundle\u2019s thorough guide with advice on how to research online on his <a href=\"https:\/\/bonaelitterae.wordpress.com\/2020\/05\/18\/online-research-tip1\/\"><strong>bon\u00e6 litter\u00e6: occasional writing from David Rundle,\u00a0Renaissance scholar blog<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>At the top of this page are also some links with advice on <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/tips-mhra-referencing\/\">MHRA referencing<\/a><\/strong>, <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/using-your-digital-library\/\"><strong>using your digital library<\/strong><\/a>, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/check-for-access-to-a-web-resource\/\">checking if we have access to a specific resource you found on the web,<\/a><\/strong> and <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/using-ebooks\/\"><strong>how to use our eBooks<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This Library Resource Guide is designed to be used alongside LibrarySearch. The guide is structured along the idea of starting your research journey by developing &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/\">Read&nbsp;more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7\/revisions\/180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/history-library-guide\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}