INTRODUCTION TO THE SOURCES GUIDE	by Beth Duryea
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Nailing Down a Topic...

Finding a topic can be the most difficult and intimidating part of any research project. Two rules are key: Select a topic that interests you; and find a topic for which there are sources available.

If a specific topic has not been assigned and does not come to mind readily, start with a general area that interests you. This could be, for example, abolition or women's rights or peace movements in the twentieth century. You then need to find a more specific topic within that general subject for which sources are available. The first step in narrowing your focus is to read secondary-source material, that is, published historical accounts about the general subject. As you read, you should note the questions that historians ask about the topic, the issues that constitute the historical debate around that subject. You may become interested in one of those elements of the subject. Or you may find your reading raises new questions of your own.

Once you have identified an issue or question that interests you, you will want to discover how local archives can help you explore it. Many large issues in United States' and even world history have local dimensions that can be explored through records of local life that are stored in local archives. Local archives also contain information on issues that you may not think of as local at all, for example, the experience of missionaries in 19th century China or Africa. This guide can help you find sources that will help you investigate a wide array of questions. You should also be prepared, as you engage this guide, finding aids at the archives, specialists (like archivists and your professor), and the documents themselves, to reshape your inquiry creatively in response to what the sources are telling you. But you will need to find out what sources are available before you can know the kinds of questions you can answer.

Begin your source research with this guide. It provides an extensive catalog of the collections available in local repositories with enough information about most of them to help you narrow your search for useful sources to a short list of possibilities to pursue in the archives themselves. Some Valley archives have their own webpages as well; check those for further information about the sources and the archive itself, once you've found your possibilities. (For a general introduction to using this guide, see
Searching for Sources.)

Say you need to write a research paper for a course in twentieth-century social movements, and your special interest is women's history. Begin by reviewing the introductory comments for each archival site contained at this website. You will discover that the Sophia Smith and Smith College collections have a primary focus on women's history -- clearly, searching
these collections by subject ("feminism," "women's rights") makes good sense. The W.E.B. DuBois Library introduction states that it houses "papers of people representing the broadly cultural -- political, social, economic, literary, or artistic -- life of the Commonwealth; records of organization documenting the social history of the people of Massachusetts..." So it, too, probably warrants a subject search under "feminism" and "women's rights." The Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association Library, which has focused its collections on family papers that reflect "economic, social, and cultural conditions in the Pioneer Valley during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries," might prove a less promising site for information about campaigns for birth control education or women's right to vote. But it is likely a rich source of material about the labor of rural women in those
periods.

Subject searches of collections you identify as likely to be helpful can lead you to specific sets of documents you will want to explore more fully. (Remember, though, you should not rely exclusively on subject searches from this guide, as there are more complete finding aids available at the archives themselves. In addition, to search the Mount Holyoke College Collection by subject, you should go to the Collection's own website, to which we link.) That said, subject searches from this site can be very helpful. For example, a search of Smith College's Sophia Smith Collection under the rubrics "civil rights," "feminism," "social reformers," "birth control," and "women's rights" would identify, among other items, the Constance Baker
Motley Collection. The Motley Collection, like others you find, will be further described in this guide in terms of the time frame covered by material in the collection, the size of the collection, the type of documents it contains (correspondence, news clipping, reports, speeches, business records, audio tapes, etc.), and special subjects covered in significant ways by the materials (general topics as well as names of persons, corporations, and associations). As an example, the Motley
Collection, is described as including material dating from 1948 to 1988. It takes up six linear feet (that means it includes boxes and folders that fill a six-foot-long length of shelf). We learn from the description that this is not a large collection. But, given the contents and subjects covered in the collection, we learn it could very well offer the main source material you need for your research paper. Motley was a civil rights lawyer, the first African-American woman to serve in the New York State Senate, to be President of the Borough of Manhattan, and to be named to a federal judicial bench. This is a collection of primarily professional documents including correspondence, clippings, speeches and professional writings, photos, court records, audio tapes, and more. The subjects covered range from civil rights to New York courts to segregation in education to urban policy and community development in New York to women in law and politics. The Guide has led you to a veritable treasure trove of primary material on 20th century women's history-indeed, there is material here for more than one paper, depending on
your particular focus.

The contents descriptions in this guide are more detailed for some collections than others. Use them as suggestions for further exploration. Make a list of possibilities which you can discuss with your course instructor and the archivists who are familiar with the collections. If something sounds intriguing, add it to a list of possibilities. When you've narrowed things down as much as possible and talked over your list with your instructor, you should call the archives for more information about
particular collections. Then you should arrange a visit. And remember, it is always helpful to run your ideas past an archivist familiar with the collection you're thinking about using. But keep in mind, your conversation with the archivist, and your use of materials at the archive, will be far more effective if you prepare yourself ahead of time by researching your topic-and the archive-as much as possible before hand. (For advice on arranging your visit to an archive, and using your time well while you are there, go to Into the archives. . ..)

Quick Tips for Picking Topics:

• Understand your general subject first. Start by getting a handle on the scholarship in the field of study that interests you, then look at the sources available to you to see how they might fit into the broader scholarship. You might find they suggest different answers to questions already under debate; or maybe even new questions altogether.
• Pick a topic that interests you. Completing a research project is a long process, and having an inherent interest in the material will help sustain your passion for the work during long hours of sifting through source material.
• KISS -- Keep it small and simple. If your research project is a paper for a one-semester course, you will need to be sure you have chosen a topic that can be realistically researched in a short length of time and discussed in the space available (a one-semester paper is most likely in the 10-15 page range). Both your instructor and the archivist for the collection you are using will be able to discuss the material with you, which should help you decide whether your proposal is doable within the constrictions of the assignment and the time available. Remember, topics almost always get bigger as you learn more about them, not smaller.
• Be sure there is adequate information available on your topic. There is nothing more frustrating than having half the pieces of a puzzle. It is better to take a different approach than to try to tell a story that is half missing.
• Keep your mind open. There is a dialogue between your questions and your sources as you engage in the research process. It is a back-and-forth process -- you start with an idea of what you want to write about, then as you read through sources, you begin to look at that idea in different ways. As you go back and forth between your original research idea and what the sources have to say about it, you will refine your thinking. Your focus will become more clear, it may narrow or change, and your specific topic will emerge from this dialogue between your ideas and your sources.