FINDING ORIGINS, FINDING
TRENDS
Today’s questions:
• What type of information is
available?
• Where is it located?
• How do you determine whether
or not it is reliable?
Types of historical records
• Basic terminology
– Primary sources
– Secondary sources
• Types of historical records
– Recorded documents
– Oral history
– physical evidence
Major sources of historical
records
• Government records
• Institutional records
• Communications media
• Personal documents
Provincial locations of records
• Public Archives
– Public Archives of Nova Scotia, Halifax
– Dalhousie University Public Archives, Halifax
– Beaton Institute, Sydney
• Libraries
Assessing the reliability of a
record
• Who
• What
• When
• Where
• Why
• How
No records are unbiased
and no records are
completely accurate. The
researcher must carefully
assess each record to see
how it can contribute to
telling an accurate story.