Australian History  Tags: australian history australian_history  

Begin with your Subject guide.

Your lecturers have provided you with a selection of comprehensive and highly relevant reading resources. They have specifically chosen the most relevant resources from a vast body of literature to ensure that you are using the most appropriate texts.

These readings are usually organised by weekly lecture topics. Use the library catalogue to locate these items.

Keyword Searching

Before you start searching you need to:

• Determine the key concepts - Your research topic/essay question will help you identify the major concepts and keywords. e.g. Port Arthur, Penal Settlement, Convicts

• Define your search terms – When searching for keywords be ready to use a wide range of terms, both general and precise. For example: 

  • Geographical names - Australia, Bendigo, Queensland, etc.
  • Category or Period - Victorian, Edwardian, 1788-1850 etc.
• Add additional concepts - society, population, gender, migration, racism, etc
• If you have trouble identifying your keywords and concepts use a dictionary or encyclopedia  to find relevant terms
• Use quotation marks around two or more words to search as a phrase e.g. "Penal Colonies" or "First Fleet"
• You can truncate words to pick up plurals or variants on a word e.g. austral* will search for Australia, Australian, Australians etc.Limit your search results to specific formats, publication dates and locations.

• Each catalogue record for an item contains hypertext links to alternate related subjects/topics.

Subject Searching

The Subject Search option requires you to use specific subject headings.
Here of some examples of relevant subject headings

Use reference material to find definitions of unfamiliar terms, summaries of topics or as a starting point for information. The following are just some of the reference sources available in your area.

History
Faculty Librarians:

Albury-Wodonga: Heather Hulett
Bendigo: Annette O'Brien
Bundoora: Ann Copeland
Mildura: Maureen Speed