I’ll admit it – this research project, in all the years I’ve been attending classes at TRU, is the first time I made an appointment with the librarian to get help with research. I’m looking back at all the research papers I completed and kicking myself because using the librarian for help with finding sources is an amazing tool. Just having a second person sit down with you and dive into the databases makes all the difference; a second set of eyes can help catch articles that you may have looked over, or type in a keyword you perhaps hadn’t of thought.

While my search for secondary sources on my own went well, I realized I was missing some quality primary sources as a began to plan and outline my research paper. I wanted to focus on the difference between textbooks in different decades of the 20th century, but I only had a physical copy of one textbook from the 1960s. I wanted to compare the textbook I had to one from perhaps the 1930s or before. Brenda Smith, one of TRU’s librarians and PHP liaison, was able to help with this search for primary sources. She was able to access databases I did not even know existed, and also helped me request books from the interlibrary loan system. One of these sources came from Simon Fraser University in the form of microfilm, which I had not had the pleasure of using before. With this help, I was able to obtain two different textbooks, one from 1919 and one from the 1930s, for research purposes. Overall, I would recommend making an appointment with a librarian for any research project.