Search Tips
Use the most important keywords in your question:
ex. "Did pirates practice a form of democracy?"
extract pirate and democracy for starting your search
Keep words that should be searched as an exact phrase enclosed in quotation marks:
ex. "jolly roger"
When you locate an item that answers your research question, use that item's keywords and subject terms to locate similar items
Look at the Bibliography and/or References in books and articles that you have found to help find more relevant titles.
Pirates, Privateers & Buccaneers
- Modern PiracyWorld map showing locations of pirate activities today.
- Kraus Collection of Sir Francis DrakeThis collection is provided by the Library of Congress. "Sir Francis Drake, English explorer and naval strategist, circumnavigated the earth from 1577-1580. During these travels, Drake visited the Caribbean and the Pacific claiming a portion of California for Queen Elizabeth and waging battles on the Spanish. This collection comprises important primary and secondary materials accumulated about Drake’s voyages.
- Spoils of War: Privateering in Nova ScotiaFrom the Nova Scotia Archives this site includes:
Digitized original log-books for the privateers Charles Mary Wentworth (1799-1800), Nelson (1802) and Dart (1813)
A virtual exhibit telling the story of war-at-sea, 1793-1815, using digitized content selected from Halifax newspapers, court records and government documents of the time.
An extensive list of secondary sources on Piracy in Nova Scotia. - The Buccaneers of America in 3DExplore the classic book "Buccaneers of America" with a 3D digital
model to simulate turning the pages of a real book."
Online exhibit from the Library of Congress.
Audio also available from this site.
Eyewitness account, first published in 1678 - The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913A fully searchable edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court. If you are new to this site, you may find the Getting Started and Guide to Searching videos and tutorials helpful.
Evaluating Internet Sites
There are a few key rules of thumb to use when evaluating a site on the Internet. Sites that end with .gov, .edu, .org, or .mil are generally more trustworthy than sites ending with .com. Note that this is a general rule, not a hard and fast rule. Some .com sites are edited and curated and contain high-quality information, while some .edu sites are for student use and may be unreliable.
See if a site names it's creator and allows a way to verify they are who they say they are. Keep in mind that anyone can put up a spoof site and unless you're absolutely sure it is the person or institutions official site do not use it. Similarly, anyone can claim a .org site, so be careful when using such sites for information.
Check for a date to determine the currency of the information. If a page has no date you probably do not want to use the information. Dating a site can be tricky. Is the date you found the date of creation, or the date the material was posted on the web? Is the date created by a software program or by the author?
