The Yale History Department requires all history majors to complete a library research colloquium as part of the senior essay process. To fulfill this requirement, and avoid a mark of "unsatisfactory" on the fall semester transcript, students must complete the library component of the senior essay during the fall semester of the senior year. Completing the library component is easy. Register for the library colloquium using the link at the bottom of this page and submit your statement of intention (page 46 of the Senior Essay Handbook), signed by your advisor, to the history department (due September 14, 2009 in HGS 237).

In late September a member of the Yale University Library will contact you to set up a one-on-one meeting to discuss the research for your proposed project. The library draws on curators, archivists, and subject specialist librarians to run this program and you will be meeting with a professional who not only has a background in the subject matter in which you are working but who has also read your statement of intent and has thought about the best way to tackle the research for your project.

The library asks students to consult chapters 3 & 4 of The Craft of Research (Booth, et al.), before their individual meetings with library staff. These chapters help students turn a general interest into a specific question or problem that can focus one's research. There are multiple copies of the third edition of The Craft of Research in the Bass Library, as well as non-circulating copies in the reference collections of the Bass Library and the Yale Law School Library [call number: Q180.55.M4B66X2008]. The library also offers access to an e-book version of the second edition here. Also, librarians have put together this research guide to help senior essayists begin their research.

Register for the senior essay colloquium here. Please ignore the date and time listed on this site; all library colloquium meetings will consist of personal meetings that will be scheduled in late September.

For more information about the Library Colloquia for History Senior Essays contact Gregory Eow, Kaplanoff Librarian for American History, Yale University Library.