Research in History

 

Suggested Databases:

 

• America History and Life
• Historical Abstracts
• The History E-book Project
• JSTOR
• ProjectMUSE

 

Reference Sources:

 

• American Civil War Reference Library
• American Revolution Reference Library
• American at War
• Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East and North Africa
• Europe from 1450 to 1789
• Fashion, Costume and Culture
• History behind the Headlines, Vols. 1-6
• Major Acts of Congress

 

 

See Finding Primary Sources for specific suggestions on finding first-hand accounts of historical events.

 

Finding Books:

 

In our catalog and ConnectNY, choose a Keyword or Advanced Keyword Search. Key in one or two words that describe what you're looking for. As you look down the resulting list of titles you'll probably notice some pretty strange ones, but you'll probably also see some titles that look like they might be about the subject you're researching. Click on one of these.

 

As you look at the record that describes the book you picked, scroll down until you come to the subject headings assigned to that book. Each of these headings is a link. If you click on the subject heading that best describes your research, you'll get a list of all the subject headings used in our catalog that alphabetically surround the one clicked on. The one you chose will be in the middle of this list. You can either click on that subject heading, or you can take a look at similar subjects. Whatever you decide to click on, you'll get a list of the titles of the books that have been described by that particular subject heading. Click on the title that you want to get the information that you need (location, call number and status) to find the book in library or to order it through ConnectNY. Make note of the subject headings you chooose, they can be used in ProjectMUSE, History E-book Project and WorldCat

 

On its own, though, a keyword search is important in our catalog and in ConnectNY because keywords search across the entire book description, including the contents and notes information. There may not be a whole book devoted to a particular subject, but there might be an essay in a book that is about a larger idea or movement and so that subject might appear in the Contents or Notes section, and not in the subject heading.

 

By the way, the 1,500+ books included in the The History E-book Project are included in our catalog, they are also full-text searchable at their website.

 

If you find a book you want to read that is not in our library, come to the Reference Desk and talk to the librarian about an Interlibrary Loan.

 

Finding Journal Articles:

 

Search America History and Life for journal articles about the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Search Historical Abstracts for articles about the history of every place else from 1450 to the present. These two databases have use very few subject headings (it's safe to stick with names and countries), but they have very rich abstracts (article summaries). So, in an advanced search, it's better to search on keywords than to rely on subject headings. The Historical Period limits in these databases can be very handy. Key in the dates, by decade, and choose Era, B.C.E. or C.E. from the drop down box. Since these two databases include articles from foreign language publications, the Language limit is also very useful.

 

If the article is available from ProjectMUSE, JSTOR or the EBSCO collection of full-text, you'll see a link below the citation. If it isn't, click on the link to our AtoZ Journal List to see if we have access to the journal somewhere else or in paper.

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