Historical Research Guide
BOOKS: research aids, primary documents, and secondary sources:
U.S. History Sources & World History Sources
These are links to bibliographies of historical sources available at Owens Library. Bibliographies are highly valued by your professor and by librarians because they lead you to multiple, relevant, and essential sources.
Library Catalog
Search for books in the Owens Library collection and in MOBIUS (statewide catalog). Request MOBIUS books while in the Catalog rather than though Interlibrary Loan.
WorldCat
The WorldCat advanced search includes limiting by format, e.g., archival material.
Also, WorldCat helps you broaden your research beyond the collections of Owens
Library and other academic libraries in Missouri (MOBIUS). Order books not
found through the Owens Library or MOBIUS catalogs via Interlibrary
Loan.
eBrary
ebrary Academic Complete contains over 52,000 electronic book titles, and
one of the of the areas covered is the humanities and history.
»Watch the ebrary video.
This 11 to 12 minute video will show you many of the features of ebrary
Academic Complete, teach you how to create a personal account
in ebrary, and help you develop focused search strategies that retrieve
appropriate results for your research needs.
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Project Gutenberg Online Catalog
"Project Gutenberg promotes digitization in “text format”,
meaning that a book can be copied, indexed, searched, analyzed and compared
with other books. Contrary to other formats, the files are accessible for
low-bandwidth use. The main source of new Project Gutenberg eBooks is Distributed
Proofreaders, launched in October 2000 by Charles Franks to help in the digitizing
of books from public domain. Project Gutenberg is the first
and largest single collection of free electronic books, or eBooks."
Google Books
Google Books allows users to search the full text of books for keywords and phrases, displaying search terms in context. The amount of text from the books a user finds reference to in the result list depends on the permissions provided by the copyright holders of the books. For books out of copyright, the full text is available for viewing and downloading. Limited Preview titles allow the user to view a limited number of preview pages (with search terms highlighted in context). Snippet View allows the user to view book publication information and only enough text to see their search terms in context. With the Find This Book in a Library feature, users can link to a WorldCat search window where the libraries that hold the title which are closest to the user's library (in our case Owens Library if you are accessing the title from a computer that has a Northwest IP address) are displayed.
Special Collections
Ask to use resources located in Owens Library Special Collections at the Library Services Desk, 1st floor. Locate the Civil War Collection housed in Special Collections (2nd floor) by searching the Library Catalog for the "Tom Hooper's Civil War Collection."
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PERIODICAL ARTICLES: primary and secondary sources
History Databases
America: History and Life covers periodical (i.e., journals, magazines, newspapers) literature about
history in the United States and Canada. Historical Abstracts indexes literature about world events outside of the United States
and Canada. Both are searchable through EBSCOhost and can be searched simultaneously. Once connected to any EBSCOhost database, click "Choose Databases."
![[ choose databases ]](choose.gif)
Online Access to Poole's Index to Periodical Literature
Search these editions of Poole's Index to Periodical Literature using
single words, rather than phrases. For example, search for Lincoln rather than
Abraham Lincoln, Shiloh rather than Battle of Shiloh. The search function doesn't
recognize phrases or Boolean operators (AND OR NOT). If you enter more than one
word, it will search for the first word you enter.
Poole's
Index to Periodical Literature: VOL. I--PART I. A--J: 1802-1881
Poole's
Index to Periodical Literature: VOL. I--PART II. K--Z: 1802--1881
Poole's
Index to Periodical Literature: The First Supplement from January 1 1882 to January
1 1887
Poole's
Index to Periodical Literature: The Second Supplement from January 1 1887 to
January 1 1892
Poole's
Index to Periodical Literature: Third Supplement from January 1 1892 to December
31 1896
Poole's
Index to Periodical Literature: Fourth Supplement from January 1 1897 to January
1 1892
Poole's
Index to Periodical Literature: Fifth Supplement from January 1 1902 to January
1 1907
American Periodical Series
To
locate a collection of periodicals published in the
United States in the 18th Century and the 19th Century (through 1850), enter
a title
search in
the Library Catalog for "american periodical series".
Current & Historical
Newspaper Sources
Newspaper indexes and newspaper articles often use terminology
reflective of their readership when indexing or reporting stories and
opinions.
Other ways to locate historical newspapers, which often include eye-witness
accounts of events, are to search the Library Catalog using one of the
following keyword searches:
- 17th century and newspapers
- 18th century and newspapers
- 19th century and newspapers
- 20th century and newspapers
The New York Times Archive
This site allows you to search the The New
York Times and retrieve selected full text of articles back to
1851. Users must search the archives in two parts: 1981 to present
and 1851 to 1980.
Articles from 1851 to the present
are also available in B.D. Owens Library on microfilm. The Library
also has this index in print on the North Wall on first floor. The
call number is Ref 016.07 N53n.
NOTE: Terminology
changes over time. The United States Civil War may be referred to as
War Between the States, War, War on Slavery, etc. during different time
periods.
World War I was not the first world war until the second world
war occurred. Older indexes may place topics under general subjects such
as slavery or religion, rather than specific aspects of the subject.
Generate a list of synonyms of terminology used at the time the historical
event occurred.
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WEB (free) sources:
History WWW Resources
This Web page provides links to resources about
African American history, Hispanic American history, U.S. history, Asian
American History, Native American history, Women's history, German
American history, primary sources and world history.
In the First Person
"In the First Person is a
free, high quality, professionally published, in-depth index of close to
4,000 collections of personal narratives in English from around the world."
Selected sources are available in full text.
Sources for Locating WWW Resources
This guide helps users locate WWW resources. It links to lists of reviewed sites, subject directories, and search engines.
Search the Internet
Find links to search engines, directories, and search
tools. Searching tips are also provided.
The Four Ws of Evaluating Information
Sources: History
Apply four criterion (who, what, when, & why)
Web resources to validate Web resources.
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Locate other research facilities:
Museums & Organizations
LIBWEB: Library Servers via WWW
Some of the libraries listed have digitized archives.
CITING sources:
Turabian
& Chicago Citation Style Examples
These examples follow the citation style of Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers, 7th ed. and The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed.
Search the Library
Catalog using the following search tips:
Keyword Searching:
Sources may be retrieved by combining important words (keywords) with
the operators AND, OR, NOT. A sample keyword search is shown below:
Learn more about Keyword Searching with Boolean Operators The truncation symbol in the Library
Catalog is an asterisk(*). Truncation allows users
to stem words or retrieve words with several endings. The search shown
below will locate records that include the words slave, slaves or slavery.
Searches may include "nesting." Nested terms are enclosed in parentheses.
The search shown includes nesting:
| (jew* or german*) and holocaust |
Read tips about searching in the Frequently
Asked Questions section of the Library Catalog.
Subject Searching: Historical
subjects are often listed under several subdivisions.
Typically subjects
are structured as follows: Geographic Location History Event or Time Period
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For example, sources
about the French Revolution are available in the Library Catalog by using this
subject search:
France History Revolution 1789-1799 |
Library catalogs often
include cross-references that lead users to subject headings.
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For example,
searching for the subject French Revolution in the Library Catalog retrieves
this cross-reference:
French Revolution France 1789-1799
--See France History Revolution, 1789-1799
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