History 301: Introduction to the Study of History, Section I - Spring, 2008
Dr. Martha Few
Using the Library’s Web Page:
Searching the Library Catalog:
To find Sources that will give you an overview of a period or event, search by LC SUBJECT, for example:
United States History 20th century
World War 1914-1918
World War 1939-1945
Turkey history
Women united states
Select book titles that come under the broad generic subject heading you searched. In general, do not select books that come under subdivisions of the headings.
Use synonyms and truncation symbols to effectively retrieve information. For example, if you are looking for materials on the history of the environmental movement, you might choose to search Environment* (the asterisk will give you environment, environmental, etc…) OR Ecology* OR Conservation*. Using the asterisk will give you a search result that will list materials that use any of the variations of the term entered.
Narrow your search by putting the word AND between the words for one or more concepts if you wish to find materials that include BOTH terms, e.g.: Women AND Politics.
Finding Primary Sources:
Primary source materials can be found by using the keyword search page and typing in your major search topic into the top line. On the second line, change "Any Field" to "Subject." Type any of the following into the Search Box:
Sources, interviews, personal narratives, statistics, diaries, correspondence, biography, archives, or government documents.
Please note, “biography” includes both autobiographies and secondary works.
You can search more than one of these by putting OR between subjects.
- e.g. sources OR personal narratives OR interviews
Autobiographical information can be found by changing “Any Field” to “Author” and typing in the name of the person.
Maps are also primary sources and can be found using the keyword search page.
Search by entering the country or region name and changing the keyword from “Any Field” to “Subject”. On the second line, enter the word Maps and change the keyword to “Subject.”
Atlases of historical maps can be found by searching the country or region [Subject] and historical geography [Subject] and maps [Subject].
e.g., Germany [subject] and historical geography [subject] and maps [subject].
A search of atlases of historical maps can also be narrowed to a certain time period by adding dates to the “Limit To” search fields, which are located directly under the “Keyword Search” fields.
e.g. Baja [Subject] and maps [Subject] and 1900 (Year: After) and 1930 (Year: Before).
Government Documents are good examples of primary sources. To find Congressional documents click on Lexis Nexis Congressional Universe.
To find scholarly books:
Search your topic by keyword
Select a book record to see if any of the subject headings apply to your topic
Click on an appropriate subject heading within the book record
A list of scholarly books on your topic should appear
Primary Sources not in the Library’s Catalog can be found by looking in the History Subject Guide under Primary Sources.
Subject Guides:
To find encyclopedias, scholarly journals, primary sources, contemporary newspapers, new magazines, visual sources, and citation guides:
Go to the History Subject Guide
For the first library research assignment select either U.S. History or Europe-Modern History or Latin American History.
Background Information:
Online Encyclopedias (Gale Virtual Reference Library)
Use these tips when using the Gale Virtual Reference Library:
Change top box to Keyword; Subject area to History and Target Audience to Academic.
Finding Articles and Databases:
(finds scholarly articles and scholarly books; for all periods of history of the U.S. and Canada)
(finds scholarly articles and scholarly books for the period of 1450 to the present.The U.S. and Canada are in America: History and Life.)
(finds scholarly articles)
Project Muse
(finds scholarly articles)
Periodical Archives Online..Full Text
Periodicals Archive Online contains over 400 journals, published between 1802 and the 1990s, representing over 1.2 million articles. Periodicals Archive Online continues to add new titles, to give undergraduate and graduate students, university faculty and libraries access to a growing collection of the most historically respected journals in the humanities and social sciences
(finds contemporary articles from news magazines and other types of popular magazines, 1890-1982)
(finds contemporary articles from news magazines and other types of magazines, 1915-1976)
Finding Facts and Figures:
Link to the sources listed under the heading of Subject Guide above.
Tutorials and Guides:
To find the following guides and tutorials go to the Library’s home page and choose “Tutorials and Guides” under the “Help” link:
Avoiding Plagiarism: www.library.arizona.edu/help/tutorials/plagiarism/index.html
Citation Style Guides: www.library.arizona.edu/help/tutorials/citation/index.html
Evaluation Information on the Web: www.library.arizona.edu/help/tutorials/webinfo/index.html
For Assistance:
Contact: Jen Tellman, Librarian for History, 307-2780, Tellmanj@u.library.arizona.edu
Created by Ruth Dickstein, rev. by Jen Tellman September 2008