Library: HI 127: Guide

Databases

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Search for articles and publications across nearly every area of academic study.
Academic Search Premier contains indexing and abstracts for nearly 8,500 journals, over 4,600 in full text. Backfiles to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals, and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles.
American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
Search historical periodicals that document the life of America's people from the Colonial Era through the Civil War and Reconstruction (1684 to 1912).
American Historical Periodicals (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Search historical periodicals that document the life of America's people from the Colonial Era through the Civil War and Reconstruction (1684 to 1912).
ArchiveGrid This link opens in a new window
Search archival collections held by libraries, museums, historical societies.
ArchiveGrid provides access to detailed archival collection descriptions such as documents, personal papers, family histories, and other archival materials held by thousands of libraries, museums, historical societies, and archives. It also provides contact information for the institutions where these collections are kept
European Views of the Americas (1493-1750) This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Search for primary source materials on the history of European exploration, portrayals of native American peoples, slave trade, commerce, pirates, and much more . This is an indexing database only.
This is an electronic version of the bibliography titled European Americana: A Chronological Guide to Works Printed In Europe Relating to the Americas, 1493-1750 The database contains more than 32,000 records.
History Reference Center This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
Search for history resources across areas and time-periods.
Includes nearly 57,000 historical documents, 77,000 biographies of historical figures, 1,990 full-text ebooks, 37,400 historical photos & maps, and 80 hours of historical video
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Search some of the core journals in economics, history, political science, and sociology, as well as in other key fields in the humanities and social sciences. This database also includes a selection of titles in the more science-oriented fields of ecology, mathematics, and statistics.
Slavery in the Americas and the World This link opens in a new window
- This link opens in a new window
This collection brings together a multitude of essential legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery and all reported state and federal cases on slavery.

Print Resources

200's Religion

300's for Social Sciences

970 History of North America

973 History of the United States

Research Steps

Basic Search

Use broad search terms on Google or a database to get an idea of what is out there. At this point you're not trying to secure any sources, you're just trying to learn. So, it's okay to get information to less formal sources as long as you can back up the information you find later with scholarly ones.

Advanced Search

Now we're only using databases. We have figured out what keywords we want to use in the databases to find what we need. You can engage the Boolean operators to help refine your results.

Filtering Results

Often even with specific key words, you can still get thousands of results. And who wants to scroll through thousands of results? You can use the filtering options (usually on the left side of the web page) to get those numbers down. Some options are filtering by publication year, full-text availability, and by author.

Choosing Articles

Now start choosing which articles you think will best support your argument. Remember: you cannot save EBSCO articles by their link; you have to either download the PDF or make a free EBSCO account and the save the article to a folder. Make sure that the articles you're choosing are ones you have the time to read (or at the very least skim).

Do it all again!

The most important part of doing research is knowing that you'll have to do multiple steps multiple times. Maybe the first database you've tried doesn't have what you want, so you need to go to a new one. Maybe you tried a filtering option that ended up giving you too few results. Or you've found some articles that you thought would be useful but turns out they're not, or maybe they're too difficult to read. Never be afraid to toss out an article that's not working for you and find a new one.

Journals

United States Statutes at Large
The collection of every law, public and private, ever enacted by the Congress, published in order of the date of its passage. These laws are codified every six years in the United States Code, but the Statutes at Large remains the official source of legislation. Until 1948, all treaties and international agreements approved by the Senate were also published in the set. In addition, the Statutes at Large includes the text of the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, amendments to the Constitution, treaties with Indians and foreign nations, and presidential proclamations.

Catalog of Government Publications This link opens in a new window
The CGP is the finding tool for federal publications that includes descriptive information for historical and current publications as well as direct links to the full document, when available. Users can search by authoring agency, title, subject, and general keywords, or click on "Advanced Search" for more options.
With records dating back to 1976, the catalog is updated daily.

American Nineteenth Century History
Devoted to the history of nineteenth century America. Includes slavery, race, the Civil War & Reconstruction. Also includes reassessments of historical controversies, & reappraisals of prominent events or individuals.
Settler Colonial Studies
Seeks to address the theoretical and practical aspects and implications of settler colonialism in the past and in the present. The journal was established to respond to a growing demand for reflection and critical scholarship on settler colonialism as a distinct social and historical formation. It is multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary by nature, encouraging submissions from multiple different academic disciplines, including, but not limited to, history, literature, Indigenous studies, area- and cultural studies, archaeology, anthropology, environmental humanities, genocide studies, and memory studies.

HI 127: Guide

Introduction

Databases

Print Resources

Research Steps

Journals