F&M Library: HIS 373

Lib Res.

HIS 373: Gilded Age

Reference Resources - Encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks and bibliographies

Reference or secondary sources are informational resources written by individuals who were not the actual participants in the topic at hand. They may be of value to your research since they often provide greater objectivity and different perspectives as a result of the passage of time. Common secondary sources include encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, and bibliographies.

Please Note: The general call number range for the United States - Mexican War through WWII is E401-E812

The United States in the First World War: An Encyclopedia: Ref Room D510 .U65 1995 Vol. 1
Encyclopedia of American Indian Wars, 1492-1890: Ref Room E81 .K44 1997 Vol. 1
Dictionary of American History: Ref Room E174 .D52 2003 Vol. 1-10
Encyclopedia of the Mexican American War: Ref Room E404 .C93 1999 Vol. 1
The War of 1898 and U.S. Interventions 1898-1934: An Encyclopedia: Ref Room E745 .W37 1994 Vol. 1

Search Terminology - Keywords and Subject Headings

When conducting research, always consider alternative keywords and subject headings for your topic. Begin by analyzing your topic or research question, and break it down into its key concepts. What keywords appear? Are there alternative keywords that come to mind?

For this course, keywords may include: Mexican War, Mexican-American War, U.S.-Mexican War, War of 1898, Spanish-American War, Great War, WWI, imperialism, empire etc.

Subject headings may include: "United States Territorial expansion", or "Imperialism History 20th century", or "United States Foreign relations 1865-1898" etc.

How to find books

Select CATALOG from the Library home page. In finding books for this class, try using the keyword and subject terms mentioned above.

When you discover a book of interest, select the "DETAILS" tab, and then the "FULL RECORD" tab to look at the assigned subject headings for that item. Note related subject headings, and click on them to find other books that are described in a similar way, and may prove useful.

Remember to search out call numbers in both the STACKS and the REFERENCE ROOM. Call numbers are designed to mirror themselves in these two areas. If you find a valuable book in the STACKS, you will find similar, high quality REFERENCE items under the same call number in the REFERENCE ROOM.

How to find and locate journal articles

Start by consulting the following electronic resources:

JSTOR: A collection of abstracts and articles from over 250 scholarly journals, many dating from the nineteenth-century to the last 4 or 5 years.
OmniFile Full Text Mega: Access to full text articles, page images, article abstracts, and citations from thousands of sources. Coverage back as early as 1982.
America: History and Life: Comprehensive bibliography of articles on the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to present. Covers abstracts 1964 to the present.
New York Times - Full Image: The New York Times (Sep 18, 1851 - Dec 31, 2001, full-image) offers full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The collection includes digital reproductions providing access to every page from every available issue.
America's Historical Newspapers: Fully searchable, cover-to-cover reproductions of early American newspapers including titles from all 50 present states. Includes: Early American Newspapers, Series 1 (1690-1876), Early American Newspapers, Series 2 (1758-1900) and Early American Newspapers, Series 3 (1829-1922).

If the article you find is available in full-text, follow the appropriate links. If not, take note of the JOURNAL NAME being cited, and go to the Journals at F&M page to see if the library subscribes to the journal. If so, locate the journal in print or microfilm, and make a copy for your research.

For additional article resources, look under the Electronic Resources - A to Z List on the Library homepage.

Don't Forget: Always consult the bibliography at the end of a journal article for additional resources!

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web can be a helpful environment in which to access scholarly information. To search for more authoritative sites, use mediated search directories such as the Librarians Index to the Internet or Google Scholar.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 1841-1902: The Brooklyn Daily Eagle was published from 1841 to 1955, then revived for a short time from 1960 to 1963. Because of the enormity of the collection, the digitization of the historic Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper from reels of microfilm has been broken down into more than one phase. Phase I, which can at present be found on this site, covers the period from October 26, 1841 to December 31, 1902, representing half of the Eagle's years of publication.
History Matters: Many Pasts: This feature contains primary documents in text, image, and audio about the experiences of ordinary Americans throughout U.S. history. All of the documents have been screened by professional historians and are accompanied by annotations that address their larger historical significance and context.
A Guide to World War I Materials: This guide compiles links to World War I resources throughout the Library of Congress Web site. In addition, this guide provides links to external Web sites focusing on World War I and a bibliography containing selections for both general and younger readers." Resources include photo collections, "Today in History" pages, sheet music, radio broadcasts, and more. Compiled by Kenneth Drexler, Digital Reference Specialist at the Library of Congress.