Research Resources: Class Guides

AMS/HIS/WGS 320: Women in American Society and Politics since 1890

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 - Late nineteenth century through Reagan's administrations is E660-E880

The women's suffrage movement : a reference guide, 1866-1928: Ref Room JN979 .C73 2001 Vol. 1
Notable American Women: The Modern Period: Ref Room CT3260 .N573 Vol. 1
Encyclopedia of women in American history: Ref Room HQ1410 .E53 2002 Vol. 1-3
From suffrage to the Senate : America's political women : an encyclopedia of leaders, causes & issues: Ref Room HQ1236.5 .U6 S32 2006 Vol. 1-2

Online Reference Sources

ANB Online: The American National Biography includes more than 17,400 men and women whose lives have shaped the nation. Updated quarterly.
Encyclopedia Britannica (with Webster's Dictionary): Latest article database, including articles not in the print edition, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, and the Britannica Book of the Year (1994 - present), with thousands of web links selected by editors.

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: suffrage, settlement houses, Equal Rights Amendment, women and politics, women's rights, civil rights etc.

Subject headings may include: "Women--United States--History", or "Women--Suffrage--History", or "African American women--United States--History--20th century" 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:

Secondary Sources

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.
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.

Primary Sources

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).
New York Times - Full Image: The New York Times (Sep 18, 1851 - Dec 31, 2004, 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.
Readers' Guide Retrospective: Comprehensive indexing of 500 of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States and reflects the history of 20th century America. The complete database covers the years 1890 through 1982.

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.

History Matters: Designed for college teachers and students, History Matters serves as a gateway to web resources and offers other useful materials for teaching U.S. history.
Library of Congress: American Memory: American Memory Home Page featuring digitized collections from the Library of Congress.
Notable Speeches and Addresses by U.S. Women, 1849present: Notable speeches by women such as Susan B. Anthony, Shirley Chisholm, Emma Goldman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Sojourner Truth.
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project: The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers is a project dedicated to bringing Eleanor Roosevelt's writings (and radio and television appearances) on democracy and human rights before an audience as diverse as the ones she addressed.
Chicago Manual of Style Sample Citations: Online Index to Chicago Manual of Style Sample Citations for Books and Periodicals - recommended by Professor Stevenson.

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