HIS 352 - American West

This page will assist you in locating secondary sources for your topic.

---

Common secondary sources for historical research include books and scholarly articles.

Finding books on historical topics in the online catalog

Search the library catalog to find scholarly books and monographs on historical topics.

The advanced search allows you to narrow your search by keyword, author, subject, etc.  For example, use the "Subject" field to find books about a particular person, e.g. "Lincoln, Abraham."

Refer to the Library of Congress Subject Headings (REF Z695 .L695 2011) if you aren't finding the right combination of words to retrieve any titles in the Library's collection.

Finding articles on historical topics in the databases

Search JSTOR to find full-text, full-image, scholarly articles on history topics.  JSTOR is an archival database for selected titles in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Other databases containing articles on history topics are listed below. And remember, articles on the history of various topics may be found by searching discipline-specific databases such as Sociological Abstracts.

Search Google Scholar to find citations to scholarly articles.  While some articles are freely available via the web, many are not.  If you find a useful article citation using Google Scholar, check the Library's A-Z List of Journals to see if you can access the journal via the library.  Otherwise, you may request the article via Interlibrary Loan by submitting a request by submitting an interlibrary loan request.

Full text books brought to you by Google!

In addition to searching the online catalog, the Library has many other resources to help you find books. Most are located in the Reference collection.

• Bibliographies - These resources list primary and secondary resources on various topics. Most are located near the end of the Reference collection, with their call numbers beginning with BIB REF.
• Bibliographic Index - This print index lists published bibliographies by subject. It is located in the Bibliographies section at the very end of Reference.
• WorldCat - This "worldwide" catalog lists books, videos, sound recordings, journals, and many more resources from libraries throughout the U.S. and in several foreign countries. Request materials from other libraries using the Interlibrary Loan link within the catalog.

Academic Search Premier
This multi-disciplinary database indexes and provides full-text articles for hundreds of history journals including Journal of American History and American Historical Review.

JSTOR
You can use JSTOR to access full-text, full-image, scholarly journal articles. This archival database covers the Humanities and Social Sciences. Specific topics include African-American Studies, Anthropology, Finance, and Mathematics.

Military and Government Collection
Offers news on all branches of the military. Full-text coverage of over 300 periodicals, with indexing for 400 more titles.

European Views of the Americas: 1493-1750
This database contains more than 32,000 entries and is a comprehensive guide to printed records about the Americas written in Europe before 1750.

Search for periodicals available in full text.

A-Z List of Journals

Current journals and magazines in print format are located on the shelving on the main level of the library. Older issues are in the northeast condensed shelving on the lower level.

Periodicals in microformat are located in the file cabinets east of the print periodicals.