Secondary Source Materials - HIS 496 - History Seminar

Finding Secondary Sources

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 if you aren't finding the right combination of words to retrieve any titles in the Library's collection. (If you prefer to use print, look for the set of red books on the east end of the Reference collection.)

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.

Sources for Books Beyond the Library's Collections

In addition to searching the online catalog for books in our collections, 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. You might find other bibliographies through the catalog using the Advanced Search option. Enter your topic in one box (preferably find the LC subject and change the field to Subject or Subject Phrase) and the word bibliography in another box and change the field to Subject. Two works, in particular, may be helpful:
- The American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature, 3rd ed., 1995 (Call number BibRef Z 6201 .A55 1995)
- Handbook for Research in American History, 2nd ed. rev., 1994 (Call number REF Z 1236 .P78 1994)
Bibliographic Index -- 1963-2009 (Call number INDEX .B582) - This print index lists published bibliographies by subject. It is located in the Indexes section at the very end of Reference.
"Libraries Worldwide" in the Catalog - By selecting this option from the filters on the left side of the library catalog, you can search for sources from libraries throughout the U.S. and in several foreign countries. Request materials from other libraries using the Interlibrary Loan link within the catalog.
Oxford Bibliographies -- available to search and look at topic overviews and at least a few titles in the general bibliography

Finding Open Access Books

These collections give you free access to lots of historic texts:

Hathi Trust
Home to millions of digitized books and publications, the aim is to preserve and grow the collection while providing lawful access to visitors around the world. Not all materials are full text.
Internet Archive and Open Library
This nonprofit archive offers free access to collections of digitized materials, including millions of books, videos, music, websites and more.
Project Gutenburg
Project Gutenberg is the place where you can download over 30,000 free ebooks to read on your PC, iPhone, Kindle, Sony Reader or other portable device.

History Databases

For a full list of databases that may provide historical resources, go to our Databases page and select "History" from the first drop-down box that defaults to "All Subjects."

World History (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
Find scholarly journals and magazines about events in world history, as well as other scholarly content.
U.S. History (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
Find articles in scholarly journals and magazines about events in U.S. history and scholarly work being established in the field.
U.S. History (Gale in Context) This link opens in a new window
Uncover information on hundreds of the most significant people, events, and topics in U.S. history from a variety of sources.
World History (Gale in Context) This link opens in a new window
Research significant people and events around the world and get multiple types of sources in one place: reference and academic journal articles, as well as primary source documents, images and videos.
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
Find periodical and newspaper articles in all major subject areas, including Business, Social Sciences, Education, Science and Technology, as well as the Humanities and Fine Arts.
Academic OneFile (Gale) This link opens in a new window
Quickly access articles from a database of scholarly journals and other trusted periodicals.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Search older full text articles from scholarly journals in more than 25 academic disciplines published between the 19th and 21st centuries.
Salem Online This link opens in a new window
Search digital reference books, mostly for history topics.
Religion and Philosophy Collection (EBSCO) This link opens in a new window
This database provides an in-depth collection of resources, spanning over 100 years, covering topics such as world religions, major denominations, biblical studies, religious history, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of language, moral philosophy and the history of philosophy.

Journal Title Search

Do you have an article citation but the database you found it in didn't provide the full text? Search in Journal Finder for periodicals available in full text in other databases!

Print Periodicals

Journals and magazines in print format are located on the lower level of the Library in the northeast compact shelving.

Periodicals in microformat are located in the file cabinets south of the print periodicals, on the other side of the study rooms.

Interlibrary Loan Requests

Use our interlibrary loan (ILL) form to request resources from other libraries around the nation:

Perkins Library ILL Request

Google Scholar

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 Journal Finder 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.