HIST 2004: Research Tools

HIST 2004: Research Tools

= especially valuable sources

= available through VT Library

I. Manuscripts

Virginia Heritage Database
A union database of finding aids to archival and manuscript collections in 20 Virginia repositories.

National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections
NUCMUC is a cooperative cataloging project that began in 1959 and the single best source for locating archival collections. From 1960 to 1993, NUCMUC was produced as printed volumes (see Newman Reference Z6620.U5 N3).

Digital Library and Archives, University Libraries, Virginia Tech
Digitized images and finding aids for material held in Special Collections, including manuscript collections, rare books, and the University Archives.

II. Books

Addison
Newman Library catalog. Only includes books held in this library.

WorldCat
Bibliographic records for books, journal runs, newspapers, sound recording, and videos collected and catlogued by libraries around the world. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server. To obtain a book or other item listed here but not in Newman Library, request an interlibrary loan.

Amazon
World's largest online bookseller. Can be useful for locating relatively recent books on a given subject, especially if you already have citations to one or two to start with. Follow the "Explore Similar Items in Books" link.

History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Citations to journal articles, books, book reviews, and dissertations. Coverage back to 1975. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server.

III. Newspapers and Periodicals

Online Primary Sources:

Proquest Newspapers (New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times)
Digitized images of newspapers. Can search for particular articles or browse individual issues. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server.

American Periodical Series (APS) (also a Proquest product)
Digitized images of over 1,100 American periodicals, 1749 to ca. 1900. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server.

America's Historical Newspapers, 1690-1922
Digitized reproductions of more than 1,000 newspapers, including examples from all 50 states. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server

Nineteenth Century Masterfile (formerly Poole’s Plus)
Indexes nineteenth-century Anglo-American periodicals and newspapers. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server.

Making of America: Cornell Site; University of Michigan Site
Digitized images of nineteenth-century books and periodicals (ca. 9,500 books and 100,000 journal articles). Note that there are two different sites that have to be searched separately.

Newspaper Index (Local Newspapers)
Covers Virginia Tech, southwest Virginia, and the New River Valley, from the Roanoke Times and World News (1965-93), the News Messenger (1963-98); the Collegiate Times (1970-98), the Virginia Tech Spectrum (1978-95).

Print Primary Sources (available in the Reference Collection, Newman Library, 2nd floor):
To obtain copies of the articles you find cited in these sources, first check the Ejournals link on the library homepage. If the particularly periodical or issue you need is not listed there or if you are looking for a newspaper article, check under name of the periodical or newspaper in Addison to find library holdings and location.

Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature
Indexes American popular magazines from 1900-2002. Ref AI3 R48.

Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature
Indexes Anglo-American popular magazines from 1802-1906. Ref AI3 P7.

New York Times Index
Indexes from 1851 to present. Largely superseded by Proquest Newspaper Index, but this can still be useful (for example, it lists groups articles on a particular subject together and often includes abstracts). Ref AI21 N4.

Secondary Sources:

JSTOR
Archival collection of scholarly journals in electronic format, mostly 20th century, but some titles date back to the 19th century. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server.

America: History and Life
Indexes 2100 scholarly journals covering the history of the United States and Canada from prehistoric times to the present. Some citations include links to online versions of the article. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server.

Historical Abstracts
Indexes 2100 scholarly journals covering world history from 1450 to the present. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server.

Infotrac Expanded Academic ASAP
Indexes scholarly journals, news magazines, and newspapers (many with full texts and images) in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and science and technology. Covers 1980 to present. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server.

ArticleFirst
Indexes 16,000 scholarly journals from 1990 to present. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server.

IV. Encyclopedias and Dictionaries

Answers.com
Free, advertising-supported site. Draws from over 60 titles from brand-name publishers and its own content. Some of the material may not be peer-reviewed.

Wikipedia: The Free Online Encyclopedia
Contains over 1 million articles on a wide variety of subjects. Must be used with care as anyone can submit material to the site.

Oxford Reference Premium
More than 100 dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press, including Oxford "Companions" subject encyclopedias. Nearly one million entries. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server.

Encyclopedia Britannica
Full-text, online version of this standard reference source. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server.

Gale Virtual Reference Library
A database of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server.

Oxford English Dictionary
The authority on the development of the English language. Contains over 1/2 million words, and traces meaning, history, and pronunciation. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server.

V. Biographical Information

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
An illustrated collection of 50,000 biographies of British men and women from all subject areas. Includes deceased persons only. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server.

Biography and Genealogy Master Index
Indexes biographical dictionaries and who's whos, biographical entries in subject encyclopedias, and biographical information in some volumes of literary criticism. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server.

VI. Oral History

Oral History Online
Comprehensive index of oral history collections in English, this database provides access to full text, audio, video, or bibliographic citations 7,000+ interviews from all over the world, in thousands of subjects. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server.

VII. Historical Census Statistics

Historical Statistics of the United States: Millenial Edition Online
Includes statistical data, often long runs of data, on economics, government, demography, education, law, natural resources, religion, and trade. Data can be downloaded to spreadsheets, printed, and graphed. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server.

Geostat Center: Historical Census Browser. University of Virginia Library
Allows you to examine state and county level statistic data compiled from the U. S. Census. Generates maps of selected data.

Selected Historical Decennial Census Population and Housing Counts. U. S. Census Bureau.
Contains historical census reports (statistical data) for 1790-1860, 1990, and 2000 in PDF files; Measuring America: The Decennial Censuses From 1790 to 2000, questionnaires and instructions, plus individual histories of each census; Historical Statistics of the United States, statistical abstracts from 1790 to 1970. Also contains numerous analyses of census trends published by the U. S. Census Bureau.

VIII. Miscellaneous Collections

Library of Congress American Memory Project
American Memory is a gateway to the Library of Congress’s vast resources of digitized American historical materials. Comprising more than 9 million items that document U.S. history and culture, American Memory is organized into more than 100 thematic collections based on their original format, their subject matter, or who first created, assembled, or donated them to the Library. The original formats include manuscripts, prints, photographs, posters, maps, sound recordings, motion pictures, books, pamphlets, and sheet music.

Women and Social Movements in the United States: 1600-2000
Books, images, documents, scholarly essays, commentaries, and bibliographies addressing the multiplicity of women’s reform activities from Colonial times to the present. The contents are organized as "document projects" collections of primary documents addressing broad topics in US women's history. Available by searching "Find a database by title" window on library homepage. If you are accessing from off campus, use the "Off Campus Sign In" link to use the prozy server.

WWW.history
Listings, reviews, and annotations for more than 800 websites that are useful for teaching and researching American history.

Anti-Imperialism in the United States, 1898-1935
Texts on American imperialism and its opponents, including approximately 800 essays, speeches, pamphlets, political platforms, editorial cartoons, petitions, and pieces of literature.

Virtual Vietnam Archive
Contains 2.7 million pages of scanned material for the Vietnam Center and Archive, Texas Tech, including documents, oral histories, photographs, video, audio, maps, etc.

New Deal Network
Database containing more than 20,000 items relating to the New Deal.

Ad*Access
Presents images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955. Concentrates on five main subject areas: Radio, Television, Transportation, Beauty and Hygiene, and World War II.

Famous Trials
Covers 35 of the most prominent court trials in American history.

History on the Web
Compilation of dozens of online websites, organized into three areas: U.S. history, regional history, and topical history. Maintained by the University of Washignton Library.

History Research Resources, University Libraries, Virginia Tech
Site maintained by Bruce Pencek. Gateway to numerous websites, with ratings.