History Resource Guide

There are many resources in the library which will provide information on this topic. The purpose of this Subject Guide is to give you some suggestions for getting started. Keep in mind that another important resource is the librarian at the Reference Desk, who can suggest other useful sources and assist you in using the library catalog and the indexes.

 Online Library Catalog

The Library Catalog lists the books, maps, audiovisual materials and periodical titles in the university library. Very often, materials in history are listed under the name of a geographic area or a topic, with the subheading "History," and possibly further arranged by date, as shown in these examples:

ADVERTISING UNITED STATES HISTORY
CHINA HISTORY SHANG DYNASTY, 1766-1122 B.C.
GREAT BRITAIN HISTORY TO 1066
NEW JERSEY HISTORY COLONIAL PERIOD, CA.1600-1775

Materials are also found by the Names of Persons, Groups or Events:

ABIGAIL ADAMS; AZTECS; WHIGS; SHAY'S REBELLION

To look for Primary Sources try the following search terms with your topic:

Diaries Letters Memoirs Sources Personal Narratives
Documents Autobiography Speeches Interviews Correspondence

Indexes and Abstracts

Searching by topic in these indexes will give you a list of articles that appeared in certain journals and newspapers or as chapters in books. Some articles will be full text. The following databases may be searched on the campus network.

America: History & Life  Historical Abstracts  Wilson Omnifile/Humanities Academic Search Premier JSTOR ProjectMUSE Lexis-Nexis Historical New York Times

If an article is not full text, click on "Find Full Text" to see if GCU owns the journal electronically in another database or in print/fiche/film in the library.

Reference Materials

This is just a small sample of available titles. Browse through the Reference collection under the call numbers beginning with the letters C, D, E, and F to find many other useful resources.

Historical dictionaries and encyclopedias are good places to start to get an overview of a topic, definition of terms, and bibliographic citations.

Term Paper Resource Guide to 20th Century World History	Ref D421.R47 2000
Timetables of History	Ref D11.G78
Cambridge Ancient History	Ref D57.C252
Dictionary of the Middle Ages	Ref D114.D5 1982
The First World War: An Eyewitness History	Ref D521.K57 1992
Oxford Companion to World War II	Ref D740.O94 1995
Encyclopedia of the Holocaust	Ref D804.3 .E53 1990
Europe Since 1945, An Encyclopedia	Ref D1051.E873 2001
Cambridge History of the British Empire	Ref DA30.C3 1929a
Encyclopedia of Eastern Europe	Ref DJK6.E53 2000
Columbia Chronologies of Asian History & Culture	Ref DS33.C63 2000
Handbook of North American Indians	Ref E77.H25 1984
Harvard Guide to American History	Ref E156.A1 F77 1974
Dictionary of American History (Online)	Ref E174.D52 1976
American National Biography (Online)	Ref E176.A68 1999
Encyclopedia of Latin America: History & Culture	Ref F1406.F53 1996

Internet Resources

Web sites for Primary Sources:

American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library Library of Congress national digital library project on American history and culture including primary sources in text, photographs, maps, music Learning Page has classroom ideas and plans, also how to cite electronic sources and copyright information

Making of America (MOA) Digital library of primary sources (books & articles) on U.S. social history (1850-77), specializing in education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, science and technology

National Archives and Records Administration Federal database of documents, photographs, maps, recordings, transcripts Exhibit Hall spotlighting changing topics Digital Classroom for teachers and students (K-12)

The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School Wide range of legal, historical, and diplomatic documents from the Code of Hammurabi to colonial charters, treaties with Native Americans and foreign countries, up through the 2001 Attack on America

AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History Electronic documents from Christopher Columbus in the 15th century to Bushs speech to Congress September 20, 2001

Historical United States Census Data Browser Browse selected census data by year (1790-1970) , state & county - data includes population characteristics and economic/manufacturing/agricultural information

History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web Designed for teachers includes primary documents in text and image, and oral histories also includes a guide to useful websites, web-based assignments, syllabi, links to resources & games

Cold War International History Project (CWIHP) Historical documents from governments on all sides of the Cold War, including former communist bloc countries

Web directories for other scholarly web sites:

Web sites in these directories have been evaluated by professional librarians.

INFOMINE http://infomine.ucr.edu
Librarians' Index to the Internet http://lii.org
Internet Scout Report http://scout.wisc.edu

You may locate other World Wide Web sites by using search engines such as Google, Alltheweb or Metacrawler to search by names or topics.

For assistance, consult the librarian at the Reference Desk at 732.987.2422 or email reference@georgian.edu.