In March read the books you've always meant to read.
In March read the books you've always meant to read. |
Barnard College Library Research GuideBC3181:
|
This guide is intended as a
starting point in your research; the databases and reference tools listed here are a
selective list. Always remember that you can ask for assistance at the Barnard Reference
Desk at any point in
your research, and you can always request a consultation.
Finding Primary Sources | Useful Web sites | Request a Consultation
Current Columbia faculty, staff and students only.
Secondary Sources
Secondary sources can give you background information to help you choose your topic and to give an overview of the subject. They can also provide useful bibliography.
Reference
Books
Encyclopedia of American Social History
BARNARD REF. HN57 .E58 1993
Excellent overview essays with
bibliographies to secondary resources. Use to gain a quick understanding of your topic and
some background to the time period you are researching.
The
AHA’s Guide to Historical Literature
BARNARD REF. D20 .A55 1995g
Points to secondary sources. Use if you
want one or two historical overviews about your topic or time period.
American
Decades
BARNARD REF. E169.12 .A4192
This is a series going back to
1900. The Barnard Reference Department has it from the 1910-1920 edition up to
current editions. Each title in American
Decades is devoted to a 10-year period. A fun way to find out about political,
social, cultural and scientific events that happened during the time period you are
investigating.
Chronology
of World History
BARNARD REF. D11 .M39 1999
What else was happening in the world?
The
Reader's Companion to American History
BARNARD REF. E174 .R43 1991
Use for quick facts. Answers the who,
what, when, where questions that may crop up as you read primary source material.
Indexes
and Databases
Use periodical indexes to
identify journal articles about specific topics; secondary articles' footnotes and
bibliographies may point you to primary resources.
For example:
America: History
and Life
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/amer-hist-life.html
A major periodical index to scholarly
journals containing articles on all aspects of American history. This index is useful for
finding articles about topics, but it can also lead to primary material. Check the
Documentation Field (available by viewing the full citation) to see if the article has
footnotes, is based on primary material, etc.
Indexes
These indexes (some are online
and some are in print) cite articles and essays written during the time period you
are interested in.
Essay
and General Literature Index.
BARNARD REF. AI3 .E752 (Library has: 1900 - 1994)
Use to find essays published in
anthologies (books). Remember that terminology has changed. For example, if you look under
"African American" you won’t find anything, nor under
"Afro-American" or "Blacks." You have to use "Negroes." Try
CLIO first to find which library owns the book; if the title does not appear in CLIO,
check the card catalog at Butler Library.
International
Index; a Guide to Periodical Literature in the Social Sciences and Humanities.
BARNARD REF. AI3 .R49 (1907 - 1974)
Covers early 20th Century
scholarly journals that are not in the Readers Guide, which covers more popular
magazines. When you find a citation for an article, the title of the journal is
abbreviated. Look at the front to find out what the abbreviations stand for. Use CLIO to
find which library owns the periodical. If the title does not appear in CLIO, check the Union
List of Serials to see whether Columbia used to subscribe to the journal. If Columbia
stopped subscribing many years ago, it would not show up in CLIO.
The New York Times
Index.
BARNARD REF. Index Table (1933 - present) and BUTLER REF. R070 N481 (1851 - present).
The New York Times Index for
1851-1923 is also available online as:
Historical
Newspapers Online
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/historical-news.html
This is an electronic form of the
print index (not the full-text of the newspaper); some people may find the paper copy of
the index easier to use.
Nineteenth
Century Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature.
BARNARD REF. AI3 .R496 (1890 - 1899, 2 volumes)
Index to about 60 periodicals including Atlantic
Monthly, Edinburgh Review, Political Science Quarterly, Popular Science Monthly, Quarterly
Journal of Economics, Scientific American, etc. These are primarily magazines written
for the general public, but some are more scholarly. Use CLIO to find which library owns
the periodical; if the title does not appear in CLIO, check the Union List of Serials.
PCI Periodicals
Contents Index
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/period-cont-ind.html
An international, interdisciplinary
index especially useful for finding articles published in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th
centuries. Use CLIO first to find which library owns the periodical; if the title does not
appear in CLIO, check the Union List of Serials.
Poole's
Index To Periodical Literature.
BARNARD REF. AI3 .P7 1938g(1802 - 1881)
Use CLIO to find which library owns the
periodical; if the title does not appear in CLIO, check the Union List of Serials.
Poole's is also available online:
Poole's Plus
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/pooles-plus.html
Includes several 19th-century periodical
indexes: Poole's Index to Periodical Literature (1802-1906), Stead's Index to
Periodicals (1890-1906), Cumulative Index to Selected List of Periodicals
(1896-1899), New York Daily Tribune Index (1875-1906), New York Times Index
(1863-1905), Harper's Magazine Index (1850-1892), Library Journal Index
(1876-1897).
Readers'
Guide To Periodical Literature.
BARNARD REF. AI3 .R48 (1900 - 1997)
Use CLIO to find which library owns the
periodical; if the title does not appear in CLIO, check the Union List of Serials.
Journals and Newspapers (online full-text and checklists)
HarpWeek
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/harpweek.html
Page images of Harper's Weekly, the popular illustrated American magazine, covering the years 1857 to
1876, a rich record of all aspects of life during those years. Contents may be accessed by any of four
detailed indexes.
JSTOR
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/jstor.html
Full-text articles from more than 60
scholarly journals, some of which go back to the 1890s.
U.S. Newspapers in the
Columbia University Libraries
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/us-newspapers-c.html
A checklist of U.S. newspapers owned
by the Columbia University Libraries, dating from 1704 to the present, arranged by state
and city of publication.
Union List
of Serials in Libraries of the United States and Canada (ULS)
Printed guide. BARNARD REF. Z6945 .U45 1965
This multi-volume set is arranged
alphabetically by the title of the publication and indicates which periodicals major
libraries subscribed to up until 1965. The code for Columbia is NNC; the
code for the New York Public Research Libraries is NN. If ULS
indicates that Columbia had a subscription to a title, you must still check Butler
Reference's Serials Catalog to find the call number and whether Columbia has the volume
you need. Using ULS will give you a good idea of what's available at Columbia
before trying to use the Serials Catalog.
Women's
Journals in the Columbia and Barnard Libraries
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/subjects/womenstudies/fmjnls2.html
A checklist of women's magazines and
journals held by the Columbia/Barnard Libraries. You can display the titles alphabetically
by title, or by date.
Diaries:
American diaries : an
annotated bibliography of published American diaries and journals. (1983)
BARNARD REFERENCE Z5305.U5 A74 1983
The published diaries
and letters of American women : an annotated bibliography. (1987)
BARNARD REFERENCE Z5305.U5 G66 1987
Other:
United States
government documents on women, 1800-1990 : a comprehensive bibliography. (1993)
BARNARD REFERENCE HQ1410 H85 1993g
Using CLIO or the card
catalog:
When doing a subject search in
CLIO or the card catalog look for the subdivision "sources".
For example:
s=women--united states--social conditions--sources
s=united states--history--1865 1921--sources
Looking for books
published during a specific span of years:
REMEMBER that CLIO does not list everything owned by the Columbia University Libraries.
Use the card catalogs in Butler Reference by finding an appropriate subject heading (use
the Library of Congress Subject Headings books located in the Barnard or Butler
Reference Departments); once you've found a useful subject heading look through the card
catalog for items published in the years you are interested in. Subject headings have
changed over time, so you may need to check earlier editions of the Library of
Congress Subject Headings; check in Butler Reference for the LCSH books that cover
your time period.
Women's
Studies : Microform Collections
Guide to some of the
microform sets available at Columbia University, for example:
Americans for Democratic Action Papers, 1932-1965.
Black workers in the era of the great migration, 1916-1929.
Committee of Fifteen Records, 1900-1901
Japanese Camp Papers, 1942-1945.
Electronic Resources with Primary Source Material
Barnard College
Library Subject Guide : History – Documents and Primary Sources
http://www.barnard.edu/library/websubj/historyresources.htm#usadocs
Recommended web sites (from the Barnard
College Library) that contain historical documents and writings.
Other large collections:
African-American Studies (History Universe)
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/afr-am-st-hist.html
Provides access to the full-text of selected primary sources (including autobiographies, speeches,
legislation, Supreme Court decisions) and secondary sources (articles from reference books and scholarly
journals). Includes prints and photographs. Contains material
from colonial times up to the recent past.
American Memory
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amhome.html
From the Library of Congress, with over 80
collections online (texts, music, photographs, films).
The Gerritsen Collection: Women's History Online, 1543-1945
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/gerritsen.html
Full-text collection of books and periodicals, the bulk of the collection dates
from 1880-1920.
Making of America
http://moa.umdl.umich.edu/
A digital library currently containing
approximately 1,600 books and 50,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints.
North
American Women's Letters and Diaries
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/na-womens-ld.html
Diaries, journals, and letters written by women visiting or living in North America. Release I, February 2001
includes the letters and diaries of 69 women.
Updated September 24, 2001
Cynthia A. Johnson