Barnard College Library Research Guide Senior Research Seminar in American History Fall 2004

PRIMARY SOURCES

PRINTED FINDING AIDS FOR PRINTED RESOURCES

Essay and General Literature Index
BARNARD REFERENCE  AI3 .E752   (1900 - 1994)
Lists essays and articles in periodicals and books; search by subject or author.  The online version goes back to 1985.

American Diaries: an Annotated Bibliography of Published American Diaries and Journals (1983)
BARNARD REFERENCE Z5305.U5 A74 1983

Monthly Catalog, United States Public Documents
BUTLER REFERENCE R328.734 D5  (1895 - present)
Begun in 1895, this is a current bibliography of publications issued by all branches of the government (both Congressional and departmental and bureau publications). Until 1976, arranged by department and bureau. Includes subject indexing. Also available online as the Catalog of United States Government Publications. Coverage begins with January 1994. Use it to link to Federal agency online resources.  

The Published Diaries and Letters of American Women: an Annotated Bibliography(1987)
BARNARD REFERENCE Z5305.U5 G66 1987

Union List of Serials in Libraries of the United States and Canada (ULS)
BARNARD REFERENCE Z6945 .U45 1965

• This multi-volume set shows which libraries subscribed to which periodicals before 1965.  You may need to use it because CLIO does not include all the periodicals that Columbia has ceased subscribing to, although it does show all the current subscriptions.

• When you look up a journal or magazine, the code showing that Columbia subscribed is NNC; the code for the New York Public Research Libraries is NN.

• If the Union List of Serials indicates that Columbia had a subscription to a periodical, you must still check the Serials Catalog at Butler to find out the call number and whether Columbia has the volume you need. 

Zine Collection. BARNARD and BARNARD RARE BOOKS, ZINES. Because this collection is new and relatively small it may be more effective to browse the zines than to search for them on CLIO. Barnard's zines are primarily in the area of women's studies, featuring personal and political publications on anarchism, body image, feminism, lesbianism, parenting, sexual assault, war, and other topics.

ONLINE INDEXES TO PRIMARY SOURCES

Using CLIO (Columbia Libraries Catalog) to Find Primary Sources

Primary sources in CLIO include diaries, letters and autobiographies.
Look for these subdivisions in the subject field:
    --Archives
    --Biography (this includes Autobiographies)
    --Correspondence
    --Diaries
    --Interviews
    --Sources
For example:
    Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962--Correspondence.
    Women--United States--History--Sources

American Newspapers in the Columbia University Libraries
A checklist of U.S. newspapers, from 1704 to the present, arranged by state and city of publication, owned by the Columbia University Libraries.

U.S. Government Documents at Columbia
A useful guide on Columbia LibraryWeb to finding older government documents held by the Columbia Libraries

Indexes to Magazine and Journal Articles

Essay and General Literature Index Online
Use to find essays published in anthologies (1985 - present). 

Nineteenth Century Masterfile
Includes several 19th-century periodical indexes, as well as indexing of the New York Daily Tribune (1875-1906).
Use CLIO to find which library owns the periodical.
If the title does not appear in CLIO, check the Union List of Serials (see above).

Reader's Guide Retrospective
Citations to articles in popular and general-interest periodicals, 1890-1982. Click in the Readers' Guide Full Text box once you're in the database interface to search 1982-current materials, as well.

Women's Journals in the Columbia and Barnard Libraries
A checklist of women's magazines and journals held by the Columbia/Barnard Libraries. Displays the titles alphabetically by title, or by date.

FULL-TEXT PRIMARY SOURCES ONLINE

Newspapers, Journals and Magazines

JSTOR
Full-text articles from more than 320 scholarly journals, from the first issue of each journal (including some started in the late nineteenth century) up to 3 to 5 years ago.  Only the science and social science articles have abstracts, so searching in the title is the most direct search for articles in humanities journals; searching for a term in the full text of an article will often find too many irrelevant articles     

LexisNexis
Includes a database of Primary Sources in U.S. History, as well as full text newspapers, magazines and journals.

ProQuest Direct
Online journal articles and citations, as well as the full text of the New York Times from 1857 to the present.  For the backfile of the New York Times, select the collection ProQuest Historical Newspapers. 

Archives

American Memory
A collection of primary source materials relating to U.S. history and culture compiled by the Library of Congress National Digital Library Program.

Barnard College Library Subject Guides to Web Sites: History: Documents and Primary Sources
A list of Web sites with primary materials

Archival Resources
Provides detailed collection guides to archival collections and links to digitized archival materials.

Archives and Manuscript Collections
This is a guide developed at Columbia listing resources you can use to try to find relevant archival collections outside Columbia. The page also provides links to many archival collections' home pages.

ArchivesUSA
Directory to archives and manuscript collections in the United States with descriptions of their holdings.

Columbia University Archives and Columbiana Library
This Web page describes what is contained in the two collections, and provides contact information.  The collections are now included in CLIO, rather than being in a separate database.  Looking for Archives and Manuscripts? explains how to find archival materials at Columbia.

Gerritsen Collection: Women's History Online, 1543-1945
A full-text collection of books and periodicals covering the history of women from 1543 to 1945, with the bulk being from 1880-1920.

HarpWeek
Full text and page images of the popular illustrated 19th-century American periodical Harper's Weekly.

Making of America
A digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction, at the University of Michigan.

Oral History Research Office at Columbia University
Provides a guide to the collection of the Oral History Research Office, as well as links to other oral history internet resources.
See also: The Oral History Collection of Columbia University  BARNARD REFERENCE  Z1361.C6 C64 1979
A catalog of the collection, published in 1979.

RLG Cultural Materials
Digital versions of materials, including maps, manuscripts, handwritten letters, drawings and paintings, contributed by archives, libraries and museums around the world.

The RLIN Archives and Manuscript Collections (AMC) File
Database of archives in the United States, searchable by author and subject.

Using Primary Sources on the Web
Includes a guide to evaluating internet sources of primary materials.

SECONDARY SOURCES

PRINTED SECONDARY SOURCES

Reference Books
Use for:
  an overview of a topic
  background information
  bibliographies
These are all available in the Barnard Reference area:

CLIO for Secondary Resources

• Title, Author and Subject searches are alphabetic searches with a controlled vocabulary

• For a Title search, leave off the initial article (the, an, le, etc.)

• For an Author search, put last name, then first name

• For a Keyword search, you must use and, or or not between the terms, or quotes for a phrase

• Use ? for truncation (to find variant endings)

• Only use a Uniform Title search for anonymous works

• In a Keyword search with relevancy ranking, do not use and, or or not between the terms, but put + in front of terms that must be in the record; if + is not used, or is assumed

• You can limit to books in the Barnard library using the More Limits or Post Limits options

ONLINE INDEXES

America: History and Life
Online periodical index to scholarly journals for all aspects of American history.   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 is based on primary material, etc. 

Arts & Humanities Citation Index 
Cited references and bibliographic information for the arts and humanities, with some links to full-text articles.  Useful for tracing who cited a given article or book, or for tracing an idea.  To search for article citations, click on "ISI Web of Science" on left-hand side, select "Full Search," then "Arts & Humanities" and "General Search."

Dissertation Abstracts
Index to all U.S. and some foreign dissertations, 1861 to the present.  Dissertations since 1997 have 24-page previews.  Although this database offers an opportunity to purchase dissertations, all Columbia dissertations are available at Columbia Libraries, and Columbia affiliates can borrow non-Columbia dissertations free of charge through Interlibrary Loan.

EBSCO Online
Full-text articles and citations from hundreds of journals in the humanities, sciences and social sciences.

Humanities Abstracts
Citations and abstracts for articles in archaeology, art, classics, film, folklore, arts, philosophy, religion, world history, and world literature.

FULL-TEXT SECONDARY SOURCES ONLINE

Cambridge Journals Online
Full-text online journals from Cambridge University Press, on the humanities, sciences and social sciences.

Project Muse
Full-text articles from more than 100 scholarly journals published by university presses in the arts, humanities, sciences, and social sciences.

ProQuest Direct
Full-text articles from journals.  For scholarly journals, click on "Databases selected" at top, clear all databases and select PA Research II Periodicals, click on "Continue" at top, and select Advanced Search.

Library Guides
These research guides suggest other ways of finding both secondary and primary sources, and supplement the information on this page:

• Guides to the Butler Reference Collection and Selected Sources on the Internet

• Library Research Guides - this Butler Library guide to doing research includes a link to the Bedford Handbook, which has a citation style guide at http://www.dianahacker.com/bedhandbook/subpages/documentation.html

• Subject Guide to American History from Columbia Libraries

• Subject Guide to American Studies from Columbia Libraries

Request a Library Consultation

Click here to complete a form you can e-mail to the library requesting a consultation on your research, or come to the Reference Desk on the second floor.  We'll be happy to help you find additional information.
Contact a reference librarian: e-mail refdesk@barnard.edu or call 212-854-3953.

Updated 10/05/2004
Jenna Freedman, Reference Librarian