Senior Seminar in American History Research Guide

Barnard College Library Research Guide
Senior Research Seminar in American History
Fall 2006

Librarian: Lois Coleman
lcoleman@barnard.edu | 212-854-9095 | IM BarnardLibLois

PRIMARY SOURCES v Print Finding Aids v Online Indexes to Primary Sources w Using CLIO for Primary Sources w Magazine and Journal Articles v Full-text Primary Sources Online w Newspapers, Journals and Magazines w Archives	SECONDARY SOURCES v Printed Sources w Reference Books w Using CLIO to Find Books v Online Indexes and Databases for Secondary Sources
Handout \| Library Guides \| Request a Consultation \| History Dept. Syllabus

PRIMARY SOURCES

PRINT 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.

ONLINE INDEXES TO PRIMARY SOURCES

CLIO (Columbia Libraries Catalog)
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 the Columbia Libraries Website to finding older government documents held by the Columbia Libraries

Zine Collection. BARNARD and BARNARD RARE BOOKS, ZINES. 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. Please contact the Zine Librarian if you need help.

Indexes to Magazines, Journals and Articles

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

19th 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

Gerritsen Collection: Women's History Online, 1543-1945
A full-text collection of periodicals and books 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.

JSTOR
Full-text articles from many scholarly journals, from the first issue of each journal (including some started in the 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
Online journal articles and citations, as well as the full text of the New York Times from 1851 to the present. For the backfiles of the New York Times and other newspapers, 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.

ArchiveGrid
Provides detailed collection guides to archival collections and links to digitized archival materials (was called RLG Archival Resources).

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.

Barnard College Library Subject Guides: U.S. History Documents and Primary Sources
A list of Web sites with primary materials

Columbia University Archives and Columbiana Library
This Web page describes what is contained in the two collections, and provides contact information. Looking for Archives and Manuscripts? explains how to find archival materials at Columbia.

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.

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:

Title and BARNARD REFERENCE call number
Reference Sources in History: an Introductory Guide	D20 .F72 2004g
The Holocaust and World War II Almanac	D804.17 .H65 2000
Jewish Women in America: an Historical Encyclopedia	DS115.2 .J49 1998
Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War	DS557.7 E53 1996
American Decades: Primary Sources	E169.1 .A471977 2004
Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History	E169.1 .E624 2001
American Decades	E169.12 A4196 1994
Dictionary of American History	E174 .D52 2003
Reader's Guide to American History	E178.1 .R43 1997
Americans at War: Society, Culture and the Homefront	E181 .A453 2005
Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy	E183.7 .52 2002
Civil Rights in the United States	E184.A1 C47 2000
Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America	E184.A1 G14 1995
Jewish-American History and Culture: an Encyclopedia	E184.J5 J48 1992
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History	E185 .E54 2006
African American History in the Press, 1851-1899	E185.2 .A25 1996
Black Women in America	E185.86 .B542 2005
Encyclopedia of the American Civil War	E468 .E53 2000
Encyclopedia of American Social History	HN57 .E58 1993
Encyclopedia of Women and Gender: Sex Similarities and Differences and the Impact of Society on Gender	HQ1115 .E43 2001
The Routledge Critical Dictionary of Feminism and Postfeminism	HQ1115 .R68 2000
From Suffrage to the Senate: an Encyclopedia of American Women in Politics	HQ1236.5.U6 S32 1999
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians	ML100 .N48 2001
Social Protest Literature: an Encyclopedia of Works, Characters, Authors, and Themes	PN56.S65 N48 1999
Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism	PN761 .N56
The Social Impact of the Novel : a Reference Guide	PN3344 .J64 2002

Using CLIO to Find Secondary Sources

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, use quotes to search for a phrase, and 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 AND DATABASES FOR SECONDARY SOURCES
This is a small selection; many other databases may be useful for your research, and are listed on the Databases list.

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, select "General Search."

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

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

ProQuest
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:

Butler Reference Guide
Library Research Guides - this Butler Library guide to doing research includes a link to the Bedford Handbook, which has citation style guides for APA, CBE, Chicago, and MLA.
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 10/06/06
Lois Coleman, Reference Librarian