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American History and American Studies
Research Guide
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For help with your research, visit the reference desk (hours)
on the second floor of Barnard Library, or contact a Barnard reference librarian:
 Phone: 212-854-3953
Chat: IM
BarnardReference
E-mail:
refdesk@barnard.edu
Request a one-on-one consultation with a Barnard
librarian if you have an in-depth research need.
This guide is intended as a starting point in your research; the databases
and reference tools listed here are a selective list.
PRIMARY SOURCES
FINDING PRINTED SOURCES: PRINTED GUIDES
AND INDEXES
American Diaries: an Annotated Bibliography of
Published American Diaries and Journals (1983)
BARNARD REFERENCE Z5305.U5 A74 1983
Essay and General Literature Index
BARNARD REFERENCE AI3 .E752 (1900 - 1994)
Lists essays and articles in periodicals and books
published back to 1900; search by subject or author. (The
online version goes
back to 1985.)
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 |
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This multi-volume set shows which libraries
subscribed to which periodicals before 1965. You may need to use it because CLIO does not
show all the periodicals that Columbia has ceased subscribing to (although it does show all the
current subscriptions).
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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.
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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.
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ONLINE INDEXES TO PRIMARY SOURCES
CLIO (Columbia Libraries
Catalog)
For a general guide to searching CLIO, see below, under "Using CLIO"
Primary sources in
CLIO include diaries, letters,
autobiographies and zines.
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
Other Library Catalogs:
EDUCAT for Teachers’ College Library
Pegasus for Columbia Law Library
CATNYP for New York Public Library
research libraries:
Humanities and Social Sciences Library 5th Ave. and 42nd
St., 212-930-0830
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Malcolm X Blvd. and 135th St, 212-491-2200
Library for the Performing Arts 40 Lincoln Center
Plaza, 212-870-1630
LEO for New York Public Library local
branch libraries:
Morningside Heights Branch Broadway and 113th
Street, 212-864-2530
Mid-Manhattan Library 5th Ave. and 40th St,
212-340-0833
Zines: These items in the Zine Collection at Barnard
Library are identified by the
call number, as well as the added subject term, Zines.
They 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.
Search for zines using a keyword search, for example: zines and women and movie?
If you need help, please contact the Zine Librarian, Jenna Freedman.
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
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 DATABASES OF 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 Library History Research Guide:
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.
Using Primary Sources on the Web
Includes a guide to evaluating internet sources of primary materials,
from the American Library Association Reference and User Services
Association .
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:
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Title and BARNARD
REFERENCE call number |
| American Decades: Primary Sources
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E169.1 .A471977 2004
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| Encyclopedia of American
Cultural and Intellectual History |
E169.1
.E624 2001 |
| Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century |
E169.1 .E626 2001 |
| American Decades |
E169.12 A4196 1994 |
| Dictionary of American History |
E174 .D52 2003 |
| Reader's Guide to American History |
E178.1 .R43 1997 |
| 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 |
| Encyclopedia of the American Civil War |
E468 .E53 2000 |
| Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century |
E740.7 .E53 1996 |
| Encyclopedia of American Social History |
HN57 .E58 1993 |
| 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 |
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Oxford Reference Online (full
text of over 100 reference titles published by Oxford University Press) |
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USING CLIO TO FIND BOOKS
OR JOURNALS (NOT ARTICLES IN JOURNALS)
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CLIO
includes the holdings of Columbia libraries and Barnard Library, as well as those of the Health Sciences
Library and Union Theological Seminary libraries.
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If searching for a known item, start with a title search: it's best
to leave off the initial article (the, der, un, etc.).
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If not searching for a known item, start with a keyword search
using terms relating to your topic: use quotes for a phrase, and ? for truncation (to find variant endings
of a word).
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Or search by author, authorized Library of Congress subject, ISBN,
etc.
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To limit to books in Barnard Library, use the Pre-Select Limits or
Post Limits options.
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If you do not find what you are looking for in CLIO, search
WorldCat, a composite of many libraries' catalogs. After finding items that look useful, use
Borrow
Direct or Interlibrary Loan to borrow them from other libraries.
ONLINE 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:
Finding Your Senior Thesis Topic: A
guide for students who are just beginning the process.
Last Modified 4/25/08
Lois Coleman
Reference Librarian
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