How to do Research at the Paul Robeson Library: History
Liaison Information:
Contents:
Finding Books (Back to Top)
To Find a Book at the Paul Robeson Library Use:
Selective List Reference Books Available at Paul Robeson Library:
- Oxford Companion to American History (REF E 174 J6)
- Medieval Islamic Civilization (REF DS 36.85 M434 2006)
- Encyclopedia of European Social History from 1350 to 2000 (REF HN373.E63 2001)
- Encyclopedia of the Renaissance (REF CB 361 E52 1999)
- Chronology of World History (REF D 11 M39 1999)
- McGills Guide to Military History (REF D 25 A2 M34 2001)
- Encyclopedia of Asian History (REF DS 31 E53 1988)
- Africana (REF DT 14 .A37435 2005)
For more detailed lists of History Reference Books see:
Books Available Electronically
- Early English Books (Rutgers access only)
- (Note: This collection is cataloged in IRIS. Search for author, title or subject and you can link to the full-text of the book. From the first book published in English through the age of Spenser and Shakespeare, this online image collection contains practically all books printed in English up to the 18th century, over 96,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475 - 1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700) and their revised edition.)
- Project Guttenberg
- (Note: Search by Title. This collection is not concerned with the authenticity of the edition but aims to make as many titles as possible available electronically)
- Electronic Text Center – University of Virginia
- The Oxford Text Archive
- North American Women's Letters and Diaries (Rutgers access only)
Finding Articles (Back to Top)
Types of Articles
First, you need to know what kind of articles your instructor wants you to use in your paper. There are two general types of articles: those that come from general readership magazines such as Time, or Newsweek or those that come from research journals or scholarly journals such as Artforum International. For complete information on how to recognize a scholarly journal, please go to “Types of Periodicals” on the Paul Robeson Library Web Site (http://www.libraries.rutgers.eduinstruction/typesof.html)
Using an Index for Popular Articles
Now that you know what you are looking for you will need to use an index to find the article. Academic Search Premier (EBSCO) is a good starting place. This database is available on-line and has full-text of the articles from both general readership magazines and scholarly journals. Search Tip: In order to find journal articles quickly, use the Advanced Search instead of the default, Basic Search, and check off the boxes for "Scholarly (Peer Reviewed)" journals and "Full Text."
To search for articles in newspapers or popular magazines from earlier time periods try some of these basic resources:
- Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature (1890-present, print only)
- New York Times, 1851-date ( online, Rutgers access only)
- Periodicals Archive Online ( online, Rutgers access only)
- American Periodical Series
Scholarly Journals
At some point, you will need to use the more specialized, scholarly indexes. A list of these indexes for History along with descriptions can be found at the Rutgers University Libraries Index Page (http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/cms/indexes/subjects/indexes_arts_hum#History_).
The scholarly indexes may give you citations to articles as your search result. A citation is not the complete article but it gives you enough information to locate the article in our library system. The best indexes to use
for historical research are:
- America: History and Life
- Historical Abstracts
- Humanities Abstracts
- Sociofile
- Periodical Archive Online
How to locate the periodical using a citation:
- Use the Journal name to search in the Catalog (IRIS)
- When you enter the search term, click on “Periodical Title” as your “Search Type.”
- The catalog will tell you if the periodical is at the same library as you, at a different Rutgers Library, not owned by Rutgers at all, or available on-line.
- Make sure that the search results match the date of the article you are trying to locate.
- If the periodical is available on-line, the catalog will display a link to use.
- If the periodical is available at a different Rutgers Library than you are at you can click on “Request This Item’ to order it.
- If Rutgers does not own the periodical at all, you can request the article through Interlibrary Loan.
- If you get confused, contact a Reference Librarian.
History Departments at Rutgers University (Back to Top)
Other Recommended Sources (Back to Top)
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