Finding Books

For books at OU: use KL's Library Catalog

For books at other MI libraries: use MeLCat

For books at other libraries: use WorldCat

When you find and retrieve a book that suits your research needs, be sure to browse the titles of other books found near your book, as these may also be helpful.

Journal Article Databases

America: History and Life

A bibliography of articles, book reviews, and dissertations dealing with the history of the United States and Canada.

Historical Abstracts

Bibliography of historical literature of the world, except for the US and Canada.

JSTOR

A database of hundreds of full-image journals in a variety of subject areas, including history and anthropology. Coverage of most journals extends back to the journal's first issue (sometimes in the 1800s) up to, but not including the last few years.

Project Muse

A database of over 100 full-text journals in the humanities and social sciences. Coverage extends back to the last few years.

History Cooperative

Contains full-text articles from twelve history journals for the past few years.

Academic OneFile

Lists periodical citations, and includes some full text. Coverage is from 1980-present. Also includes selections from encyclopedias and other reference books for some topics.

FirstSearch

• Wilson SelectPlus (multidisciplinary selective collection of full text journals and magazines)
• Humanities Abstracts (selective collection of high-impact humanities journals, some of which are full-text)
• Social Science Abstracts (selective collection of high-impact social sciences journals, some of which are full-text)

To find articles that are not available online in one of the databases above, be sure to use the link to determine if the article is available online in another library database or in print in the library.

Citation Searching

A very effective research strategy is to consult the reference lists and bibliographies of books and journal articles that you find; these bibliographies should help you identify other valuable materials on your topic. Your next step is to determine whether KL owns that book or journal article.

e.g.: Suppose you find the following citation in the bibliography of a book or article you're reading:
 
Bernstein, B. J. (1998). Truman and the a-bomb: Targeting noncombatants, using the bomb, and his defending the "decision." Journal of Military History, 62(3), 547-570.

Check to see if KL owns this journal (Journal of Military History) by searching Kresge Library’s Library Catalog. (Be sure to perform a Journal Title search using the title of the journal — Journal of Military History — NOT the title of the article.) If Kresge Library does not have this article, you can order a copy through Interlibrary Loan.

Print Reference Books

American Eras (8 vols.) Ref. E 169.1 .A471979 1997

Encyclopedia Americana Ref. AE 5 .E333 1999

Reader’s Companion to American History Ref. E 174.R43 1991

Dictionary of American History Ref. E 174 .D52 2003

Dictionary of American Biography Ref. E 176 .D56

American National Biography Ref. E 176 .A68 1999

Harvard Guide to American History Ref. E 175 .A1 H27

American Years: A Chronology of United Ref. E 174.5 .G753 1999

Annals of America Ref. E 173 .A793 (which contains hundreds of primary source documents)

Contact Information

Shawn Lombardo
Associate Professor
Kresge Library
lombardo@oakland.edu

Primary Source Resources

New York Times Historical Collection (1851-2005) - Full-image, fully searchable, America's newspaper of record from its beginnings.

Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans 1639-1800 - This full-text historical collection contains books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, government documents and ephemera printed in America over three centuries.

19th Century British Pamphlets - Online access to the most significant British pamphlets from the 19th century held in UK research libraries.

Other print and microfilm materials rich in primary source information include:

Early American Imprints (on Microcard)                                       
Series 1 (Evans: 1639-1800) and Series 2 (Shaw: 1801-1819)
Indexes to the Microcard:  
American Bibliography (Evans) Ref. Z 1215 .E92
American Bibliography (Shaw) Ref. Z1215 .S482

Early English Books, 1475-1640 (Microfilm DA 310 .E3; reels 1-500)    
Index to the series: Ref. Z2002 .U575

Palmers Index to the Times (1790-1941) Ref. AI 21 .T47

Times ( London) Index (1914-present) Ref. AI 21 .T46

Times of London (1906-present) Microfilm AN 3 .L6 T5 (recent issues in Current Journals area)

Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature (1802-1906) Ref. AI3 .P7 1958

Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature (1900-1998) Ref. AI 3 .R4

19th Century Readers' Guide .... (1890-1899) Ref. AI 3 .R196

Congressional Universe - Includes the full-text of the Congressional Record (1985-present), as well as information on Congressional hearings and reports.

You may also find primary sources by searching the Library Catalog. Often, important primary sources are gathered together and reprinted in books. The following words and phrases in the Subject Headings of a book record may indicate that the item contains primary source material:

You can use any of these terms in a Boolean Keyword search of your topic. For example: truman and correspondence

In addition, consult Kresge Library's Primary Sources Research Guide for free, online primary source collections.

Citation and Writing Resources

RefWorks

An online citation management tool to help you organize and format your citations.

Quick Reference MLA Citation Guide

Citation help for commonly cited sources such as books, journal articles, and newspapers.

OU Student Writing Guide

Find in-depth information about the mechanics of writing and grammar, writing MLA format, citations, avoiding plagiarism & more.

General Library Information

Ask a Librarian

Floor map of the Kresge Library

Interlibrary Loans via ILLIAD

MeLCat - Search for and request books from other Michigan libraries.