Finding Books

For books at OU: use KL's Online Catalog.

For books at other MI libraries: use MeLCat (This statewide catalog of many of Michigan's libraries allows you to have books at another library be sent to Kresge Library for you).

For books at other libraries: use WorldCat (Items held by libraries outside of MI can be requested for inter-library loan via ILLiad).

Journal Article Databases

America: History and Life

A multi-disciplinary bibliography of articles, book reviews, and dissertations dealing with the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present.

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.

MLA Bibliography

A subject index for books, articles and websites published on modern languages, literatures, folklore, and linguistics. It is produced by the Modern Language Association (MLA), an organization dedicated to the study and teaching of language and literature. Although it is mostly focused on literatures, it contains relevant materials for research on early American history. The electronic version of the Bibliography dates back to 1925 and contains over 2 million citations from more than 4,400 periodicals (including peer-reviewed e-journals) and 1,000 book publishers.

Humanities Abstracts

Sselective 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:

Copeland, D. (2002). Securing the affection of those people at this critical juncture: Newspapers, native Americans and the French and Indian war, 1754-1763. American Journalism, 19(4), 37-66.
 
Check to see if KL owns this journal (American Journalism) by searching Kresge Library’s Online Catalog. (Be sure to perform a Journal Title search using the title of the journal — NOT the title of the article.) If Kresge Library does not have this article, you can order a copy through ILLiad.

Contact Information

Dominique Daniel
244 Kresge Library
email: daniel@oakland.edu
phone: (248) 370-2478

Reference Resources

Encyclopedia of American Studies

This source brings together a wide range of disciplines related to the history and cultures of the United States, from pre-colonial days to the present. It features broad, synthetic articles covering areas such as history, literature, art, photography, film, architecture, urban studies, ethnicity, race, gender, economics, politics, wars, consumer culture, and global America.

Credo Reference

A reference collection of encyclopedias and other reference materials. Its multi-disciplinary nature makes it a good starting point.

Print resources

American Eras (8 vols.)
Ref. E 169.1 .A471979 1997
(The first 3 volumes of this encyclopedia cover the history of America to 1763)

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

Outside Kresge Library

Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

A joint project of the University of Toronto and the Université Laval, the Dictionary of Canadian Biography first appeared in 1966 and was put online starting in 2003. It presents the work of researchers and writers in many fields from across Canada and around the world.

Citation and Writing Resources

RefWorks

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

Main steps to using RefWorks

Step 1 —Log in to RefWorks. (If you do not have an account, first create one. Be sure that you give your OU e-mail account when you register.)

Step 2 —Export records from databases (click on name to get to instructions): America: History and Life, JSTOR, and ProjectMuse.

Step 3 —Create folder/folders for your bibliographic records and place the imported references into the folders .  A reference can be placed in more than one folder. (View “Organizing your references” tutorial.)

Step 4 —Export references from the Library Catalog.

Step 5 —Add references manually.  Sometimes you have references that you find in books and bibliographies that you need to add “by hand.” 

Step 6 —Share folders. You can share folders with your fellow students, with your professor, or with anyone.  Be sure to click on “Allow users to post comments on references” when you share a folder with your instructor. 

Step 7 —Save a folder shared with you to your own RefWorks account.  This involves “exporting” the shared folder to your RefWorks. 

Step 8 —Create a bibliography from your references.

General Library Information

Ask a Librarian

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