jares

American History Before 1865

HIS 301

Mr. Jares

Finding Books	Finding Articles
Other Sources	Writing and Citing
Evaluating Web Sites	Off-Campus Access

Finding Books

Use Illinet Online to find books held in the Elmhurst College library as well as books owned by 65 other Illinois academic libraries.

An Any Word, Anywhere search offers a good way to start looking for books by topic in Illinet Online. Use the main words describing your topic. Use quotes to search multi-word term like "abraham lincoln" or "war of independence".

A more precise way of searching is to use controlled vocabulary or a Browse Subject search. Illinet Online's controlled vocabulary is known as Library of Congress Subject Headings (or LC subject headings). Unlike keywords, you can't simply make these up: you have to find out what the exact terms are and enter them in Illinet as a subject heading search. Some examples of established subject headings are:

Jefferson, Thomas -- 1743-1826 -- Correspondence
Slavery -- Southern States -- History

Use a Guided Keyword Search to combine two subject terms or concepts into one search.

Inter-Library Loan ~ Illinet Online allows you to request books held by 65 academic libraries in Illinois.

(return to top)

Finding Articles

JSTOR	Available from off-campus, please use Internet Explorer. JSTOR is an an electronic archive of titles, often going back to the first issue of a journal's existence. JSTOR does not include current issues of journals.
Harp Week	Available on campus only. This is a collection of the 19th century periodical, Harper's Weekly, covering the years from 1857-1877. It includes full page images of each issue, including cartoons, editorials, news, illustrations, and advertisements.
Proquest Historical New York Times	Available from Off-campus. This database includes the entire run of the New York Times dating back to the first issue in 1851 and ending in 1999.

(return to top)

Other Resources

Books

The American Revolution: An Encyclopedia, vol. 1-2. R973.03 A512
Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History. R 973.703 H465e
Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century, vol. 1-3. R973.5kE56u.
Dictionary of American History, vol 1-10. R973.03d554k.
Great Lives From History, American Series, Vol.1-5. R920.073G786.

100 Key Documents in American Democracy, R973 o58
Documents of American History, vol. 1-2, R973 C743d

Electronic Books
Electronic Books are available through Illinet Online or through NetLibrary.

Dictionary of American History, 3rd ed., 10v, 2003, 2001. Vol. 1-4
The Great American History Fact-Finder, 1999.

Web Sites

American Memory - Materials from the Library of Congress
Abraham Lincoln Papers - The online collection currently consists of General Correspondence (1833-1916).
American Civil War Homepage
Biography.com ~ A website sponsored by A & E television, with over 25,000 biographies including historical figures.
The Founder's Constitution - Anthology of writings on American constitutional history including primary sources.
Yahoo! Directory guide to 19th Century People ~ An alphabetical list of notable 19th century individualsm, with web links to specific pages. These sites vary with regard to authority. A good starting point.

Writing and Citing

Writing and Citation Tools- A library directory with many links to writing and citing tools and resources.

Duke University Writing Center ~ more citiation in this online resource.

Evaluating Web Sites

Sometimes in your research you may find information that comes from questionable or unclear sources. In these cases, you must decide whether the information is reliable enough to be used in your research. Here are some links to websites that can help evaluate your sources.

Accessing Resources from Off-Campus

(return to top)

Created on 10 November, 2003, and updated on 09 September, 2004
by Jennifer Paliatka,
Assistant Reference Librarians, Elmhurst College