GENERAL REFERENCE RESOURCES
For overviews and introductory information on a topic, for vocabulary to research a topic further, for names of authorities, and for bibliographies on your topic, consult reference materials:
Timelines & Chronologies
American Decades, [R.R. E169.12 .A419]
Twentieth century; topics: arts, business, education, fashion, government, lifestyle, media, medicine, religion, etc.
American Eras [R.R. E168.A5118]
Similar but for earlier periods
American Lives
Working Americans, 1880-2008 [R.R. HD8066.D47 2000]
Wealth of material on daily life for different classes in the US. The newest volume, 8, is on immigration to the US.
Women's History/Studies/Issues
Women's issues [R.R. HQ1115.W6425 1997].
Aims to "address the changing, dynamic nature of women's lives in America." Covers both historical and contemporary issues, including biographies, legislation, feminist theory, civil rights, and psychological concerns.
Encyclopedia of women's history in America. [R.R. HQ1410.C78 2000]
Includes information on organizations, speeches, conventions, legal rullings, biographies etc. Appendix: key documents & bibliography.
Handbook of American women's history. [RR HQ1410. H36 2000]
Covers important issues, trends, events, and personages in U.S. women's history.
Gender Issues/Lesbian and Gay Culture
Encyclopedia of women and gender. 2001. [RR HQ 1115.E52 2001] Examines impact of society on gender.
Lesbian histories and cultures [RR HQ75.5 .L4395 2000]
Gay and lesbian almanac [RR HQ76.3 .U5 S75 1998]
Families
The Family in America. [R.R. HQ536.H365 2001]
Education
Encyclopedia of American Education [R.R. LB17.U54 2007]
Twentieth Century American History
Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century R.R. E740.7.E53 1996
Encyclopedia of the Great Depression [R.R.E806.E63 2004]
Cold War America, 1946-1990 [R.R. E741.G76 2003]
Atlas of the Baby Boom Generation: A Cultural History of Post-War America [R.R. E741 .A88 2000]
The 1960s counterculture in America. [R.R. E169.02. H3515 1997]
The Sixties in America [RR E841.S55 1999]
Civil Rights Movements and Multiculturalism
Civil Rights in the United States. [E184.A1 C47 2000]
Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience. [R.R. DT14.A37435
Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History [R.R. E185.E54 2006]
Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States [R.R. E184.S75O97 2005]
American Immigrant Cultures [R.R. E 184 .Aq A63448 1997]
Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America [R.R. E184.A1G14 1995]
Country Information
The Europa World Year Book [R.R. JN1 .E85 2006]
Organized by country. Includes political & economic data as well as a summary of recent history.
The best way to find encyclopedias is to ask a reference librarian for suggestions.
LIBRARY CATALOG
Bridge is the online catalog for St. Olaf and Carleton. Use Bridge to search for books and periodicals, but not chapters within books or articles within periodicals. Start with keywords (Rosie and Riveter) and then follow the subject links for more books on the same topic. For example "Oregon Trail" as key words leads you to "Oregon National Historic Trail" as a subject heading, a more focused search.
DATABASES
For an analysis of the issues facing your person or neighborhood, and scholarly inquiry into the times, first construct a "search statement" of key terms or phrases [for suggestions, click here], and then consult databases to access individual journal articles (and sometimes essays in books):
Scholarly Indexes
America: History and Life . 1964- Major index to scholarly articles concerning American
history. [Historical Abstracts covers the world other than the US and Canada. ]
Women Studies International Excellent coverage of women's issues, historically and
topically.
ERIC Index to education materials
Sociological Abstracts
ATLA Religion Database Index to articles and essays in religion journals on religion.
PAIS Public Affairs Information Service
Black Studies Center
An index to African American periodicals of general and scholarly interest.
Informe!
Hispanic American periodicals of general and scholarly interest.
MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS OF THE TIME
General Interest Magazines prior to the 1980s
Use Readers' guide to periodical literature [RR AI3 .R48 1890-present] (This is a paper index!)
Newpaper Prior to 1980s
The New York Times, 1851-2005
Search by topic or by date. You can look at individual articles or read the complete page.
To get a flavor for a period, you might consult This Fabulous Century (see above) and browse through St. Olaf's back issues of Harper's Magazine (1850-1959), Good Housekeeping (1900-1959), Life (1936-1972), Saturday Evening Post (1939-69 & 1972-79), or Look (1941-1957), shelved on Rolvaag Level 1. You may also consult:
General Interest Magazines since the 1980s
Academic Search Premier A basic, multidisciplinary index -- do a search and then limit to the magazines tab
Newspapers since the 1980s
New York Times, above
ProQuest Newsstand Complete Full-text and abstracted newspapers, including New York Times (1999-) and Wall Street Journal (1984- ) .
SELECTED WEB SITES
The web is especially useful for collections of primary materials. There are a variety of ways to search the web but it might be useful to start with librarians' catalogs of websites:
Have an event or topic to explore?
Infomine Websites "collected" by academic librarians -- full descriptions and subject headings
Librarians' Index to the Internet Aimed more at public library patrons but still useful for many topics
Scout Report Reviews of web sites; searchable by keyword and Library of Congress Subject Headings
Want to find text or images?
OAIster is an catalog of digital collections. You can choose text or image and search by keyword. It will tell you about the responsible party (authority).
Best of the History Websites
Google -- Search google with your keywords AND add "digital collections" (with quotation marks) to your search. This phrase is used by authoritative sites so it will bring up useful items. This is a better strategy than using google images.
American Memory: Today in History . http://memory.loc.gov/
American Memory is a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States.
As always, you must take care to evaluate your material . Who wrote/posted it? What are their credentials? Is the material from an academic source (scholarly publisher or .edu site on the web) or proprietary source (commercial publisher or .com site)? Is the material current for the topic? If a website, when was it last updated? Is that important? Etc. For more suggestions for evaluating websites, consult the list on the libraries' page: Evaluating Web Sites
CITATION GUIDES
MLA Style
