Department of History
Departmental Research Guide

This research guide describes basic information on library and information resources related to history, as provided by University Libraries and/or sites on the World Wide Web.

1. To Shelf-Browse for Books (using main Library of Congress Subject Divisions)

Books on subjects associated with this field are shelved under the call number ranges listed below. Use TOPCAT to search for specific items in the collection, or more narrowly-defined subjects.

History, General D -------- Great Britain DA -------- Central Europe DAW -------- Austria DB1- DB879 -------- Hungary DB901- DB999 -------- Czechoslovakia DB2000- DB3150 -------- France DC -------- Germany DD -------- Greco-Roman World DE -------- Greece DF -------- Italy DG -------- Low Countries DH, DJ -------- Eastern Europe DJK -------- Russian Federation DK -------- Scandinavia DL -------- Spain and Portugal DP -------- Switzerland DQ -------- Balkan Peninsula DR -------- Asia DS -------- India DS401- DS486 -------- China DS701- DS799.9 -------- Japan DS801- DS897 -------- Korea DS901- DS937 -------- Africa DT43- DT154 -------- North Africa DT160- DT177 -------- North West Africa DT179.2- DT179.9 -------- Central Africa DT348- DT363.3 -------- Eastern Africa DT365- DT469 -------- West Africa DT470- DT671 -------- Southern Africa DT1001- DT1190 -------- South Africa DT1701- DT2405 -------- Oceania DU -------- Australia DU80- DU398 -------- New Zealand DU400- DU430 -------- Gypsies DX -------- Americas E- F -------- United States E151- E740 and United States Local History F1- F975 -------- Canada F1001- F1140 -------- Mexico F1201- F1392 -------- Latin America: General F1401- F1419 -------- Central America F1421- F1577 -------- West Indies F1601- F2191 -------- South America: General F2201- F2239 -------- South American Countries F2251- F3799 -------- Economic History (by region and country) HC10- HC1085 -------- Economic History & Conditions HD28- HD9999 -------- Social History HN1- HN981

2. To Find Journal and Magazine Articles (using indexing/abstracting/full-text services)

The following are recommended for courses for first-year students and non-majors:

• (EBSCOhost) Academic Search Premier: Provides full text for more than 4,500 in social science, humanities, general science, etc. This is one of the world's largest multi-discipline full text databases.
• (EBSCOhost) MasterFILE Premier: Provides full text for over 1,750 general reference, business, consumer health, general science, and multi-cultural periodicals.

The following are recommended for use by advanced students and researchers:

• America: History and Life (EBSCOhost): Since 1964, the premiere database covering the history of the United States and Canada. Database indexes 1,700 journals published worldwide. In addition to articles, the database provides citations of book and media reviews. In 2006 it began adding retrospective coverage for the most important historical journals in JSTOR.
• Historical Abstracts (EBSCOhost): Since 1954, the premiere database covering history since 1450 (excluding Canada and the United States). In addition to articles includes 3,000 citations annually to useful historical books reviewed by leading historical journals and citations to abstracts of dissertations.
• FirstSearch: Arts & Humanities Search (= Arts & Humanities Citation Index): Citations or abstracts of over two million articles, bibliographies and reviews from more than 1,300 journals, beginning in 1980. Faculty and graduate students, undergraduates by special permission.
• Access World News: Electronic editions of selected local, regional, national and international newspapers. Kentucky coverage includes: Courier-Journal, The Louisville; Bowling Green Daily News and Lexington Herald Leader.
• FirstSearch: Humanities Abstracts (H.W. Wilson): Includes articles, bibliographies and book reviews drawn from 465 journals. Indexing since 1984, abstracts since 1994. Faculty and graduate students, undergraduates by special permission.
• HLAS Online: A bibliography on Latin America consisting of works selected and annotated by scholars since 1935.
• Iter-Gateway to the Middles Ages and Renaissance (University of Toronto): Consists of records indexed from 400 scholarly journals pertaining to the period 400-1700.
• JSTOR: Provides the full text/full image web access of the complete archival collections of over 225 (and growing) core scholarly journals up to the most recent three to five years.
• Times Digital Archive: Online tool researchers can search through the complete digital edition of The Times (London), to retrieve full facsimile images of articles from 1785-1985.
• The Historical Los Angeles Times: 1881-1986 (ProQuest) Full Facsimile images from 1881-1986.
• The Historical New York Times: Full facsimile images of articles appearing in the New York Times from its inception in 1851 through to four years before the present.
• Project Muse: Scholarly Journals Online: Full-text articles, mostly in the humanities. Back files for ten years for some titles.

The following services are useful in locating biographical information:

• Biography and Genealogy Master Index (Gale Group): BGMI is a comprehensive index to more than 15 million biographical sketches in more than 1,000 volumes of current and retrospective reference books.
• Biography Reference Bank (H.W. Wilson): Combines the complete content of Wilson Biographies Plus Illustrated with Biography Index Plus. Includes more than 95,000 biographies and 26,000 photographs.
• Marquis Who's Who on the Web: searchable online databse with profiles of over 1.4 millions individuals including 110,000 sketches from Who's Who in America.
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Contains 56,521 biographies of people who shaped the history of the Bristish Isles.

The following sources are useful in locating reviews of historical books:

• Book Review Index (Ref Z1035 A1 B6): Since 1965, BRI has been the leading general guide to reviews of thousands of books appearing in over 500 publications from the U.S., Canada, Europe and Australia. Each annual includes more than 40,000 reviews.
• Books in Print with Reviews: Lists 3.5 million books in print, out of print, or forthcoming, and provides 500,000 full text reviews from Choice, Library Journal, Booklist, and other library review media.
• ChoiceReviews.online: Provides access to more than 100,000 reviews of academic books which were reviewed in Choice Magazine.
• See also: America: History and Life; Historical Abstracts; Arts and Humanities Search (FirstSearch); Humanities Abstracts.

Special resource:  TDNet Electronic Journal Finder [use to access Libraries' electronic journals, magazines, and newspapers, as well as some indexes and databases containing full-text articles; includes a comprehensive A-Z listing of titles]

3. Reference Works in the Helm Library

Guides

• Reference Sources in History: An Introductory Guide. 2nd ed. (Fritze, Coutts & Vyhnanek). ABC-CLIO. Ref. Z6201 .F72 2004 (also as E-book)

Historical Dictionaries & Encyclopedias

• Africana. The Encyclopedia of the African & African American Experience 2nd ed 5 vols. Oxford 2005 Ref DT 14.A373435 2005
• The American Heritage Encyclopedia of American History. Holt. Ref. E174 .A535 1998
• China Today: An Encyclopedia of Life In the Peoples Republic. Greenwood. 2vols. Ref DS 777.6 C458 2005
• Civilizations of the Ancient Near East. Scribner's. 4 vols. Ref. DS57 .C55 1995
• Dictionary of American History. 3rd ed. Thomson/Gale. 10 vols. Ref. E174 .D52 2003
• Dictionary of the Middle Ages. Scribner's. 13 vols. (1982-1989). Ref. D114 .D5 1982
• Encyclopedia of Africa: South of the Sahara. Scribner's. 4 vols. Ref. DT351 .E53 1997
• Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History. 2nd ed. Macmillan. 6 vols. Ref. E185 .E54 2006
• Encyclopedia of American Civil Rights & Liberties. Greenwood 3 vols. Ref. KF 4748 .E53 2006
• Encyclopedia of American History. Facts on File. 11 vols. Ref E174 .E53 2002
• Encyclopedia of American Social History. Scribner's. 3 vols. Ref. HN57 .E58 1993
• Encyclopedia of American Social Movements. Sharpe. 4 vols. Ref HN57 . E594 2004
• Encyclopedia of Asian History. Scribner's. 4 vols. Ref. DS31 .E53 1988
• Encyclopedia of India. 4 vols. Gale. Ref DS 405 E556 2006
• Encyclopedia Judaica 2nd ed. Thomson-Gale 21 vols. Ref DS 102.8 E496 2007
• Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. Scribner's. 5 vols. Ref. F1406 .E53 1996
• Encyclopedia of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender history in America. Gale 3 vols. Ref HQ 76.3 . U5 E53 2004
• Encyclopedia of Southern History. LSU Press. Ref. E207.7 .E52 1979
• Encycloped of the American Civil War. ABC-CLIO Ref E 468. E53 2000
• Encyclopedia of the Confederacy. Simon & Schuster. 4 vols. Ref. E487 .E55 1993
• Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. Oxford. 4 vols. Ref. B802 .E53 2003
• Enyclopedia of Modern Middle East & North Africa 2nd ed. Thomson-Gale. 3vols. Ref DS43 . E53 2004
• Encyclopedia of the New American Nation. The Emergence of the United States, 1754-1829 Thomson-Gale. 3vols. Ref E 301.E53 2006
• Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies. Scribner's. 3 vols. Ref. E45 .E53 1993
• Encyclopedia of the Renaissance. Scribner's. 6 vols. Ref. CB361 .E52 1999
• Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century. Scribner's. 4 vols. Ref. E740.7 .E53 1996
• Encyclopedia of U.S. Foreign Relations. Oxford. 4 vols. Ref. E183.7 .E53 1997
• Southeast Asia. A Historical Encyclopedia from Angkor Wat to East Timor. ABC-CLIO 2vols. Ref DS 524 .S68 2004
• The Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. Gale. 4 vols. Ref. E77 .G15
• The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Civil Rights. Greenwood. 2 vols. Ref E185.96 e54 2003
• The Kentucky Encyclopedia. University Press of Kentucky. Ref. F451 .K413 1992
• The New Encyclopedia of the American West. Yale. Ref. F591 .N46 1998
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt Oxford. 3vols. Ref Dt58.094 2000
• Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History. Oxford. 5 vols. Ref. HC15 .O94 2003
• Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World. Oxford. 4 vols. Ref. DS35.53 .O95 1995
• Postwar America: An Encyclopedia of Social. Political, Cultural and Economic History. Sharpe 4vols. Ref E 169.12.P654 2007
• Women in World History Biographical Encyclopedia. Gale. 16 vols. Ref. HQ1115 .W6 1999

4. Department of History Home Page

• The History Department's homepage describes courses, the history major, the graduate program, history faculty, and recent news about the department. All faculty members can be reached from: http://www.wku.edu/history/

5. Related Professional Societies (for professional news, careers/jobs, memberships, etc.)

• American Historical Association http://www.historians.org/
• Information on AHA Affiliated Societies (from the Agricultural History Society to the World War II Studies Association) http://www.historians.org/index.cfm
• Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture (publishers of the William and Mary Quarterly) http://www.wm.edu/oieahc/
• Organization of American Historians http://www.oah.org/
• Resources of Scholarly Societies--History http://www.scholarly-societies.org/history_soc.html
• Society of Early Americanists http://www.hnet.uci.edu/mclark/seapage.htm

6. Web-based Sites & Products Recommended by Department of History Faculty

General

• The WWW-VL History Central Catalogue http://vlib.iue.it/history/index.html
  
• Historical Text Archive (Don Mabry) http://historicaltextarchive.com/
  
• History On-Line (Institute of Historical Research) http://ihr.sas.ac.uk/search/
  
• H-Net, Humanities and Social Sciences Online http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/
  
• History Guide http://www.historyguide.de/
  
• History on the Web (Brian E. Coutts) http://www.wku.edu/Library/dlps/guides/Hiswkrf2.htm [lists major history gateways, professional sites, regional sites, web sites by period, history web rings and major digital projects]
  
• De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors http://www.roman-emperors.org/ [an online encyclopedia of the rulers of the Roman empire from Augustus to Constantine XI Palaeologus (27 BC-1453 AD)]

E-Books

• ACLS Humanities E-Books Project http://www.historyebook.org/ [provides full-text access to 1700 monographic works of major importance to historical studies and other humanities; selected by the American Council of Learned Socities]

Journals

• The History Cooperative http://www.historycooperative.org/ [a joint project of the AHA, OAH, Univ. of Illinois Press, & National Academy Press providing full-text access to current issues of American Historical Review, Journal of American History, Western Historical Quarterly, the William and Mary Quarterly, and several other journals]
• The History Journals Guide http://www.history-journals.de/hjg-search.html
  
• History Journals Index http://www.uv.es/~apons/revistes.htm
• CLIO on the Web: An Annotated Bibliography of Select E-Journals for History (Joel D. Kitchens) http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2000/0002/0002not1.cfm

Archives & Manuscripts

• National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) http://www.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/
  
• Public Record Office of the National Archives http://www.pro.gov.uk/
• Repositories of Primary Sources http://www.uidaho.edu/special-collections/Other.Repositories.html [lists 4600 websites, describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, & other primary sources]
• WKU Manuscripts and Folklife Archives http://www.wku.edu/Library/dlsc/mscripts.htm
• Kentucky Library and Museum Online http://www.wku.edu/Library/kylm/
• WKU University Archives http://www.wku.edu/Library/dlsc/archives.htm

Libraries

• British Library Integrated Catalogue http://catalogue.bl.uk/F/?func=file&file_name=login-bl-list
• Library of Congress Online Catalog http://catalog.loc.gov/
  
• Library Servers via WWW (lists 6,100 pages from 100 countries) http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb/
  
• Lib-Web-Cats (a directory of 5,000 libraries worldwide) http//www.librarytechnology.org/libwebcats/
  
• Gabriel: Gateway to Europe's National Libraries http://www.ddb.de/gabriel/index.html

Maps

• Hargrett Library Rare Map Collection (Univ. of Georgia) http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/maps.html
• Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/index.html
  
• UCB Earth Sciences and Map Library Homepage http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/

Kentucky

• Kentuckiana Digital Library http://kdl.kyvl.org/
• Kentucky Information in Cyberspace http://www.wku.edu/Library/KIIC/index.htm

University Libraries Liaison: Brian E. Coutts (x6121 / brian.coutts@wku.edu) last updated 2/05/2008