Important History Databases

America: History and Life

Contains citations and abstracts to scholarly books and periodicals for United States and Canadian history from prehistory to the present.

Includes topics such as: current affairs, area studies, ethnic studies, historiography and methodology, international relations, oral history, prehistory, government and political science, popular culture, urban affairs, teaching of history, & interdisciplinary studies of historical interest.

Historical Abstracts

Contains citations and abstracts to scholarly books and periodicals for world history, from 1450 to present.

Covers countries other than the United States and Canada.

Also covers humanities and social sciences, including these related areas: culture, diplomacy, economics, international relations and politics.

JSTOR

JSTOR has traditionally been very strong in the areas of social sciences and humanities (although they are now building up their science collections).

For those seeking older articles, JSTOR is one of the few databases that contains some full text articles that go back to the early 20th Century.

An excellent resource for full-text, scholarly journals (almost 600). Scholars are able to download or print off relevant articles in PDF.

Databases Specifically for Medieval & Early Modern StudiesInternational Medieval Bibliography (IMB)

The International Medieval Bibliography is an important resource for conducting serious research in the European Middle Ages (400-1500 A.D.).

The IMB covers 4,500 periodicals worldwide in over 30 languages.

This database only contains citations and abstracts of scholarly works (i.e. journal articles, books) and does not allow access to full-text.

The disciplines covered in the IMB include: Classics, English language & literature, history and archaeology, theology and philosophy, medieval European languages & literatures, Arabic & Islamic studies, history of education, art history, music, theatre and performance arts, and rhetoric & communication studies.

Databases Specifically for Medieval & Early Modern Studies cont.Iter Bibliography

Iter was created to advance the study and teaching of the Middle Ages and Renaissance through the development of Online resources.

UF subscribers have access to the following information: Bibliographic citations from more than 1,346 scholarly journals, 72,400 books, as well as collected essays from 2,800 scholarly collections dealing with the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700).

Like the IMB, this database only has citations and no full-text.

Iter contains harder to find materials such as reviews, conference proceedings, and festschriften.

Searching for Primary Sources using Library Catalogs You can search using the author’s name or title

of the work. Another method of finding primary sources is to

use an advanced search. First, select a person or a topic that you want to use to find primary sources.

Combine that term with one of the following keywords: Sources, archives, manuscripts, records, letters, memoirs, correspondence, diaries, narratives, interviews, speeches, etc.

Databases for Primary Sources Early English Books Online (EEBO) Eighteenth Century Collections Online

(ECCO) LexisNexis: Primary Sources in U.S. History North American Women's Letters and Diaries ProQuest Historical Newspapers