Getting Started - PAID 112 Section 09 - Huinker (Spring 2020)

In This Guide

In this Guide, you'll find:

Suggested resources for your section topic
Advice on where to start searching: reference sources, databases, and primary sources
Advice on how to search, and evaluating sources
Contact information for your librarian

Preus Library has so much more than what's in this Guide! When you have questions about the library or about finding a resource, don't hesitate to get in touch.

Return to the Paideia 112 Research Unit Guide

Link to in-class activity:

Start with Reference

Books (e-books and print)

Encyclopedia of the Jazz Age by James Ciment
Call Number: Ref E784 .E53 2008 v.1-2
Encyclopedia of American History by Gary B. Nash (Editor)
Call Number: Ref E174 .E53 2003

Each of the first 10 volumes in this series covers a different period in American history with an alphabetical list of entries. A chronology of important events for that period, reprints of important documents, and an index specific to each volume are included. The last volume includes a comprehensive index.
The Oxford Companion to United States History
Call Number: ebook

Publication Date: 2004

"With over 1,400 entries written by some 900 historians and other scholars, it illuminates not only America's political, diplomatic, and military history, but also social, cultural, and intellectual trends; science, technology, and medicine; the arts; and religion." --from the publisher
Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History by Mary Kupiec Cayton, Peter W. Williams, editors
Call Number: Ref E169.1 .E624 2001

Publication Date: 2001

A study of American thought and culture throughout history examines the individuals and documents that revealed significant ideas, issues, and movements. See especially Volume 1, Part 5.
Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present
Call Number: e-book / Ref E185 .E5453

Publication Date: 2009

From the Publisher: "Focusing on the making of African American society from the 1896 "separate but equal" ruling of Plessy v. Ferguson up to the contemporary period, this encyclopedia traces the transition from the Reconstruction Era to the age of Jim Crow, the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Migration, the Brown ruling that overturned Plessy, the Civil Rights Movement, and the ascendant influence of African American culture on the American cultural landscape."
Women's Rights in the United States by Tiffany K. Wayne (Editor)
Call Number: Ref HQ1236.5.U6 W677 2015

See especially Volume 2, "Suffrage and a New Wave of Women's Activism (1870-1950)"
American Countercultures by Gina Misiroglu
Call Number: Ref HM647 .A44 2009

Publication Date: 2009

This 3 volume set highlights the writings, recordings, and visual works produced by countercultural movements to educate and incite action in all eras of U.S. history. The term "counterculture" refers to any intentional departure from conventional values and practices or the dominant lifestyles of the day.
American Sports by Murry R. Nelson (Editor)
Call Number: Ref GV583 .A637 2013

Publication Date: 2013

Examines the intersection of sports and American popular culture from the early 1900s to the present. Four volumes.
F. Scott Fitzgerald A to Z by Mary Jo Tate
Call Number: PS3511.I8 Z459 1997

Publication Date: 1999

Publisher's description: "His legacy as one of the greatest writers who ever lived comes from the millions of people who pick up his work and read for the sheer pleasure of it. F. Scott Fitzgerald A to Z will add even more enjoyment to every reader's experience, from those who are well-versed in the chronicler of the Jazz Age to those encountering his writing for the first time. Drawing from a vast array of letters, autobiography, bibliography, correspondence, reviews, the texts themselves, and interviews with those who knew him--including his daughter, Scottie--this volume assembles the records not only of Fitzgerald's career as a literary artist and professional writer, but also that of a young man, a husband, father, and lover, as well as a Hollywood screenwriter."

General Reference Databases

Credo Reference
An online collection of over 600 full-text reference works, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, and more.
Gale Virtual Reference Library
A collection of over 3,000 reference works, covering all disciplines.

Reference Sources Tip

Start with the index!

There you'll find a list of all of the topics that book covers, along with the page (and volume) where you'll find the topic mentioned.

Research Databases

Scholarly Articles

America: History & Life (EBSCO)

Indexes scholarly journal articles, books, and dissertations in the history of U.S. and Canada from prehistory to the present.
JSTOR
A full-text collection of over 3,400 major scholarly journals and over 100,000 scholarly monographs. The digitized archive includes the first issue published for each journal (some are from 1665 to the present); but excludes the most recent 2 to 5 years for most journals.
Academic Search Elite (EBSCO)
An excellent starting point for research across a broad stretch of academic subjects with thousands of full-text journals and abstracted and indexed journals. This database is sourced with PDF images for the great majority of journals; many of these PDFs are native (searchable) or scanned-in-color.
Project Muse
Full text access is available to over 380 journals and over 13,000 scholarly books in the humanities and social sciences. Managed by the Johns Hopkins University Press. Coverage from 1993 - present.
Sage Journals
Sage provides current access to around 800 electronic peer-reviewed journal titles across many disciplines. Particular strengths include Criminology, Education, Industrial Relations and Labor, Social Issues, Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary, Sociology and Urban Studies.

Primary Sources

Speeches, music lyrics, literature, essays, radio and film scripts, images, letters, diaries, legal documents, historical newspapers and magazines and pamphlets and advertising--there are so many possible primary sources for your topic!

Archival Resources

Library of Congress Digital Collections
Digitized sheet music, photographs, manuscripts, and more. Strengths include African-American history, American music history, Presidential history, and the Civil War.
Smithsonian Institution Collections
Search museum objects and archival collections held by the Smithsonian Institutions.

ArchiveGrid
Online access to nearly a million descriptions of archival collections owned by libraries, museums, historical societies and archives. Contents include historical documents, personal papers, and family histories, among others

Historical Newspaper Sources

Chicago Defender (ProQuest)
A Chicago-based weekly newspaper, serving a primarily African-American audience. This collection covers issues published from 1910-1975.
Economist Historical Archive (1843-2015)
The Economist Historical Archive ('EHA') is the fully searchable complete facsimile edition of The Economist, the weekly paper which is essential reading for anyone engaged in politics, current affairs and all aspects of business and trade worldwide. Containing every issue since its launch in 1843 and more than 600,000 pages, EHA offers full-color images, multiple search indexes, topic and area supplements and surveys. Altogether this is an unrivaled multidisciplinary primary source for researching and teaching the 19th and 20th centuries.
New York Times, Historical plus Index (ProQuest)
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: the New York Times provides the full image of articles published in the New York Times from its first issue in 1851. It is searchable by keyword, author, article title, and first paragraph (abstract). You can browse issues by clicking Publications at the top of the screen. It includes illustrations and advertisements. The title changed from the New York Daily Times to the New York Times in 1857.
Times Digital Archive (1785-2013)
The Times Digital Archive is an online, full-text facsimile of more than 200 years of The Times (London), one of the most highly regarded resources for eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century news coverage, with every page of every issue from 1785 through 2013. This historical newspaper archive allows researchers an unparalleled opportunity to search and view the best-known and most cited newspaper in the world online in its original published context.

Search Tips

As you start exploring the library and its resources, here are some tips to help you gather more sources:

Use filters in the catalog and in databases. Typically along the left side of your search results screen, you'll be able to filter your search results by topic, by type of source, by date, and more.
Heading to the stacks? Browse the shelves near the book you're headed for--you'll probably find more books on the same topic.
Use subject terms--these are standardized phrases that librarians assign to sources that are all on the same topic. You can generally find them in the description of a resource. If you click on one, you'll see more articles or books about the same thing.
What documents or research are your sources citing? See if you can track those down too.