Library & Internet Research for
Craft of the Historian

Basic Sources

Find books and other items in the library - including primary documents

UNF Library Catalog - find books, journals, videos, government documents, etc. in the UNF library.
Other Online Library Catalogs -- local, state, national and international.
Find primary sources in the UNF Library using the online catalog. Find primary sources on the Internet.
NetLibrary -- digital copies of over 50,000 print books - many history books - FAQs | sign-up information.

Find articles in journals, magazines and newspapers

Article Databases -- Find articles in journals and magazines -- login to access from off campus. More login information.
Find biographies.
Find newspaper articles in electronic format -- most won't go back before the 80's and 90's.

What is an academic/scholarly journal? - quick guide
What is an academic/scholarly journal - in-depth guide
What is an academic/scholarly journal - mp3 audio file - transcript
What is a refereed/peer-reviewed journal?

Citing Sources

Clifford's Advice on Doing History Effectively
Clifford's Advice on Notes
Online Turabian information - Bucknell University
UNF Citation Guide - APA, MLA
Use RefWorks to automatically format your bibliography for you. Here are a couple of guides. RefWorks sign up information. UNF RefWorks Import Table. The RefWorks tutorial is excellent and fun.

A copy of Turabian's Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations and the Chicago Manual of Style are kept at the Reference Desk at all times, as well as other style manuals.

Book Reviews

Here's an example of a scholarly book review. Note that it is in Reviews in American History which is a scholarly journal.

Here is a guide to help you find other book reviews.

Article Review Paper -- Two articles twenty years apart

There are several research databases that you can use to find journal articles. They are listed here. Click the to read a description of each database. Research Library and Wilson OmniFile are general databases that cover all subjects but include many history journals -- most full text.

America: History and Life and Historical Abstracts are the major history databases. They are called abstracts because they describe articles and give brief summaries. Use the Article Linker button to determine how to find the full article. If the article is available in JSTOR, there will be a link. There will be some false links - wish we could stop them, but ... See tips on searching these databases at the bottom of this guide.

JSTOR is an electronic journal storage database. It has the full scanned text of 39 major history journals -- from the first issue up to the last 2 to 5 years. In all, JSTOR contains the full run of over 240 journals covering many disciplines. Here's a quick reference guide. You may also want to select sociological, political science and economics journals to search. Use the advanced search screen and select review under "Narrow your search to" to get book reviews.

Print Indexes and Abstracts
These cover a longer time span than most of the electronic indexes.

An index is simply a list (by subject/alphabet) of basic information about articles found in magazines, journals, books, newspapers, etc. The information will include the article title, author, publication title, month/volume, day, page number, etc. That's called a citation.
An abstract is exactly the same except that there is a short paragraph describing each article -- a summary.
Once you have the citation, you'll use the library catalog to see if UNF has the journal, book, etc.

Combined Retrospective Index to Journals in History 1838 -1974
D1 .C18 Index/Abstract Collection - 3nd floor

This multi-volume set covers all history subjects.
Select your category and scan the alphabetical index. The year, volume and page numbers are immediately evident.
The journals are listed by code number. The journal codes are found on the front and back inside covers.
Use the UNF catalog to see if the Library has the journal and the year you need.

International Index: A guide to Periodical Literature in the Social Sciences and Humanities 1907 - 1974
AI3 .R49 Index/Abstract Collection

This index and Readers' Guide (below) are arranged the same. Both are very easy to use. Authors and subjects are arranged in one alphabet.
The list of journals indexed is listed on the inside front cover.
Use the UNF catalog to see if the Library has the journal and the year you need.

19th Century Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature 1890-1899
AI3 . R47 Index/Abstract Collection

Indexes mostly popular magazines.
Authors and subjects are arranged in one alphabet.
The list of periodicals indexed is on the inside front cover.
Use the UNF catalog to see if the Library has the journal and the year you need.

Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature 1900 - current
AI3 .R48 Index/Abstract Collection

Readers' Guide indexes more popular magazines but it does cover some history journals.
Authors and subjects are arranged in one alphabet.
Book reviews are in a separate section after the main section.
The list of periodicals indexed is on the inside front cover.
Use the UNF catalog to see if the Library has the journal and the year you need.

Writings on American History 1902 - 1989
E171 .W7

Use the Table of Contents to find your subject area.
Use the Contents to find the page of Serials Cited to find the list of journals indexed.
Use the UNF catalog to see if the Library has the journal and the year you need.