Stewart Library owns or has access to a large number
of resources to help in your research.
Getting Started: if you're
not sure of a topic or need some background information, reference
books can be very helpful. Some good ones to start with are:
| AccessScience
(McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology.) |
Requires WSU ID |
The
Encyclopedia of Global Change (Oxford Digital Reference
Collection)
|
Requires WSU ID |
West's
Encyclopedia of American Law (Thomson Gale) |
Requires WSU ID |
| Online Dictionaries & Encyclopedias from Xreferplus,
including: Dictionary of Contemporary History, Concise Atlas
of World History, The Great American History Factfinder. |
Requires WSU ID |
| Dictionary of the History of Ideas |
REF CB 5 .D52 9973 |
| Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing |
REF D 14 .E53 1999 |
| AHA Guide to Historical Literature |
REF D 20 .A4 1995 |
| Student Atlas of Environmental Issues |
REF G1046.G3A55 1997 |
| The Environment A to Z |
REF GE10.H67 2001 |
| Environmental Literature : an Encyclopedia
of Works, Authors, and Themes |
REF GE35.E58 1999 |
| American Environmental Leaders : from colonial
times to the present |
REF GE55.B43 2000 |
| Famous First Facts about the Environment |
REF GE105.F36 2002 |
Encyclopedia
of Global Change : Environmental change and human society
|
REF GE149.E47 2002 (Also circulating
copy) |
| The Atlas of Global Change |
REF GE149.G4813 1998 |
| Encyclopedia of World Environmental History |
REF GF10.E63 2004 |
| AAAS Atlas of Population & Environment |
REF HB849.415 .H374 2000 |
| Dictionary of Environmental Economics
|
REF HC79.E5D53 2001 |
| Environmental Statutes Outline : a guide to
federal environmental laws |
REF KF3715.A36924 2000 |
| Environmental Law Deskbook |
REF KF3775.E47 2000 |
| Clean Air Act Handbook : a practical guide
to compliance |
REF KF3812.M69 |
| Encyclopedia of Scientific Biography |
REF Q141 .D5 |
| Cambridge World History of Human Disease |
REF R131.C233 1993 |
| The Environmentalists : a biographical dictionary
from the 17th century to the present |
REF S926.A2A94 1993 |
| Concise Guide to Environmental Definitions,
Conversions, and Formulae |
REF TD145.F55 1999 |
| The Wiley Encyclopedia of Environmental Pollution
and Cleanup |
REF TD173.W55 1999 |
| Combined Retrospective Index to
Journals in History 1838-1974. |
REF Z 6205 .C18 |
You can find many other
reference books on historical topics by browsing the following
call number areas:
C
the auxiliary sciences of history (archaeology, chronology,
biography, etc.)
D
General history and outside the Americas (Wars, Europe, Asia,
Gypsies, etc.)
E
United States History (includes Native Americans, African Americans,
etc.)
F
U.S. Local history (states, cities, regions) and the Americas
outside of the U.S. (Canada, Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean)
'
GE
Environmental Sciences
TD
Environmental Technology/Sanitary Engineering
You can also find historical
works in many other areas. For example, economic history is
in the H's, the history of Medicine is in R,
Diplomatic history is often in the J area (political science).
Finding Books:
Use the WSU
online catalog to find what books and other materials,
such as videos, the Library owns. The catalog will provide
the location and availability of the resource. WorldCat
is a patron accessible version of the OCLC Online Union Catalog,
which we use to borrow books from other libraries. It contains
more than 35 million records describing items owned by libraries
around the world; each record contains library holdings. ~1000 A.D.-present.
We also have a subscription to Netlibrary,
which provides access to electronic books. All Netlibrary
books are listed in the WSU online catalog.
Finding Articles:
The best way to find articles
is to use one of the Library's article databases. These
databases provide references to articles in journals, magazines
& newspapers. In many cases, the actual article is available
on the computer.
Our databases are
available from home or work. Just click on the link and enter your
ID number when prompted. Don't know your ID or pin number? Directions
for finding them are available on our Connecting
from Home page.
NOTE:
If you can't find information on your topic in these databases,
there are two likely possibilities:
1.) you need to try different search terms or enter them differently
2.) most of the research on that topic predates database coverage
and you will need to use print resources.
Useful databases for most
historical research include:
General
& Historical
- Academic Search
Premier is a general database that allows you to search
important journals in many fields, including all areas of history.
It has many full-text articles and is a good place to begin your
research.
- America: History
and Life Indexes scholarly literature on the history
and culture of the United States and Canada. 1964-Present.
- Historical Abstracts We no longer
have open online access to Historical Abstracts.
For the print abstracts, 1955 - 1994, see D1.H6736 on the second
floor, or talk to Kathy Payne
about a mediated online search.
- Reader's
Guide Retrospective - Reader's Guide from 1890
- 1982. Search general and news magazines using current
or original subject headings. For information after 1982,
use Academic Search
Premier.
- Military
and Government Collection Provides fulltext for over
430 military and government related periodicals and general interest
magazines.
- CQ
Researcher
Fulltext articles on topics of current interest. An excellent
place to start researching a paper topic.
News
- Lexis/Nexis
Universe Full-text coverage of
many news, legal, and business resources. Dates of coverage vary,
many update daily.
- Ethnic NewsWatch
Full text articles from minority and ethnic newspapers,
magazines, and journals in English and Spanish. 1960-present.
- Newspaper
Source
Provides full-text for 128 regional U.S. newspapers, fifteen international
newspapers, six newswires, and nine newspaper columns, The Christian
Science Monitor and The Los Angeles Times, for a total of 160
full text newspapers and other sources.
- Proquest
Newspapers
Full-text of 300+ U.S. and international news sources, including
the Wall Street Journal.
Legal &
Government
- GPO
Access
Research a variety of government databases and access publications, many full-text.
- CIS Congressional Universe
The world's most comprehensive access to U.S. legislative information. Includes fulltext of proposed legislation, status tracking, legislative histories, congressional committee information, campaign contributions and PAC activities, articles from 'National Journal' and more.
- Legal
Collection
This database contains full text for more than 260 of the world's
most respected, scholarly law journals. The Legal Collection is
an authoritative source for information on current issues, studies,
thoughts and trends of the legal world.
- Lexis/Nexis
Universe Full-text coverage of
many news, legal, and business resources. Dates of coverage vary,
many update daily.
Business & Economic
- Econlit
References and citations for journal articles, books, dissertations,
and papers in the economics and related 1969 - present.
- ABI/Inform
Global
Search nearly 1800 worldwide business periodicals for in-depth
coverage of business and economic conditions, management techniques,
theory, and practice of business, advertising, marketing, economics,
human resources, finance, taxation, computers, and more. Expanded
international coverage. Fast access to information on 60,000 +
companies with business and executive profiles. Now includes The
Wall Street Journal.
- Business
Source Premier
Coverage includes management, economics, finance, accounting,
and international business topics.
Social Sciences
- Worldwide
Political Science Abstracts
Citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials
literature in political science and its complementary fields,
including international relations, law, and public administration
/ policy. Includes Political Science Abstracts and ABC POL SCI.
1975 to present.
- Sociological
Abstracts
Comprehensive index to scholarly literature in sociology and related
fields. 1963-Present. Good place to look for policy
information.
Science & Technology
- Applied
Science & Technology Fulltext
Fulltext, abstracts and indexing to journals in the applied sciences,
engineering and technology .
- Biological Abstracts
Biological Abstracts®, produced by BIOSIS, is a complete collection of bibliographic references covering life science and biomedical research literature published from more than 4,000 journals internationally. This database contains nearly 7.7 million archival records from as far back as 1969, with more than 370,000 citations added each year. 1996 - present
- BioOne
Access full text journals in biology, ecology and the environmental
sciences.
- Environmental
Sciences & Pollution Management
Ecology, pollution, bacteriology, toxicology, risk assessment,
waste management, water resources, policies and regulations. 1982
to present. Updated monthly.
- Geobase
Worldwide literature on geography, geology, and ecology. 1980
to present Updated monthly
- GeoRef
Worldwide literature of the geosciences. 1785 to present for North
America; 1933 to present for international literature Updated
24 times a year
- Hill Airforce Base
Information Repository available only in the Stewart
and the WSU-Davis Libraries.
Ejournals
is a database of all the full-text journals, magazines and newspapers
that are available to WSU library patrons in all of our different
databases. You can search the name of the journal by title
or title keyword to get a link to the resource. You can NOT
do a subject search for articles.
We have several databases
that provide access to full-text history journals. The two
most important for history are:
- JSTOR
A group of full-text journals in general science, history, economics, ecology, literature, mathematics, political science, and population studies. Dates of coverage vary. This is
an archival database. It does NOT cover the most
recent 3-5 years, back issues only. (There are a few, rare, exceptions.)
- History Cooperative
Full text of current issues of significant history journals, including the American Historical Review, the Journal of American History, Western Historical Quarterly and more are available electronically.
- Project Muse
Full text journals in many fields
If you are doing research
on history in a specific field, such as medicine, science,
theater, business, and so on, it can be helpful to look in
a database specific to that field. For example: to research
medical history, look in a medical database, to research
theater history look in a performing arts database.
Ask a librarian to help determine which database is best for your
topic.
Interlibrary Loan:
If we do not own a particular
book or article you need, we will borrow it for you from another
library through Interlibrary
Loan.
There's a
lot of good information out on the web. Unfortunately, some
it's not so good, so be sure to evaluate, evaluate, evaluate!
Some interesting places to start looking are:
"The
Hidden Web" consists
of sites that search engines can't find, usually due to the type
of files they contain, such as PDF and database files. Many
of these sites are very useful. The best way to find them
is to use directory listings. The sites listed above all list
Hidden Web sites of use to historians. Other good
general directories include: Librarian's
Index to the Internet
,
and The Internet Public Library,
as well as the directory features of Google
and Yahoo.
Search engines such as Google
are just beginning to search some of these sites.
Resources
on Environmental History
Government
Websites
There are many other
excellent history sites. Most are listed on one of the three
sites listed above. You can also use a search engine to find
more specific pages. I recommend www.google.com.
Other good search engines to try are: alltheweb.com
and ask.com.
Be sure to try the Advanced Search features on each one
- and remember: evaluate, evaluate, evaluate!
Learn how to Google like a pro:
A Scholarly Guide to Google from Widener Library, Harvard.
For more than you probably ever wanted to know about Google:
The Google Guide by Nancy
Blachman.
Useful
Guides
- Clearly identify your information need
- Identify key words and search
terms to match your topic
- Develop search statements using
advanced search techniques such as Boolean logic, adjacency
searching and truncation.
- Use the Online
catalog to find books, videos and other materials
- Use an appropriate article database
to find journal articles, ask a librarian for help if you're
not sure what's best
- Use Interlibrary loan to get materials
that are not in Stewart Library
- Use search
engines to find Web information
- Carefully
evaluate the information you find for usefulness and quality
- Revise your search terms and strategy to expand or narrow your
results, be creative, look in other areas
- Use appropriate style to document
and cite research
- Ask for HELP
at Reference ,
via phone or email
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