HIST 402: Seminar - Introduction to Research
The resources below have been specifically chosen to aid in your research in History 402. Be sure to ask a librarian if you need further assistance.
TOPCAT - Library Catalog
TOPCAT is the library's online catalog. An online catalog stores a record for each item a library owns. Search the online catalog to find out what a library has on a given topic, or to locate a work by title, by author, subject headings or keywords.
Subject Headings
Each item in TOPCAT is assigned one or more special terms, or subject headings that define what the item is about. When you search by subject all items sharing the same subject heading are retrieved. Using subject headings can be a very effective way of finding relevant items.
Some useful subject headings are:
Main subject headings
See also:
Reference Books
Reference books are located on the first floor of the library in the northwest corner. Reference books do not circulate. This list includes only a few examples of the types of materials that are available related to this course.
- Chicago Manual of Style/Turabian style guides
- Chicago Manual of Style
- A manual for writers of term papers, theses, and dissertations.
- Bibliographies
- Handbook for research in American history : a guide to bibliographies and other reference works.
- Harvard guide to American history.
- The American Historical Association's guide to historical literature.
- Chronologies
- Chronology of world history.
- Timelines of world history .
- New York Public Library book of chronologies .
- Timelines : day by day and trend by trend from the dawn of the Atomic Age to the Gulf War.
- United States – General
- Encyclopedia of American studies
- The Greenwood guide to American popular culture
- The Oxford companion to United States history
- The encyclopedia of American facts and dates
- The American presidents
- Reader's guide to American history
- United States – History – Political
- Encyclopedia of American political history : studies of the principal movements and ideas
- Encyclopedia of U.S. foreign relations
- A foreign policy for the United States
- United States – History – Populations
- Gale encyclopedia of multicultural America
- The Hispanic American almanac : a reference work on Hispanics in the United States
- Encyclopedia of African-American culture and history
- Black women in America : an historical encyclopedia
Unpublished Materials
- Dissertation abstracts
- Indexes over two million doctoral dissertations and master's theses as far back 1861. OCLC
- WorldCat
- First Search provides access to dozens of databases and more than 10 million full-text and full-image articles, including archival and dissertations/theses. Tip: If searching for dissertations/theses, go to "advanced search", choose "material type" from the drop-down menu and use the keyword phrase "Thesis/dissertation".
- National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections
- Archival and manuscript collections and individual manuscripts in public, college and university, and special libraries located throughout North America and around the world. Access to this gateway is made available courtesy of OCLC, Inc.
ebrary e-Books
Ebrary is an internet-based electronic library collection which provides access to the full text of scholarly, reference, and professional books in digital format. E-books are digitally reproduced in their entirety. Search using any of the subject headings that are used in the above TOPCAT list.
Articles and Select Periodicals
Articles and Reports
To find articles in journals and other periodicals about United States history since 1945, consult the history databases.
Select Periodicals
- The Journal of American history
- Leading scholarly publication in American history published by the Organization of American Historians.
- Journal Of Womens History
- First journal devoted exclusively to the international field of women's history.
- Newsweek
- New York Times
- Public Historian
- The Public Historian has made its mark as the definitive voice of the public history profession, providing historians with the latest scholarship and applications from the field.
- Time
- U.S. News & World Report
- Wisconsin Magazine Of History
- Quarterly magazine of the Wisconsin Historical Society that features articles about the people, places and events of Wisconsin's past.
Web Resources
HIST 402: Seminar - Introduction to Research Resources
The Library of Congress provides access to digitized historical documents, photographs, sound recordings, moving pictures, books, pamphlets, maps and other resources that document the American experience. It also includes materials for teachers who want
Searchable database containing :
The Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Washington - Taft (1789-1913)
The Public Papers of the Presidents:
Hoover to Bush (1929-1993)
The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents:
Clinton - G.W. Bush (1993-2007
A project of the Yale law School, this website features the text from historical documents from pre-18th century to the present across the world. Documents are searchable by century, by collection, and by keyword.
An online archive funded by Marquette University and the National Endowment for the Humanities that shows the many ways children experienced city life during the last century and a half.
Disseminates new information and perspectives on the history of the Cold War.
Web site devoted to the story of the Greensboro, NC civil rights sit in.
Includes a Native America collection, J.R.R. Tolkien collection, and a rare book collection.
The King Research and Education Institute provides an institutional home for a broad range of activities illuminating the Nobel Peace laureate's life and the movements he inspired.
The Research Library of the Milwaukee County Historical Society has a wide variety of information about the history of the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County.
Find articles dating from 1887-2007. Covers newspapers Milwaukee Journal, Milwaukee Sentinel, and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
Links to the special collections at the Milwaukee Public Library
Radio interviews about the Southern Civil Rights movement.
The Presidential Library system is composed of twelve Presidential Libraries. These facilities are overseen by the Office of Presidential Libraries, in the National Archives and Records Administration.
Unique collection of material on U.S. public policy. Includes secret White House recordings, hundreds of presidential oral history interviews, audio and video recordings of Miller Center Forums, and documents related to the executive branch of American go
Legislative information from the Library of Congress.
Significant individual collections include the WTMJ-TV news film collection (1950-1980), the Roman B.J. Kwasniewski photograph collection documenting Milwaukee's Polish south side from 1911 to 1947, the records of Milwaukee Mayor Henry Maier, and the edit
Contains over 2.7 million pages of scanned materials related to the Vietnam War.
Contains online collections pertaining to Wisconsin history.
Find thousands of historical newspaper articles on Wisconsin people and communities.