History 15/ ES 15: Frontier Crossings: The Western Experience in American History
| Professor: Matthew Klingle Librarian: Ginny Hopcroft Spring 2009 |
 |
Library Catalog Reference Books Indexes and Databases Primary Sources Web Sites Research Tips |
| Go to Library Gateway |
Library Catalog
Bowdoin College Library Catalog
Search our catalog for books, videos, microfilm, web sites, etc. owned or subscribed to here at Bowdoin.MaineCat
Search the combined holdings of most Maine Libraries; users make ILL requests online; materials arrive from Colby and Bates in two days.NExpress
Locate books and articles within the combined collections of Colby, Bates, Bowdoin, Williams, Northeastern and Wellesley; users make ILL requests online.WorldCat
Use this union catalog to find books and other monographs from academic libraries nationwide.
Reference Books
-
The new encyclopedia of the American West
Main Ref F591 .N46 1998
Historical Atlas of the American West
Main Ref folio G1381.S1 B4 1989
Nineteenth-century American Western Writers
Main Ref PS271 .N56 1998
Twentieth-century American Western Writers
Main Ref PS271 .T8 1999
Main Ref PS271 .T83 1999
Main Ref PS271 .T833 2002 -
Encyclopedia of American Social History
Main Ref HN57 .E58 1993
Oxford History of the American West
Main Lib Res F591 .O95 1996
Encyclopedia of the United States in the nineteenth century (online)
Main Ref E169.1 .E626 2001 (print)
Indexes and Databases
Some of these databases are strictly bibliographic, i.e. they provide citation only. Others contain the full text of the journal articles, for all or some of their indexed publications. To discover whether Bowdoin Library either holds the journal in print or provides access to the full text, please select the "Find Journals" search screen on the Library Homepage and enter the name of the journal in the search form.
America History and Life
Abstracts for articles, books and dissertations covering the U.S and Canada.
Academic Search Premier
Covers scholarly journals in the social sciences, humanities and science, as well as general interest magazines and several important American newspapers. Date coverage varies between periodicals some as far back as 1980; about 60% of the articles are in full text.
LexisNexis Academic
Lexis/Nexis Academic is a full text web database of news and legal information. This database provides access to both current news and up to 20 years of retrospective news, both domestic and international. Under the News heading you search separate files for the most current news, World news, U.S. news, etc. Under U.S. news you can find many regional newspapers not otherwise available in online fulltext format.
Catalog of Government Publications 1976 to present (online)
Govt Index (print)
To access Bowdoin's government publications, first check the Library Catalog. If you do not find your material there, you should check the Catalog of Government Publications for 1976 to present. For 1890 to 1976 please see the print Monthly Catalog of Government Documents. When you identify a useful document in this database or in the paper index, please make note of the "Sudocs" number for locating the document.
Historical statistics of the United States : colonial times to 1970 United States. (Online) Bureau of the Census
(Print) Historical statistics of the United States: colonial times to 1970
Govt Ref C 3.134/2:H 62/798-970/
History Cooperative.org
http://www.historycooperative.org
Several history journals, including the American Historical Review, the Journal of American History, and the Western Historical Quarterly can be searched and their articles retrieved in fulltext.
History Journals in Jstor
Date coverage varies.
A full text database covering full runs of journals except for the most recent five years.
Poole's Index
Main Per Index
Printed subject index to British and American periodicals of the nineteenth century. Bowdoin Library owns many of these nineteenth century periodicals in its collections.
Reader's Guide Retrospective; 1890 - 1982 (online)
Main Per Index; 1900 - 2003 (Print)
An index to a broad range of U.S. general interest magazines and journals. A special value of the Reader's Guide for this class is its historical coverage.
Primary Sources
For information on primary sources, please read the CBB Guide to Primary and Secondary Sources.
America's Historical Newspapers, 1690-1922
Reproductions of historic newspapers in text-searchable facsimile images.
American Periodicals Series Online
"...Digitized images of the pages of American magazines and journals published from colonial days to the dawn of the 20th century."
Western Americana, Frontier History of the trans-Mississippi West, 1550-1900
Main Micro
Letters, diaries, articles and reports from travelers and settlers of the West.
New York Times Archive, 1851-2004
Full image of the New York Times.
Periodical Index Online
Online indexing to periodicals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, published from 1770 to 1990. The full text of some of the articles can be found in its sister database, Periodicals Archive Online.
United States Congressional Serial Set (online)
Govt Doc Y 1.1/2 numbered serially 1789-1999 (print)
Govt Micro Y 1.1/2 - Y 1.1/8 (microfiche)
The Serial Set is primarily comprised of congressional reports on legislation. Bowdoin's paper Serial Set starts with the years of the early republic, and with a few gaps continues to the present. The online Serial Set, when complete, will provide access to 1980.
Making of America: Digital Library of Primary Sources: A collection of full-text documents from the 19th century. http://www.umdl.umich.edu/moa
Also, locate journal articles of the 19th and early 20th centuries through older indexes: see Poole's Index and the Reader's Guide in the Indexes and Databases section. Government Documents are also primary sources, so search the print Monthly Catalog and LexisNexis Congressional online (see descriptions above)for topics related to government policy.
Web Sites
Academic and Government Websites:
- Center for New History and Media, George Mason University
http://chnm.gmu.edu/ - An Internet clearing house for a wide variety of materials about history.
Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment
http://chnm.gmu.edu/
H-Net, Humanities and Social Sciences OnLine
http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/
"Surviving the Dust Bowl," from The American Experience
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/dustbowl/
American Memory
Digitized images of photographs, pictures, and texts from the Library of Congress.
The Nineteenth Century in Print
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpcoop/moahtml/snchome.html
Research Tips
Consult the Basic Library Research page for a helpful summary of the research process. Additional tips for research in history:
1. Use both subject and keyword searching in any electronic database or index, including the library catalog.
2. When you find a relevant record for a book or article, always check the descriptors or subject headings for more search terms.
3. Read bibliographies and footnotes to find additional books, articles and primary sources.
4. Evaluate websites carefully for accuracy, timeliness and authority.
5. Begin research EARLY.
