History 242/ ES203: Environment and Culture in North American History
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Research Strategy
Library Catalog
Indexes and Databases
Reference Books
Web Sites
Primary Sources
Go to Library Gateway
Course Guide
Professor: Matthew Klingle
Librarian:Ginny Hopcroft
Spring 2009
Research Strategy
Consult the Basic Library Research page for a helpful summary/refresher of the research process.
Additional tips for historical research:
- Use both subject and keyword searching in any electronic database, including the library catalog.
- When you find a relevant record for a book or article, always check the descriptors or subject headings for more search terms.
- Read bibliographies and footnotes.
- For information on primary sources, please read the CBB Guide to Primary and Secondary Sources.
- Evaluate websites critically for accuracy, timeliness and authority.
- Begin research EARLY.
Library Catalogs
Bowdoin College Library Catalog
Access Bowdoin Library's holdings of books, videos, microfilm, web sites, and other monographs.
MaineCat
Includes the holdings of most Maine Libraries; users make ILL requests online; materials arrive from Colby and Bates in two days.
NExpress
Combines holdings of Colby, Bates, Bowdoin, Williams, Northeastern and Wellesley; users make ILL requests online.
WorldCat
Combined database of records for libraries nationwide.
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 use the "check availability" link or select the "Find Journals" function in the catalog.
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.
Access World News
Full text database of newspaper articles, many from local and regional papers.
LexisNexis Academic
A full text database of news and legal information.
America History and Life
Abstracts for articles, books and dissertations covering the U.S and Canada.
Catalog of Government Publications 1976 to present (online)
Monthly Catalog of United States Government PUblications. 1895-1976. (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.
History Journals in the J-Stor Electronic Journal Service
Full text articles from all years of the journal are reproduced, except for the most recent five years. When you go to the J-Stor screen, click the SEARCH button to access a search screen and also to choose your subject grouping of journals to search.
MLA International Bibliography
Index to books, journals, dissertations relating to literature, language, film, and theater.
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.
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.
Reference Books
Encyclopedia of American social history
Main Ref HN57 .E58 1993
Encyclopedia of environment and society
Main Ref HM856 .E53 2007
Environmental encyclopedia
Main Ref GE10 .E38 2003
Harvard guide to American history
Main Ref Z1236 .F77 1974
Indigenous peoples and environmental issues : an encyclopedia
About 50 pages on the U.S.
Main Ref GF50 .J65 2003
The Reader's companion to American history
Main Ref E174 .R43 1991
Companion encyclopedia of geography : the environment and humankind
Main Ref G116 .C645 1996
Web Sites
Academic Websites:
American History Research Guide
http://library.bowdoin.edu/rguides/American_History/
Common-Place: a scholarly website dedicated to early American history
http://www.common-place.org/
American Society for Environmental History/H-Environment List Website
http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~environ/
Nature Transformed: The Environment in American History
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nattrans/nattrans.htm
A website from the National Humanities Center that looks at the broad sweep of human and natural history in the U.S.
Forest History Society Home Page
http://www.foresthistory.org/index.html
Environmental History
http://nature.berkeley.edu/departments/espm/env-hist/
This website by Carolyn Merchant, a noted environmental historian at the University of California at Berkeley, includes bibliographies and links to other sites.
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://www.asle.umn.edu/
H-Net, Humanities and Social Sciences OnLine
http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/
Environmental History Timeline
http://www.runet.edu/~wkovarik/envhist/
Useful international chronology, beginning with ancient times.
National Council for Science and the Environment: includes a link to the National Library for the Environment, an on-line catalogue of governmental documents.
http://ncseonline.org/
Primary Sources
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."
America's Historical Newspapers, 1690-1922
Reproductions of historic newspapers in text-searchable facsimile images.
Library of Congress, American Memory Site
http://memory.loc.gov/
Several collections from this site provide useful texts and images, especially: The Evolution of the Conservation Movement and Mapping the National Parks.
Making of America: Digital Library of Primary Sources
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/moagrp/
A collection of full-text documents from the 19th century.
The Nineteenth Century in Print
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpcoop/moahtml/snchome.html
U.S Congressional Serial Set
19th and 20th century executive and legislative reports, including reports on national parks, fisheries, industries, and water issues.
