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HOME > Research > Course Guides > HTY 200 | |
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HTY 200 - Reference Research and Report Writing (Prof. Lualdi) Introduction | Reference Sources | Indexes & Databases | Internet Resources | Writing the Paper
Tim Lynch (Gorham/780-5344) and Zip Kellogg (Portland/780-4272), Reference Librarians will be glad to meet with you anytime to discuss how the library might best serve your needs.
In this course you'll develop real expertise in using an academic library. You'll get a general overview and orientation to the information age we live in as well as develop an understanding of how to find books, articles, and even how to improve your Internet searching! Moreover, the skills and principles you'll learn in this course will be portable-- that is, they'll apply to any other course you take as well as History 200...talk about bang for your buck!! And these skills will be applicable in virtually any library anyplace.
Here's just a sampler of a few reference books that you're likely to find useful. There are scores if not hundreds more, too, but these are important ones. Encyclopedias and Dictionaries These alphabetical sources, sometimes shorter (dictionaries and companions) and sometimes longer (encyclopedias) provide articles on very specific subjects. Dictionary of American History The Oxford Companion to American History The Reader's Companion to American History An Encyclopedia of World History Bibliographies American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature 3rd Ed. 1995
Succinct information about a person's life and historical significance. American National Biography Dictionary of National Biography (British) Who Was Who in America Who Was Who (British) Book Reviews Book Review Digest Maps (Atlases) Collections of maps published in atlases help you understand geography and its significance in history. Shepherd's Historical Atlas Atlas of American History The Times Atlas of American History Statistics Numerical data may help you support a point and assist in drawing conclusions. Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970 Chronologies and Date Books Who Was When? Chronology of the Modern World Chronology of the United States The Timetables of History: A Horizontal Linkage of People and Events Primary Sources Documents of American History Annals of American History This online index provides access to thousands of source documents in U.S. history.
These online indexes, databases,and catalogs will help you locate articles, books, and theses relevant to your topic: URSUS is the University of Maine System's catalog for finding books. It can be searched by subject, keyword, author, title, etc. and helps you locate books in about a dozen libraries in Maine. When those books are in another library you may request that they be sent to your library. WorldCat lists many millions of books and other materials. It is similar to, but much larger than URSUS. Most of the items listed in WorldCat will need to be ordered through Interlibrary Loan (4-7 days average time to obtain them). Historical Abstracts America: History & Life Digital Dissertations Index to dissertations from 1861 to the present, representing the work of authors from over 1,000 North American graduate schools and European universities. Includes the 350-word abstracts written by the author for those dissertations published after 1979. ProQuest Newspapers An index to approximately the past decade of news articles. Numerous prominent newspapers are indexed, among those, the New York Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times. Academic Search Premier A general purpose index useful for finding current articles on almost any subject. To access this system you'll be prompted to type in your name and library bar code number, if you are working on an off campus computer. Worldwide Poltical Science Abstracts This database supplies citations, abstracts, and indexing of the international serials literature in political science and its complementary fields, including international relations, law and public administration/policy.
Net searching can be tricky. It's not terribly useful if a search engine tells you it found 300,000 items, especially if what you really need is 5-10 relevant items. It pays to improve your net searching because the results you get will be better. A few tricks can greatly improve your results...for example, it can be very useful to limit the scope of your search by "domain" to those sites which originate at educational institutions. Be critical of what you find on the net. Who put it there? Are there biases? In choosing Internet resources it's important to evaluate the authenticity of the source. Thinking Critically about Discipline-Based World Wide Web Resources (UCLA College Library) provides excellent evaluation criteria. Here are a few places to start: Yahoo's History Directory links to many sources of information on topics in history. The Internet Scout directs you to internet sites by topic. History and scores of other related topics are included. Maine Memory an online collection of digitized materials for the student of Maine history. American Memory a massive collection of digitized collections on a broad range of topics. This is a gold mine for the history student. What are primary sources? Check this out: Introducation to Primary Resources
The Marius and Page textbook A Short Guide to Writing About History (Portland Reference D13 M294), gives superb advice not only for writing about history, but also about doing research and evaluating your sources of information for plausibility and trustworthiness. Furthermore, it gives excellent examples of documenting your sources, compiling bibliographies, and even a sample term paper. This book will prove invaluable in acquainting you with methods of doing research and makes an excellent companion to the work you'll be doing in the library. Other Writing Handbooks Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association St. Martin's Handbook Citing Sources (MLA) (Indiana University) MLA (University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center) MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th edition Online! A Reference Guide Using Internet Resources Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association Using Modern Language Association (MLA) Format (Purdue University Online Writing Center) Be sure to look at the EndNote program for help with citations. In using resources it is important that they be used both ethically and legally. The sources listed here provide assistance in following acceptable academic protocol. STUDENT ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY Plagiarism (Indiana University) Last updated: 09.05.07 |
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