INTRODUCTION

FIND BACKGROUND INFORMATION

SELECTED PRINT REFERENCE SOURCES

FIND BOOKS IN LAVERY LIBRARY AND BEYOND

FIND ARTICLES AND MORE

FIND WEBSITES

INTRODUCTION
This guide covers United States history from colonial times to the present. Please see the subject guide to Women's History for additional information on that specific topic.

FIND BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Reference Books are located on the Main Level of Lavery Library.

Reference books provide background information to help you understand your topic, narrow your topic, or prepare an outline of your topic. They also help define terms related to your topic, provide assistance in the selection of subject terms for your database searches, and contain factual information, such as, statistics, biographies, and maps.

SELECTED PRINT REFERENCE SOURCES:

Literature and Research Guides
E178 .B57 1994 REF
United States History: A Selective Guide to Information Sources

D20 .A55 1995 REF
The American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature

E178 .R43 1997 REF
Reader's Guide to American History

Encyclopedias
U. S. History - General:
E174 .A535 1998 REF
The American Heritage Encyclopedia of American History

U. S. History - Cultural/Social:
E169.1 .E624 2001 REF
Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History

U. S. History - War/Military:
The library owns several encyclopedias devoted to specific wars. Please search the library catalog for detailed holdings.

Dictionaries
E174 .D52 2003 REF
Dictionary of American History, 3rd edition

The library owns several dictionaries of U. S. history that cover specific time periods. Please search the library catalog for detailed holdings.

Atlases
G1201 .E27 .F5 1998 REF
Atlas of American Migration

The library also owns a number of atlases specifc to wars or chronological eras. Please search the library catalog for detailed holdings.

Chronologies
E174.5 .C3 1997
The Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates

E169.12 .A419 1994 REF
American Decades

E169.1 .A47 1997 REF
American Eras

Biographies
CT213 .A68 1999 REF
American National Biography

E176 .D56 REF
Dictionary of American Biography

Statistical Sources
U. S. History - General:
HA202 .K87 2001 REF
Datapedia of the United States, 1790-2005: American Year By Year

HA175 .M55 1998 REF
International Historical Statistics: The Americas, 1750-1993

U. S. History - Political:
JK1967 .C662 1994 REF
Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U. S. Elections

JK518 .R34 1998 REF
Vital Statistics on the Presidency: Washington to Clinton

U. S. History - Cultural/Social:
E185 .H543 1995 REF
Historical Statistics of Black America

E185.5 .S83 1990 REF
Statistical Record of Black America

E184 .O6 .S73 1993 REF
Statistical Record of Asian Americans

E184 .S75 1993 REF
Statistical Record of Hispanic Americans

E98 .P76 .S73 1993
Statistical Record of Native North Americans

Documents and Primary Sources
D9 .D525 2003 REF
Dictionary of Historic Documents

E173 .A15 1994 REF
100 Key Documents in American History

FIND BOOKS IN LAVERY LIBRARY AND BEYOND
The key to the library's extensive book collection is the Library Catalog. It may be searched by Author, Title, Subject, or Keyword. Subject headings are established by the Library of Congress. If you have any trouble selecting a Subject heading for your topic, try a Keyword search or check the listings in the Library of Congress Subject Headings red books (Z 695 .L69 2001 REF) in the Reference area near the main floor computers.

Subject Headings which may be useful to you for U. S./American History are:

United States - History
United States - Politics and Government
United States - History - [insert name of war]

If you would like to browse in the U. S./American History section, the main call numbers begin with: E. For social history, browse H's.

Circulating books are all located on the Upper Level.

Link to the Library Catalog from the library's home page http://library.sjfc.edu

Find books in Other Libraries by selecting Library Catalog from the library's home page, then select Other Library Catalogs.

Search the world for books by selecting WorldCat from the databases listed under Research Databases.

To order a book from another library use the online Interlibrary Loan form, accessible from the library's home page http://library.sjfc.edu.

FIND ARTICLES AND MORE
Lavery Library subscribes to an extensive collection of Research Databases that may be used to search for articles on your topic in periodicals, newspapers, and book chapters. Periodicals include both scholarly journals and popular magazines. When researching for courses in your major, it is usually recommended that you use scholarly articles, also referred to as peer-reviewed or refereed articles. Databases will often allow you to limit your search to scholarly articles.

If the article cited on the database that you are using does not appear in full-text on the database, check Periodical Holdings on the library's home page to determine if the periodical is either full-text on another database or available in hard copy in the library's collection.

Research Databases are listed both alphabetically and by subject on the library's home page. When starting research in U. S. History, the following databases are recommended:

America: History and Life
JSTOR
Expanded Academic
Proquest Databases

Link to Subject Listing of databases available for Humanities and Art.

FIND WEBSITES
When using websites for research it is very important to evaluate their authority and content. Use the following checklist to evaluate sites before using them as references.

Evaluating Web Sites Checklist

Your liaison librarian has provided a list of quality websites for U. S. History. They are available on the library's home page under Selected Websites. From the library's home page, select Internet Resources, then Selected Websites, then History.

To search for additional websites, start with Google - http://www.google.com.