Internet, the Electronic Media and Historical Research

 Using the ASU Library & Web E-Resources

Arizona State University/ Department of History

Wendy Plotkin (wendy.plotkin@asu.edu ) and Cathy Fulcher (cathy.fulcher@asu.edu)

Revised, February 6, 2009

This is a partially updated copy of the guide. It needs considerable design improvements, and some updating of URLs starting with F. Archives.

These changes have begun to be made, and will be continued over the course of the spring semester.

 

 

 

Prepared with funding from Arizona’s Proposition 301 (passed by Arizona voters in November, 2000

to raise revenues for the improvement of education in Arizona)

and the support of the ASU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Information Infusion Initiative,

under the leadership of Vice President and Dean David A. Young.

 

This guide was prepared as a resource for History 300 and 498 classes required of all ASU undergraduate history majors, and is a “beta” version, ready for evaluation by interested faculty. It is assumed that changes will be made periodically reflecting comments and suggestions made by all History Department faculty and graduate students.  All comments and suggests are welcome, at wendy.plotkin@asu.edu .

 


Table of Contents

 

I. The ASU Library: Online Reference Works, Indexes, and Collections

A. Reference Works

            1. Encyclopedias

            2. Biographical Dictionaries & Databases

            3. Word and Word Usage Dictionaries

B. Books

              1. Catalogs of books at ASU and other academic and public libraries

2. Catalogs of edited book contents [Essay & General Literature]

3. Catalogs of books in print (Books in Print)

4. Full-text books online [ASU & Non-ASU Sources]

5. Obtaining book reviews to evaluate their quality

        C. Dissertations

D. Journals

            I. Using  Article Indexes for Research

A.    Indexes of History Journals 1954-Present

B.     Indexes of History and General Interest Journals from 18th Century to 1995

C.     Citation Indexes (1973-Present)

            II. Using Full-Text Journal Collections for Research

                A. OnLine Full Text Journal Collections Starting in 18th or 19th Century

                B. OnLine Full Text Journal Collections Starting in 1970s           

E. Newspapers

F. Archives & Primary Documents

    I. Archive Indexes

   II. Full-Text Archival Materials (Contain digital primary documents)

      A. By Topic or Type of Document

1.        Art

2.        Gender

3.        Law

4.        Literature

5.        Maps

6.        Science

            B. By Geographical Location

1.        International

2.        Asia

3.        Europe

4.        Middle East

5.        North America


Introduction

 

This guide has been prepared to help history students at Arizona State University familiarize themselves with the impact of the “digital revolution” on the discipline of history,  and to take advantage of the availability of resources that has resulted. With the advent of the “digital” format -- words, pictures, and sounds recorded and disseminated electronically rather than using traditional means of paper and type -- it is faster and easier to access the ever-growing amount of information that is the “bread and butter” of the study of history.  At the same time, the geometric increase in the amount of information -- and the ease with which all individuals are able to disseminate it -- has increased the importance of learning how to find and evaluate information in an efficient and timely manner. 

 

Many of the resources described in this guide are provided at great cost to students from the tuition and other resources provided to the university.  Some will still be available to you after graduation through your places of employment, public libraries, and private purchase, as a source of pleasure, enrichment, and communication on a scale unprecedented in earlier times.   Thus, the comprehension of how to use them, through frequent use in the undergraduate and graduate years, will be an important benefit of your education.

               

 

I. The ASU Library: Online Reference Works, Indexes, and Collections

 

The major Internet tools used by scholars are reference works that condense different types of information for easy use; on-line indexes to find books, articles, and primary documents that are available in print or in digital form; and collections of digital books, journals, newspapers, magazines, and primary documents that are available for viewing on-line or downloading.

 

 As an ASU student, you have access to a wide variety of reference sources, academic indexes, and digital document collections that are very costly for individuals to access (or not available to individuals at all).  THESE are the first places to look in engaging in research, as these are created and selected by scholars, librarians, and archivists who are experts in their fields. In many cases, you will have access to these same indexes and digital collections after you graduate, through your public library, place of employment, or by individual purchase. In all cases, your research on the Internet should begin with these resources, and END with the World Wide Web, described below.

 

Reference works, indexes, books, journals, newspapers, and collections of primary documents are created and distributed by academic libraries, academic and commercial publishers, scholarly associations (organized groups of scholars in a field), universities, and archives, among others.  Their role in this process is described below.            

        

1. Academic libraries select and distribute materials produced by others for use by universities with undergraduate and graduate programs.  Academic libraries select materials, through the hiring of discipline specific bibliographers (for ASU, see http://lib.asu.edu/librarians) and the use of  reviews in library journals such as Choice -- and are assisted in their efforts through organizations such as the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).   The list of ASU research databases is available at http://library.lib.asu.edu/search/y .

 

2. Academic and commercial publishers select, edit and publish materials, usually reference works, monographs, and other types of full-length books. In the United States, they have come together as the Association of American University Publishers (AAUP) -- an informative essay, “What is a University Press?,” describing the role of university presses in raising the standard of scholarship is available at:  http://aaupnet.org/news/about.html

 

 

The major types of works published by academic and commercial publishers for scholars and researchers include:

 

A. Reference Works

 

1. Encyclopedias: Encyclopedias are collections of information on a variety of topics, written by scholars and specialists on the topic about which they write, and the best first place to start on a topic to get a basic account of events, dates, participants, institutions, and themes. The Encyclopedia Britannica, as described below, is an example f a “general knowledge” encyclopedia.   The others are examples of specialty encyclopedias. Both types of encyclopedias have their limitations -- most entries are written by a single author, who, although a specialist in the topic, has limited time and expertise in that topic. Most are updated rarely, and, thus, over time, the information may be less valuable.

a.  General

1.        The Encyclopedia Britannica is of mixed quality,

b.  Specialized
          
 The Gale Virtual Reference Library offers an outstanding collection of encyclopedias, consisting of digital copies of encyclopedias, biographical dictionaries, and other types of reference works in the following areas: Arts, Biography, Business, Education, Environment, General Reference, History, Information and Publishing, Law, Literature, Medicine, Multicultural Studies, Nation and World (including Cities), Religion, Sciences, and Social Sciences. To see the list of resources included, click here.

                    Examples of specific special topics encyclopedias are:

1.        Encyclopaedia Judaica

2.        Encyclopaedia of Islam

3.        Europa Sacra Online (medieval European church)

4.        Grove Art Online

5.        Grove Music Online

 

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2. Biographical Dictionaries, Indexes & On-line Databases: Biographical dictionaries and other biographical reference works are collections of biographical information and essays on individuals.  These are especially helpful in fleshing out the information on the key people in your research paper.  Most biographical reference works (e.g. American National Biography; Dictionary of National Biography) are not available in digitized forms in the ASU library, and thus you need to rely on the Biography & Genealogy Master Index to find out if such entries exist on the individual of interest to you, and where in the print reference sources they are available.

 

       However, we are fortunate at ASU to have access to the Gale Company’s on-line Literature Resource Center, which does offer biographical essays on many individuals, and not only literary, in spite of the title.

 

a.   General

1.  Biography & Genealogy Master Index: Provides sources for biographical information (articles, essays) in biographical reference works (e.g. multi-volume print Biographical Index)

2.  Literature Resource Center: Provides biographical essays and facts on published authors in literature, humanities, social sciences, and other fields.

 

b.  Specialized

1.        Europa Sacra Online: Medieval European Church

2.        Hayden Arizona Pioneer Biographies (1880s)

 

3. Word and Word Usage Dictionaries

 

a.          The Oxford English Dictionary is a highly respected, frequently updated source of information on the origin and history of words.  It is useful both as a standard dictionary but also as a tool for historians who often are interested in the changing meaning of political, social, and other types of language as evidence in their work.

b. The Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary (1994) -- 10th edition -- is also an excellent source as a shorter, quicker reference for word usage. (n.b. ASU's subscription to this dictionary will cease on June 30, 2009.

 

   [Note for faculty, graduate students and advanced undergraduate students: One may purchase a subscription to the on-line 11th Edition of the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary & Thesaurus (for $14.95 a year), at http://www.merriam-webster.com/premium/  (also allows a 14 day trial).  Among the advantages I found over the library’s on-line edition was the additional 10,000 new words (e.g. “DVD”, “date rape drug,” “dot-com,” “Gulf-War Syndrome,” “USB,” and “webcam” added between 1992 and 1996) -- although as most of these are scientific, this alone would not justify purchasing the new edition.  In addition, there is a fairly comprehensive “style guide” (a grammar reference),  voice pronunciations of all words, a browsable dictionary, the ability to use an Advanced Search, and a “dictionary bar” that allows fast access from your browser:

 

Merriam-Webster 11th Edition Browser Bar

 

B.  Books

    
         I. Catalogs of books at ASU and other academic and public libraries.
                         a.  
ASU Catalog (Books available at ASU.)

 

As a “Research 1” institution -- a university recognized in the top rank of research universities in the nation -- ASU has an excellent collection of books, which is augmented on a continuous basis as new books are published, based on the recommendations of its bibliographers. One finds out which books are available by using catalogs (such as the ASU Online Catalog) and indexes.

 

The ASU Online Catalog is a listing of books and other documents that includes the author, title, publisher, date of publication, keywords, and Library of Congress subject classifications.  A video tutorial on using the online catalog is available at http://www.asu.edu/lib/help/books.htm.  While author, title, publisher, and date of publication are fairly straight-forward, keywords are any of the words on the "record" of that book.

 

Subjects in the ASU Catalog are based on the Library of Congress subject classifications, initially developed by the Library of Congress in 1898, which serves as the standard across the United States for categorizing and cataloging books and articles in university libraries.   If you are interested in seeing the current classification, it is on the Library of Congress website, at http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/lcco/lcco.html     (its history is available at

http://www.loc.gov/cds/chanarticle.html -- it can be interesting to dwell on how classifications change over time along with changes in knowledge.)

 

However, it is not necessary to know the subject classification in advance of your search.  If you don’t know the exact classification scheme for your book, you can search the “subject” field using terms that describe the book, and the catalog will suggest those Library of Congress Subject Classifications that are close to your topic.  Alternatively, if you know of a book that touches on your topic, you can look it up in the catalog, and find out the subject classification.  Once you’ve identified a subject classification that leads you to good books on your topic, you have a powerful way of finding other books in the ASU library.  The ASU Online Catalog allows you to click on the “Subject” classification and find all other books that are also classified in the same way.   This allows you to collect references very quickly -- as well as to guide you to the place in the library where the book is located, since the Library of Congress subject classifications are also used to organize the books in the library. 

 

As books become more specialized in their topics, they are less likely to be available directly from ASU.  Thus, if you are doing longer papers (15 pages or more), you may wish to consult Worldcat (see below) for books available from other university libraries.

 

         b.   Worldcat. (Books available at academic and public libraries throughout the U.S.)

 

    The Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) is a world-wide library cooperative that has created a unified catalog of most books, journals, and other types of documents available at American universities & other institutions.  If you find books or materials of interest that are not available at ASU, you may borrow these through ASU’s Inter-Library Loan ( ILL ) service from the institutions that do have them, in most cases.

 

[Back to Top]Book indexes usually only allow you to search the author, title, and other identifiers of the entire book.  Thus, if a book is edited by Gordon Wood, and includes essays by five Revolution-era U.S. history scholars, the names and titles of the individual essays would not necessarily show up in many indexes.  However, the following index allows you to search inside the contents of edited collections:

 

II. Catalogs of Selected Edited Book Contents (Names of Individual Chapters)

            

           a. Essay and General Literature (1985-Present) allows you to search edited collections by author, title, keyword, and combinations of these.    For example, if you wanted to find all of the books in which the prominent constitutional historian Jack Rakove has contributed essays, you would search on his name, and learn that he contributed chapters to Michael Lacey, Ed. A Culture of Right: The Bill of Rights in Philosophy, Politics and Law 1791 and 1991 (1991); James Henretta, ed. The Transformation of Early History (1991); and Beyond Confederation: Origins of the Constitution and American National Identity (1987), among others.   If you are interested in women’s diaries, searching on “women” and “diaries” would lead you to 21 essays in edited collections, including Mary O’Connor’s “Representations of Intimacy in the Life-Writing of Anne Clifford and Anne Dormer” in the book Representations of the Self  From the Renaissance to Romanticism ( 2000)  and Suzanne Bunkers’ essay “Diaries and dysfunctional families: the case of Emily Hawley Gillespie and Sarah Gillespie Huftalen” in the book Inscribing the Daily (1996)


                   III. Catalog of Books in Print

 

A book is “in print” if it is still being published (printed and disseminated) by a publisher.  A book is “out of print” if the publisher who originally published it is no longer printing and disseminating it, and no other publisher has chosen to continue its distribution.  Books that are “in print” may be purchased from their publishers, book stores, and second-hand distribution; books that are “out of print” may be purchased only through used bookstores and other types of second-hand distribution.           

 

1. Books in Print: This is an American publication that informs you whether a book is still in print, and, if so, who publishes it.

IV. Catalogs of Commercial On-Line Book Sellers

 

               Amazon.com:  An increasingly useful source for information about books.   Many of the books included on Amazon’s site include:

a)              Tables of Contents (tells you scope of book)

b)              Back Cover (summary of topic & brief “blurbs”)

c)              Excerpt

d)              Copyright page, along with information on the publisher.  This information will be of most interest to you if you wish to purchase the book -- you can only purchases “out of print” books through used book dealers

e)              In addition, Amazon has scanned in the full text of many of the books it sells.  Although you cannot obtain the electronic text unless it sells it as an e-book (which it does in only some cases -- see below) you can search the entire Amazon stock for terms, and be shown all pages of books  in which these terms are included. This is a valuable source for finding relevant books on your topic.

 

IV. Collections of Electronic, Full-Text Books             

 

        Increasingly, books are being distributed in digital, as well as print, format, through CDs and on the Internet.  Why would you ever prefer an “e-book” to a print book? 

 

         1.               If you need it immediately, and cannot get to a library or store to acquire it in the time needed

         2.               If you wish to be able to search it (in addition to using the Index) to find allusions to specific topics.

         3.               If you wish to embed your notes in the text.  Programs such Word, Word-Perfect, and Adobe PDF Writer allow you to highlight, underline, and add notes to the text.  The notes can be read as part of the document, organized, and printed out separately. You can send the commented text to a colleague using e-mail, as well.   While many individuals prefer to do this on paper, others prefer the “layered” nature of the electronic environment.  If you wish to learn more about this, contact Wendy.Plotkin@asu.edu .

 

                     Where do I obtain e-books?

 

1.   The “Electronic Books” section of ASU Library On-Line Resources. Includes among others:
        a .ACLS History Ebook Project  (A collaboration of eight learned societies, nearly 75 contributing publishers, and librarians at the University of Michigan’s Scholarly Publishing Office. The result is an online, fully searchable collection of high-quality books in history, recommended and reviewed by historians.)        

     b. Ebrary (Outstanding library covering over 22,000 full-text books, journals, and maps in five main subject areas - Business and Economics, Career and General Education, Computers, Engineering and Applied Sciences, Humanities, Social/Behavioral Sciences and Life/Physical Sciences ).

      c.Net Library (Current, copy-righted books--need to register at ASU computer and “check out” book electronically for time-limited use.).

      d. Making of America(A collection of digital books published between 1800-1925, available because of importance and free from copyright, which covers publications after 1925) -- Also available through WWW, outside of ASU Library.

    1.   University of Michigan: http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/

    2.   Cornell University: http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/index.html

2.   On-Line Publishers Catalogs (see list at Association of American University Presses site, at http://aaupnet.org/membership/directory.html)  -- many publishers offer free e-books and e-books for sale)

 

3.   On-Line Booksellers 

a.        Amazon.com and others have a “Category” called E-Books to purchase (also check under “Editions” when you are searching a particular book to see whether an e-version is available).

V. Obtaining Book Reviews to Evaluate the Quality of Books

        How does the researcher evaluate the quality of the books she has found in her search. Scholarly and journalistic book reviews are the best sources for finding out about books and reading different evaluations of their worth. If possible, it is best to obtain several book reviews -- as many as four or five -- to get a sense of the range of opinion on a given book. Where do you find book reviews?  

1.        Journals and magazines such as the American Historical Review, Journal of American History, or Hispanic-American Historical Review.  They contain book reviews written by experts in specialized fields and are the first choice for reviews once one chooses a research topic.  Some journals, such as Reviews in American History, are devoted solely to longer review essays, and are especially useful for providing a more in-depth evaluation of the book and background on its topic. However,  the shorter reviews at the back of other journals (after the articles), usually from 500-2000 words, are very helpful as well.

2.      H-Net (History and Humanities On-Line) Reviews (1993-present): H-Net is an umbrella organization of scholarly on-line history forums, most of which commission reviews.  Excellent quality, available for free on-line.

 

C.  Dissertations & Theses: In addition to the published books and articles that scholars write, the unpublished dissertations and master theses of students within the university are an important source of scholarship. Graduate students write theses and dissertations, which are  produced under the supervision of scholars, but lack the extra gatekeeping functions of peer   review and editing that publishers provide.

 

             A. Finding out about Dissertations (for all indexes that include dissertations, see http://library.lib.asu.edu/search/v?SEARCH=Dissertations%20and%20Theses):

 

     1.     Dissertation & Theses (1861+ ): Indexes dissertations accepted for doctoral degrees by accredited North American educational institutions and over 200 other institutions. Also contains citations and abstracts to masters' theses. Covers approximately 3,000 subject areas.

 

             B. Obtaining Dissertations:

       

                               You can obtain the full text, PDF form of the dissertation for most dissertations from the mid-1990s on. For those that are not available digitally, you have the following options:

 

1.        You can borrow them from libraries through the ASU Book Catalog or Worldcat (see above).

2.        You can buy for $32 from ASU InterLibrary Loan (at http://lib.asu.edu/ill ) (in the “Note” space, indicate that you wish to purchase this through the Proquest Library Express Service).

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3. Scholarly associations are formed by groups of scholars with similar interests who wish to share and communicate their work.  They select, edit and publish scholarly work that is collected in journals and newsletters.

 

D. Journals: Journals and newsletters -- the American Historical Review, the Journal of American History, Hispanic-American Review, OAH Magazine of History --  consist of articles written by scholars, often (although not always) as part of the process of writing a longer book.  An article allows a scholar to gather the extensive material gathered in the course of writing a book, present an analysis of it to a critical audience, and obtain feedback .

 

           Articles offer information about changing perceptions of the way things are and the way things were.  Thus, you can use them as sources of information in at least two ways:

 

·         to learn about a specific topic  (e.g. an election in Phoenix in 1952, the New Left, Confucius)

·         to learn about the way scholars, at different times, in different disciplines, or with different beliefs or information available, have presented information on or perceived these topics.

 

 It is useful, when you read an article, to ask yourself which of these two purposes you are fulfilling -- in most cases, a bit of both will be present.

 

    1.Article Indexes (Databases with Identifying Information About Articles, But Not Full Text of Articles)

 

                          If you wish to identify articles available on a given topic, you will have to search through a variety of On-Line Indexes. Article indexes are searchable lists of the titles, authors, and topics of journal articles across many journals (e.g. America History and Life, PCI). Titles and authors are self-evident.  Different journal indexes use different means of assigning topics to their articles -- some by allowing a search of all terms in the title, author, and abstract (short description) of the article, others by using terms selected by the author, journal publisher, or indexer that characterize the article.  For example, in an article I author about racial restrictive covenants (discriminatory real estate agreements)  in Chicago, I might choose the keywords “Chicago,” “segregation,” “discrimination,” “race,” “African-Americans,” “housing,” “NAACP,” and “law” when I submit the article for publication..       

 

Ideally, ALL journals would be included in one index, but at the present time, there are a variety of indexes, each of which reports on a specific set of journals (e.g. AHR, JAH)  within a certain time period (1879-1995; 1997-2003).  That is, you cannot search through all of these indexes at once -- you have to do so in separate searches of each index, which takes time.  For a short research paper, it is only necessary to use a couple of these indexes, but as the size and depth of the research paper increases, you will want to consult an increasing number of indexes (this is something that you should discuss with the instructor, who will be able to guide you on the sources).  In addition, even for shorter papers, you should receive guidance from your instructor on whether it is necessary to  investigate the print indexes of journals that are not indexed in the electronic indexes -- NOT ALL VOLUMES OF ALL JOURNALS ARE INDEXED ELECTRONICALLY. 

   

  ASU’s indexes are available at http://www.asu.edu/lib/find/articles/ , and may be viewed by broad subject category, (narrower) subject, or alphabetically.  To search on a narrow subject (described below), you use the “Subject” box shown on main index page:

 

 

 To assist you in becoming familiar with the indexes, I’ve chosen those that might be of most use to you as history students, and organized them below by topic and date. 

            A. Indexes of History Journals Published from 1954-Present  

         Includes two outstanding databases:

1. America History and Life (1954-Present)--Major American history journals -- see titles at http://www.ebscohost.com/titleLists/ahl-coverage.htm

 

2. Historical Abstracts (1954-Present)--Major European, Asian, South American & African History Journals -- see titles at http://www.ebscohost.com/titleLists/ha-coverage.htm

B. Indexes of General Interest Scholarly and Non-Scholarly Journals & Magazines Published from 1970s to Present

1. Academic Search Premier (1975-Present)--Includes about 3,500 scholarly journals plus New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Christian Science Monitor (but not popular magazines such as Time, Newsweek, Atlantic Monthly, Harpers, or Life). Some of the articles are also available in full text while searching the index; others only offer the bibliographic citation. For a list of included publications (which can be further filtered by topic), see [to be updated]

2. Ingenta Connect (1996-Present)--Includes over 30,000 journals, with substantial overlap with Academic Search Premier. Some of the articles are also available in full text while searching the index; others only offer the bibliographic citation. However, includes journals NOT included in Academic Search Premier, such as History of European Ideas, History Workshop, and Holocaust and Genocide Studies, so it is worth searching this index in addition to Academic Search Premier. For a list of included publications (which can be further filtered by topic), see http://www.ingentaconnect.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/content.

3. Readers Guide Retrospective (1890-1982): Indexes articles from the most popular general-interest magazines published in the U.S. & Canada. Covers all subjects & such general news areas as current events, business, fashion, politics, crafts, education, history, sports, food, & science. The retrospective database covers the years 1890-1982 and includes links to full text.

 

C. Citation Indexes (Included in Web of Science)(1970s-Present)

1. Arts and Humanities Citation Index (1975 - present): 192 history journals, and many more in related fields -- for full list by subject, search the database at http://scientific.thomsonreuters.com/cgi-bin/jrnlst/jlsubcatg.cgi?PC=H

 

2. Social Sciences Citation Index  (1973-present)-- 27 history Journals, and many more in related fields --for full list by subject, http://scientific.thomsonreuters.com/cgi-bin/jrnlst/jlsubcatg.cgi?PC=J

Citation indexes are like traditional indexes described in #1, but have two additional services: they list the title and author of  all sources (including books, articles, primary documents) cited in any article that you identify, and also the sources within the group of journals that they draw that have cited your article.  Thus, in addition to finding out the information on your topic in the articles, a citation index entry on your topic also leads you to all of the sources used by the authors of those articles, and to other articles that cited your article.  This provides you with a large number of potentially interesting sources to review, limited only by your time and the availability of the cited sources from your library or Interlibrary Loan.  Time becomes a factor both because of the plenitude of such sources, but also for two other reasons:  

a)       where the cited sources are books, only partial titles are given, and you have to do searches in traditional book indexes to find out more information on these books;

b)       where the cited sources are in fields outside of your own field.  This is a “double-edged sword” -- on the one hand, an inter-disciplinary perspective is essential in undertaking historical research.  On the other hand, the concerns of those in other disciplines are different from those of historians, and the articles and sources may be less salient to your work than those done by historians.  This is, as is so much of the identification and investigation of sources in historical research, a matter of judgment in which the guidance of one’s instructor becomes helpful.

 

   I. Using Full Texts of Articles in On-Line Journal Collections     

 

On-Line Full Text Collections consist of digitized versions of entire runs of journals (e.g. JSTOR; Project Muse).  You can search them as you would search indexes to find articles on your topic, but because the entire text of the article is available, you can search by words within the articles as well as titles, authors, and subjects.  There are at least two advantages to full text collections:

 

1)  This ability to search the full text -- if used intelligently -- is a much more powerful means of finding sources than an index search. 

2)  In addition, you can obtain the full text of the article immediately, without having to go separately to the Electronic Journal section of the ASU Library website to see whether we own the journal.

 

 However, there is a disadvantage to relying only on full text collections  --  they include a smaller subset of all print journals published over the years than indexes, because of the expense and effort involved in digitizing journals, far higher than digitizing print indexes.  Thus, you should consult with your instructor to see the order in which to consult resources -- for a short (10 page) paper, you may want to skip the indexes and start with  two full text collections such as JSTOR (19th Century-2000  ) and Academic Search Elite (1985-Present) which include the major historical journals. If you are doing a longer paper, or a paper in a less “popular” aspect of history, the need to consult the indexes or several full text collections becomes increasingly important.

 

Finding Full Text Journals in ASU’s Online Library System

ASU’s electronic journals are available at: http://library.lib.asu.edu/search/s.   As you are probably aware, most journals are organized and identified by volume (the consecutive year of publication), number (the sequence of issues in a given year), and date (Month, Year).  Thus, the issue of the American Historical Review (AHR) identified as "Vol 100 Issue 5-Dec95" is the 5th issue published in 1995, the 100th year of the journal publication. 

 

When searching e-journals, you run across the same type of barrier that was present in searching indexes -- there is no one unified “package” of all electronic journals.  Instead, we are faced by an explosion of different “packages” of different groups of electronic journals -- some created by the publishers of the print versions of the journals (e.g. Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Blackwell) and others by for-profit and non-profit specialists in electronic text publication (e.g. Academic Elite, PCI Full Text, JSTOR, Project Muse).  Many journals are included in more than one package, although often over a different range of issues (thus, JSTOR has the American Historical Review from 1895-2000, and Academic Search Elite has it from 1985 to the present).  Thus, searching efficiently becomes a function of knowing the range of journals included in a particular package, both in terms of subject (e.g. history, political science, sociology, economics), dates of publications included (most electronic journal publishers only include the last 20 or so years of the print publication, although some such as JSTOR include more, and others such as Blackwell and Cambridge, less).

 

Fortunately, the ASU Library has organized the electronic journals by subjects at , with history included within "History and Archaeology," and a list of subject categories within these is available at http://pl8cg5fc8w.search.serialssolutions.com/?V=1.0&L=PL8CG5FC8W&S=SC&C=06 .

 

 In the descriptions below, I’ve included some of the packages of most use to historians, with a description of the date range and whether they include the most important historical journals.  In addition, in most cases, I include links to lists of all journals in the package so that you can see whether a particular journal is included -- although in some cases, so many journals are included that browsing only leaves one with an impression of the full range of the package’s contents.

     
A. Collections of On-Line Full-Text Journal Published From 18th Century On

 

a.   JSTOR (19th Century-2005) : Includes American Historical Review and Journal of American History from beginning of publication

b.  Periodical Archives Online (1770-1995) (Includes older volumes of major journals such as American Historical Review and Journal of American History -- see http://pao.chadwyck.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/journals/listAll.do for complete list of journals [select Browse, then History (Americas) or History (General) ] or the attached list of journals included.

c.   Hein On-Line (Law Reviews) (19th C.- Present): Outstanding collection of legal periodicals and books. Some journal runs end a year prior to present year.

 

B. Collections of On-Line Full-Text Journals Published From 1970s On

 

a.   Academic Search Premier [Select EBSCO-Text Only] (1975-Present): Includes American Historical Review and Journal of American History and almost 300 full text journals on history and related subjects

b.   Cambridge Journals Online (1997-Present)

d.  Chinese Academic Journal Database (1994-Present)

e.   Contemporary Women’s Issues (1992-Present)

h.  Humanities Full Text (1984-Present)

j.    Lexis-Nexis Academic ( 2002-Present)

k.   Oxford Journals Online (1997-Present)

l.    Project Muse (1990-Present): Full text of Johns Hopkins and several other press journals -- does not include American Historical Review nor Journal of American History.

b.  Wiley Interscience (formerly Blackwell) (1997?-Present)                    

E. Newspapers (Indexes & Full-Text Collections):      [The URLs for many of these collections need to be updated, and will be by February 15.]

 

Newspaper publishers interpret the news on a daily or weekly basis, and the newspapers that they publish are a key primary and secondary source for historians. Although many have been willing to make their electronic editions available for free, this may not be true in the long term --  and most material at least a week or so older is assessed a fee. While you are at ASU library, you will have access to these archives for free, under “E-Newspapers”, at  http://www.asu.edu/lib/find/all/ .

Full-text newspaper collections come as part of packages, so you have to familiarize yourself with the packages, as to which newspapers are included, over which dates, and how to search (this is often a bit of challenge, although worth it). Some of those most useful for historians include:

 

a.         Access World News[1977-Present, includes international and national newspapers, newsletters, college newspapers, newswires, transcripts, video, WWW sites, and blogs from around the world. This includes major U.S. newspapers such as the Boston Globe (since 1980), Christian Science Monitor (since 1987), Los Angeles Times ( since 1986), Miami Herald (since 1983), New York Times (since 2000), San Francisco Chronicle (since 1985), Washington Post (since 1977), Wall Street Journal (U.S., Asian & European editions) and Arizona Republic (since 2005, selected coverage from 1999), among others, and major U.S. magazines such as Time (since 1985) and U.S. News and World Report (since 1993). Videos are available of CBS News (since 2007), Kiplinger's, and other national and local news outlets. See the full list of periodicals and chronological coverage.]

b.       "Asian Wall Street Journal"(1986-Present)

c.       “Barrons” 1986-Present (Business and Finance)

d.        Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online 1841-1902”

e.       “Business NewsBank” 1993-Present (Indexes and gives full text of selected articles from the business section of almost 500 U.S. and Canadian daily newspapers and from local business news weeklies. Also provides complete coverage of selected business newswire services.,

f.       Business NewsBank CDROM (Historical Files 1985-1998) Indexes and gives full text of selected articles from the business section of almost 500 U.S. and Canadian daily newspapers and from local business news weeklies. Also provides complete coverage of selected business newswire services. 1985-1992X: CD provides citations to the microfiche collection of the full text articles; 1993-1998, full text is included on the CD

g.        CD News: the Arizona Republic, Arizona Business Gazette
(1987 to one month ago or more) Includes full text of articles, editorials, notices, and obituaries from the Arizona Republic, the Phoenix Gazette, and ABG (Arizona Business Gazette).

h.        EL PAIS.es (1976+) EL PAIS.es is the online edition of EL PAÍS -- Spain’s widest circulating daily newspaper

i.       “Ethnic News Watch” 1960-Present (a collection of ethnic newsletters and materials),

j.       HarpWeek: The Civil War Era and Reconstruction I-II (Harper’s Weekly, 1857-1877)” (Subscription ceased 12/31/08)

k.        INFO-LATINOAMERICA (Latin American Information System) (1988+) (Subscription will cease April 30, 2009) Formerly known as INFO-SOUTH, this resource provides access to the business, political, legal and socio-economic trends of the entire Latin American region. It includes bibliographic records, full-text articles, abstracts, and detailed summaries on Latin American current events, business, and legislation from over 1,500 mostly non-U.S. media sources.

l.        Latin American newsletters (in English) (1967-present),

m.        LexisNexis Academic Full text of selected newspapers, magazines, trade publications, legal periodicals, and scholarly journals. Includes company directories/financials; Hoover reports; quotes; almanac; federal/state laws, regulations, court opinions; accounting statements/guidelines; & news transcripts.
[ Includes Newsweek (1975+), Boston Globe (1988+), Christian Science Monitor (1980+), Financial Times of London (1982+), Washington Post (1977+).

n.        NewsBank NewsFile CDROM (Historical Files 1980 - 1998) (1980-1998) Provides fulltext access to selected articles from over 500 U. S. and Canadian newspapers, wire services, and broadcast news transcripts.

o.        NewsBank NewsFile Collection (1991+) Provides fulltext access to selected articles from over 500 U. S. and Canadian newspapers, wire services, and broadcast news transcripts.

p.        New York Times (Proquest Historical New York Times) (1855-2003) Outstanding resource, includes PDF copies of images of individual articles and of full pages. For instructions on how to use (or to give to your students to use), click here.

q.        Wall Street Journal(1986+) Full text access to the Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal is the financial newspaper of record. It offers in-depth coverage of national and international finance as well as first rate coverage of hard news.

r.        Wall Street Journal Europe (1986+) Full text access to the Wall Street Journal Europe, a daily business newspaper from The Wall Street Journal focusing on Europe. Comprehensive coverage of European stock markets, companies, politics and other major news.

s.        Washington Post (Proquest Historical Washington Post) (1887-1991) Outstanding resource, includes PDF copies of images of individual articles and of full pages. For instructions on how to use (or to give to your students to use), click here.

            

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6. Archives & special collections departments of libraries select, edit, and interpret collections of primary documents -- documents created by individuals and institutions and collected in whole or part by archivists and librarians.   When and how would you use on-line primary documents in your research as an undergraduate or graduate student?

 

To answer this, one must understand the limitations of using primary documents in general and on-line.  Primary documents and images are a sample -- and generally, not a representative sample -- of documents and images on any given topic. Thus, there are limitations to using them as evidence, since one does not know what the documents that one has not read or which have not survived would reveal.  To the extent that online primary documents are a smaller subset of physical primary documents located in archives and elsewhere, their use as evidence is that much more problematic.

 

There are a number of ways for undergraduate and graduate students to deal with this situation.  In writing a paper, unless the teacher specifically indicates (s)he wishes it to be based solely on primary documents, the student will want to draw on the expertise of scholars specializing in the topic, and use the secondary works (books and articles, using the library online and print resources described above) on the topic.  To a great extent, these secondary sources are based on the scholars’ own careful and trained examination of the primary documents. 

 

If the student then identifies primary documents on the topic, they may be used as illustrations of the students’ agreement or disagreement with the scholars’ assessments.  Primary documents are powerful not only in buttressing (i.e. providing support for) an argument, but in presenting and fleshing out the details -- providing a “real life” example to assist the reader in understanding the specific situation and its relationship to the larger concept.  One of the special aspects of history (similar to anthropology) is this attention to detail and examples, to articulating specific instances as well as larger scale processes.  Thus, when you search for primary documents in these online archives, you should use them in this dual fashion -- as support (or not) for an argument and the opportunity to provide texture or detail to the events, people, places, or processes being described. 

 

F. Archives:    Like books and articles, archival collections  -- for example, the Papers of Mark Twain -- are indexed so that you can find their locations -- where you would have to go to view them.  Increasingly, archives & special collections departments are putting their finding aids (describing the content of the collection) on the Web, so that you can discover what is included in the collection from afar, and plan your trip.  In some cases, selected documents are made available in full on microfilm or on-line, negating the need for a trip to the archives unless you wish to examine the actual physical documents.  Like books that are only available at other libraries, microfilm collections may be borrowed through Interlibrary Loan.  However, usually your library has to subscribe to an electronic collection for you to have access to its on-line version.

 

If you are doing research on a topic in which primary documents may be of interest, your first step is to find out the existence and location of collections that may relate to your topic, using the indexes below.  Then, once you’ve found the collection, you will want to see whether the archive that holds the collection has a WWW page, and, if you are lucky, the finding aids for that collection on-line.

 

        I. Archive Indexes (Searchable)

 

1 Worldcat includes manuscript collections of major institutions (see 2A2 above for information on how to access Worldcat).  Worldcat indexes many types of documents -- books, films, and music as well as archival documents -- and allows you to select only the archival documents among all that are available on your topic.                                        

2. National Union of Manuscript Collections (http://lcweb.loc.gov/coll/nucmc/ ) includes manuscript collections of smaller institutions.

3 .Archives USA  (Proprietary list of archives available only through ASU library). ASU access to this database will cease on June 30, 2009

 

 

         II. Full-Text Archival Materials (Contain digital primary documents) [The URLs for many of these collections need to be updated, and will be by February 15.]

A. By Topic or Type of Document

 

 I.  Topic: Art

A.      Artstor (All eras): Digital images and related data and the tools to make active use of those images. The Charter Collection contains approximately 300,000 digital images of visual material from different cultures and disciplines. The collection documents artistic traditions across many times and cultures and embraces architecture, painting, sculpture, photography, decorative arts, and design as well as many other forms of visual culture.

B.       RLG Cultural Materials (see description below, under Geographical/International)

 II. Topic: Gender

A.      Defining Gender Online: 1450-1910: Five Centuries of Advice Literature for Men and Women (mostly British) (for a chronologically ordered list of documents, see http://0-www.datagold.com.library.lib.asu.edu/Gender-ip/chronology.htm .  

 

III. Topic:  Law

A.      The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School  (3,000 BCE+) Selected digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government

 

IV. Topic: Literature

A.      Eighteen Century Collections Online (1825-1900)

B.       Past Masters (ancient Greece to the late 19th century--literature, philosophy, religion, political theory)

 

V. Topic: Maps

 

A.      Maps: Contemporary

1.        Holt Rinehart Winston.  This is the best simple interactive atlas I’ve found.

2.        Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection: The Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection (PCL 1.306) is a general collection of more than 250,000 maps covering all areas of the world. Many of the maps are included in our online catalog, UTNetCAT. More than 5,000 map images from our collection are also available online.

 

B.       Maps: Historical

 

                         Maps: International

1.        David Rumsey Historical Map Collection: The David Rumsey Collection includes 18th and 19th century historical North and South American atlases, globes, school geographies, maritime charts, and separate maps including wall, pocket, and manuscript. Historic North America maps, United States geography, old maps, rare, genealogy, antique maps, Online rare map collection, Historical cartography, Digital map collections, Historic map collection, Cartography, Maps, United States map, Cartographic, Globes, Maritime Charts, Atlases, Atlas, South America maps, World maps. [This is a bit tricky to learn to use, but well worth it.]

2.        Historic Cities: Maps and Documents: Outstanding site for maps and atlases on cities from late 15th Century to 1800 and across the continents, including Braun and Hohenberg’s multi-volume Civitates Orbis Terrarum of 1572-1617  (maintained by Hebrew University)

3.        Historical Atlas of the 20th Century: Although a site created by an “amateur,” this is well-reviewed on web evaluation sites.

4.        Historical Maps (University of Minnesota): 15th C.-early 19th C. (1825)

5.      Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection (see above for description).

 

                      Maps: Africa

 

1.        Africa: A Continent Revealed: This exhibition traces the development of European mapping of the African continent from the 16th to the 21st century. The maps reflect European geographers' earliest depictions of Africa, a fifth of the world's landmass. Later maps chronicle advances in mapmaking and document growing Western knowledge of various facets of the African Continent, including river sources, fauna, and indigenous peoples.

 

2.        Islamic Cities Map Collection (Berkeley) (mostly Cairo)

 

Maps: Asia

 

1.          Japanese Historical Map Collection (University of California Berkeley)

   Contains about 2,300 early maps of Japan and the World. The collection was acquired by the University of California from the Mitsui family in 1949, and is housed on the Berkeley campus in the East Asian Library. Represented in this online collection are about 100 maps and books from this Collection.

 

                       Maps: Israel

 

1.        Ancient Maps of Jerusalem

2.        Jerusalem 3000: Three Millennia of History

 

Maps: Scandinavia

 

1.        Olus Magnus’ Scandinavia (1539)

 

Maps: Spain

1.        Maps of Spain from the Enggass Collection: An exhibition tracing the cartographic evolution of Iberia through a series of maps, from 1486 through 1829.

 

Maps: United States

 

  Maps: United States: All Eras

1.         Library of Congress “American Memory” Map Collections

 

   Maps: United States: Chronological

1.        Exodus and Exile: The Spaces of Diaspora

        Uses maps from the fifteenth century to the present to explore the spatial aspects of diaspora through the experiences of the Jews and African-Americans. 

2.        The Basel 1494 (illustrated) edition of Christopher Columbus's letter

3.        Cartographic Creation of New England (16th-18th Century)

4.        Henry Popple's Map of the British Empire in North America 
(London, 1733)

5.        The Mitchell Map, 1755-1782: An Irony of Empire

6.        The "Percy Map": The Cartographic Image of New England and Strategic Planning during the American Revolution 

7.        Mapping the Republic: Conflicting Concepts of the Territory and Character of the U.S.A., 1790-1900

8.        Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia (18th-19th Century U.S. and Georgia)

9.        Maine Wilderness Transformed: Timber, Sporting, and Exploitation of the Moosehead Lake Region (19th-20th Century)

10.     Celebrating the Portuguese Communities in America: A Cartographic Perspective

11.     The American Way (American Road Maps of the 20th Century)

12.     The 1970 National Atlas of the United States of America

 

  Topic: Science (including Gardening)

    A. Patten Herbal Collection (15th Century): Digitized collection of herbals and early gardening works which date from the 15th century. Herbals are books containing names and descriptions of herbs or of plants in general, with their properties and virtues.


 

           B. By Geographical Location

 

I. International

a.   The Avalon Project at the Yale Law School  (3,000 BCE+) Selected digital documents relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government

b.  Eighteenth Century Collections Online (1700-1800)

c.   Global Views & Voices (1970s-Present)

d.  Internet Ancient History Sourcebook

e.   Internet Medieval Sourcebook

f.    Internet Modern History Sourcebook

g.  Past Masters (ancient Greece to the late 19th century--literature, philosophy, religion, political theory)

h.  Patten Herbal Collection (15th Century): Digitized collection of herbals and early gardening works which date from the 15th century. Herbals are books containing names and descriptions of herbs or of plants in general, with their properties and virtues.

i.    RLG Cultural Materials (All eras): RLG Cultural Materials provides primary source materials in high-quality digital form, namely, authenticated, rights-cleared digital materials for the exploration of collections of material culture, vital to contemporary scholarship. There are more than 200,000 works in over 80 collections from the cultural institutions around the world. In the database, one can find: Art and Literature (Architecture, Books/Writing, Caricatures/Cartoons, Cinema, Costume, Decorative Arts, Photography, Drawings/Paintings/Watercolors); Natural History (Birds, Expeditions, Plants/Flowers, Space Sciences); Performing Arts (Actors, Celebrities, Dance, Entertainment, Music, Theater); Science, Technology, and Industry (Farming, Industry, Maps, Medicine, Mining, Railroads, Science); Social Sciences (Artifacts/Tools, Education, Indigenous Peoples, Politics, Propaganda, Social Life/Customs, Society). 

                             

               II. Asia

                   A. China

1.        Mu Diao: Huang Guili Yi Shi [Unavailable]

2.        Mu Diao: Li Songlin Yi Shi [Unavailable]

 

                   B. Japan

                        1. Ajia Rekishi Shiryo Senta (Japan Center for Asian Historical Records) : Includes Asian historical records, diplomatic records, defense studies

 

III.  Europe

    A. Acta Sanctorum (1642)

    B. EuroDocs: Primary Historical Documents From Western Europe

   C. .Patrologia Latina (200-1216)

 

             I.  France

a.  ARTFL (13th-20th Centuries)

II.  Great Britain

a.  Arden Shakespeare (Late 16th-Early 17th Century)

b. Brontes, The  (1818-1855)

c.  Early English Books Online (1475-1700)

d. Macmillan Cabinet Papers, 1957-63, On-Line  

e.  Middle English Compendium (1100-1500)

f.   Samuel Johnson and James Boswell (1709-1795)

g. John Ruskin (1840s-1880s)

      III. Germany

a.   Luthers Werke (Weimarer Ausgabe) (1501-1546) In German.

 IV. Greece

a.   Athena: Classical Mythology (Ancient)

   V. Spain

a.  Cervantes (1547-1616)

b.  Colección Clásicos Tavera (1470-1900)

   V. Middle East

         A. Israel

              1. Bar Ilan's Responsa and Encyclopedia Talmudit

              2. Dead Sea Scrolls

       VI. North America

A. Black Drama (1800-Present): Around 1000 plays by more than 170 playwrights, together with detailed, fielded information on related productions, theaters, production companies, and more. The database also includes selected playbills, production photographs and other ephemera related to the plays.  Includes North America, African & Caribbean Drama.           

    I. U.S. & Canada

a. Ad Access

b. American Journey Series (hundreds of carefully selected, rare documents, pictures, and archival audio and video related to American history and culture)

c.  Antislavery Literature Project (17th-19th C.)

d.  Documenting the American South (17th-Early 20th C.)

e.  Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850 - 1920 (EAA)

f.   Latino Literature: Poetry, Drama, and Fiction (1850+)

g   Library of Congress (American Memory, Thomas,  Images, & Other Material)

h.  Making of America (1800-1925) (Full text of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. Particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.)

i.   National Archives and Records Administration (NARA): The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an independent U.S.  Federal agency that “preserves the nation's history” (see “What is NARA?” at http://www.archives.gov/about_us/what_is_nara/what_is_nara.html )

j.   Radical Scatters (1870-1886) An electronic full-text archive of Emily Dickinson's fragments -- works never prepared for publication. Includes documents, poems, letters, and other writings.

  1.     Arizona

a.  Architecture & Environmental Design Library, holds some 280 Biltmore Hotel construction photographs that included in the Albert Chase McArthur Collection.

b. Digital Sanborn Maps-Arizona (1867-1920)

       

II. Latin America

1.     Latino Literature: Poetry, Drama, and Fiction (1850+)

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