HIS 4100: Women of British-America
Library Sources and Strategies for Finding Information
- Finding books through the Library Catalog
- WorldCat: for books beyond the WNCLN
- Bibliographies and reference books
- Searching for journal articles in America: History and Life
- Other subject-oriented databases for journal articles
- JSTOR and Project Muse
- Microforms collections
Finding books through the Library Catalog
Try a Keyword Search first.
Your strategy will be to use either a specific word or phrase (ex. female circumcision, bethabara, captivity narrative*) or construct a more extensive search strategy using Boolean operators and nesting. Examples: birth control and (colonial or history) and (america* or united states) | women and (religion or religious or quaker or puritan) and united states
Do a Subject Search using Library of Congress Subject Headings from highly relevant books that your Keyword Search turned up. Examples: indian captivities | indian captivities literary collections | birth control united states history | childbirth united states history
Another important strategy for searching for books (using either keyword or subject searching) is to search more broadly than your exact topic. Books on the broader subject might have chapters or sections on your topic. You'll be able to find out when you get the books from the Stacks and check their table of contents and index. Examples: Instead of searching only for women and the Protestant Church, search for books on the history of the Protestant Church. Instead of searching only for wedding etiquette in Charleston, search for the history of weddings.
Finding books beyond the WNCLN: searching WorldCat
Search the WorldCat database.
This database lists over 46 million books, manuscripts and other materials--on all subjects--in libraries throughout the United States and in other countries as well. To find the "best books" on your topic, you may need to borrow books from other libraries. Interlibrary loan is the process you would use to borrow them (there's no charge). WorldCat will help you identify books on your topic that you might want to borrow.
One strategy for searching WorldCat is to use a relevant Library of Congress Subject Heading that you identified when you searched the Library Catalog. WorldCat uses these same subject headings. In WorldCat it's important to limit all searches to English and to Books (other libraries outside WNCLN usually won't loan their videos, periodicals, or manuscripts).
WorldCat has its own Interlibrary Loan form within the database; you'll probably find it easier to use this than the standard form on the Library Web site. Here are some tips on how to use it. Assuming you've just done a WorldCat search:
- From the Browse list your search pulled up, click on the link for the book you're interested in.
- Click on Libraries. Look at any North Carolina library listings (they'll be first on the screen, if there are any) to be sure the book is not at ASU, UNC-Asheville, or Western Carolina. If the book is in one of these 3 libraries, you must get it through regular checkout (if at ASU) or ABC-Express (if at UNC-Asheville or Western Carolina). Also be sure that the only locations are NOT the Library of Congress (they don't loan their materials) or a non-United States library.
- If the book is not in the three libraries mentioned above (they are known as the Western North Carolina Library Network), and not just in the places mentioned above, return to the regular display for the book.
- Click on Interlibrary Loan. Fill out and send the required information. *It's very important to fill out the "date needed by." Put the latest date you could use the book and still get your paper done on time. This is helpful for the Interlibrary Loan librarians to know, in case the first few places they try are unable to loan the book. This tells them how long they should keep trying to get the book for you.
Bibliographies and reference books
Bibliographies--whether they're book-length, or found at the end of a book or article you're using--are valuable for research in general. They are essential, however, for historical research. They can inform you about books or articles that your database searches didn't turn up (either because of the search words you used, or because the database didn't index the journal the article was published in, or because the article is older than the 1960's-1980's (most databases don't list any materials older than these dates). Also, bibliographies may tell you about primary sources that you wouldn't have known to search for.
Here are some bibliographies related to women in American history that may help:
• Women in United States history: a resource guide. 2000. HQ 1410 .H363 2000
• The female experience in eighteenth and nineteenth century America: a guide... 1982. Z 7961 .C64 1982
• Women in American history: a bibliography. 2 volumes. 1979. Ref Z 7962 .H37
You can also search specifically for book-length bibliographies on your topic, in the Library Catalog or in WorldCat. Use relevant Library of Congress Subject Headings that you found in your Keyword Search. Add the subject heading bibliography and put it in front of the relevant Subject Heading. Examples:
• To see all the book-length bibliographies the WNCLN has on women in American history, search this way:
Subject Search; type in: bibliography women united states history
• To see if there's a book-length bibliography on birth control in American history in WNCLN:
Subject Search; type in: bibliography birth control united states
Here's a useful bibliography for North Carolina topics:
Jones, H. G. North Carolina history: an annotated bibliography. 1995. Ref Z 1319 .J66 1995
Reference books related to women's studies or women's history can be useful for (1)an introductory overview of your topic and (2) for the items that might be listed in the article's bibliographpy. Browse the books in the Ref HQ 1100 through Ref HQ 1421 area of the Reference Stacks.
Here are a couple of recent works:
Handbook of American Women's History. 2nd ed. 2000. Ref HQ 1410 .H36 2000
Encyclopedia of Women's History in America. 2000. Ref HQ 1410 .C85 2000
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Searching for journal articles in America: History and Life
America: History and Life is likely to be your best bet for finding articles in scholarly journals. Below are a few search tips that can help you be thorough:
- Click on the note at the top about accessing your library's subscriptions.
- Click on the blue America: History and Life box.
- Go to Advanced Search.
- In the Subject box, click on the magnifying glass to Browse the subject terms used by the database. Type in each term individually (for instance, Women; then Childbirth). When you see a term that sounds like your topic, click on it and Paste it into the search form. When you're done, and you go back to the search form, be sure to change the ANDs in the subject box to ORs.
- In the Language box, type in English
- In the Time Period box, again click on the magnifying glass to Browse the time periods. For this course, you need to include all the decades and centuries that make up the period 1600-1775. So, you'd click on 1600H; 1610D, 1620D, (etc.), 1700H, 1710D, 1720D (etc.). Paste all of them into the search form. Leave the ORs between then.
- Now, click on Search.
Other subject-oriented databases
Depending on the focus of your topic, you might find useful information in one of the databases below. Be aware that there is overlap in the journals indexed by the various databases; so some of the sources you find may be repeats from America: History and Life or from sources you've found by using bibliographies.
Searching JSTOR and Project Muse
These two databases are actually collections of full-text journals in a variety of subject areas (each includes some history journals). Each one has a search engine included. You may or may not find useful articles by using them. Often you'll find, especially if you search the entire text of the articles, some articles that include brief mentions of your search words but not substantial discussions. Since JSTOR includes long runs of its journals, and Project Muse has a very attractive format for its full-text articles, both are worth a try.
JSTOR
Search tips:
Go to Advanced Search
Check the box beside History Journals (and other subjects as well, if they relate to your topic)
Put your search terms (word or phrases) in quotation marks. Example:
"salem" and ("witch" or "witchcraft")
Microforms collections that might be useful
The following collections might contain useful primary sources. Each one has search guides that could help you find specific texts to look through. Each has records in the Library Catalog--but the records are brief and usually non-specific. If you've already found some primary sources mentioned in bibliographies or other sources, it's possible the Library has these primary sources as part of one of the microforms sets.
• American Women's Diaries
• Early American Imprints
• Furniture Library
• Library of American Civilization
Compiled by Glenn Ellen Starr Stilling, stillngges@appstate.edu