LIBCAT

LibCat is the catalog of books and journals in the library. To look for primary sources (books):

1. Do a Basic Keyword search and limit your search by date span. Remember: This searches retrieve books that might be either primary OR secondary sources.
2. Try using some of these keywords when looking for works about:

   Industrialism:

   big business history

   capitalism united states history

   World War II:

   world war 1939-1945

3. Search for important individuals as authors to see what they may have written.
4. Look for scholarly books (secondary sources) on your topic, then check the footnotes and bibliographies to see where they got their information.

ONLINE Magazine Indexes

• America: History and Life. indexes scholarly historical journals [secondary sources] from 1954+. Use “advanced search” to specify articles about a decade (the 1890s, for example).
• American Periodical Series. Contains over 1,100 magazines dating from 1741 to 1940.
• Six databases that are part of the WilsonWeb database may be useful:
  • Readers Guide Retrospective ...popular magazines from 1890 to 1982.
  • Applied Science and Technology Retrospective ...engineering and some business magazines from 1913 to 1983.
  • Art Retrospective ...art and architecture magazines from 1929 to 1984.
  • Education Index Retrospective ...education journals from 1929 to 1983.
  • Humanities & Social Sciences Index Retrospective …humanities and social sciences journals from 1907 to 1984.
  • Library Literature & Information Science Retrospective ...library and information science journals from 1905 to 1983.
• JSTOR. Full text database of selected scholarly journals published prior to 2000.
• Sabin. Full text database of books and some magazines published from the 1500s to 1926.
• Academic Search Complete. Indexes a variety of popular and scholarly magazines. Most items indexed were published in 1975 or more recently, but it also cites some earlier stories, including nearly 9,000 articles and letters published from 1942 to 1945.
• Compendex / Inspec. Indexes engineering & technical journals from 1884 onward; also cites some articles about unions, employee safety, etc.
• Gender Studies Database. Indexes articles relating to women's and men's studies and sexual diversity issues. Cites books and articles from 1900 to the present.
• IIBP. Indexes various African American magazines from 1900 to the present.
• 19th Century Masterfile. Indexes selected magazines from 1802 to 1906; U.S. documents (1774-1881); New York Times (1863-1905), and other indexes.
• Periodicals Index Online. Indexes selected magazines published from 1770 to 1995.

PRINTED Magazine Indexes include:

• Agricultural Index (1916-1964). Evans Reference Z5073 .A46
• Index to Contemporary Military Articles of the World War II Era, 1939-1949. Evans Reference D743 .B37 2005

Examples: Popular magazines, 1880-1920:

Catholic World. (1866+). AP2 .C3
Century Illustrated Magazine. (1870-1930). AP2 .C4
Harper’s Weekly. (1857-1916). AP2 .H32
Overland Monthly. (1868-1935). Basement Collection AP2 .O9

Examples: Technical & business magazines, 1880-1920:

American Gas Journal. (1859-1969). Film TP700 .A5
American Railroad Journal. (1832-1911). Film TF1 .A3
Electrical World. (1883-1991). Film TK1 .E5
Engineering Record, Building Record and Sanitary Engineer. (1878-1917). TA1 .E62
Factory. (1882-1963). Film TK1 .I3
Iron Age. (1873-1919). Film S 238
Manufacturers’ Record. (1890-1958). Basement Collection HC107 .A13 I33.
Mining and Scientific Press. (1860-1902). Film TN1 .M524
Railroad Gazette. (1870-1908). Film TF1 .R2

Examples: Military magazines, World War II:

Air Force Magazine. (1942+). UG633 .A65.
Army and Navy Journal. (1942+; scattered earlier volumes also). U1 .A66.
Cavalry Journal. (1889+). UE1 .C33.
Field Artillery Journal. (1911-1950). UF1 .F6.
Infantry Journal. (1904-1950). UD1 .I6.
Ordnance. (1920-1989). UF1 .O6.7.
Our Navy. (1942-1972). VA49 .O9.
Yank, the Army Weekly. (1942-1945). D731 .Y312.

NEWSPAPERS

Full text databases that can be searched by keyword.

• Historical newspapers (from ProQuest): Atlanta Constitution (1868-1939), *Chicago Defender (1905-1975), Chicago Tribune (1890-1985), Christian Science Monitor (1908-1991), Los Angeles Times (1881-1985), *New York Amsterdam News (1922-1993), New York Times (1851-2003), *Pittsburg Courier (1911-2002), Washington Post (1877-1988), and Wall Street Journal (1889-1987).
  *African American newspaper.
• Dallas Morning News (1885-1977).
• Brooklyn Daily News Online (1841-1902). http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/
• Utah Digital Newspapers (1858-1961). This website reproduces and indexes about 20 different newspapers. http://www.lib.utah.edu/digital/unews/
• Index to the San Antonio Register. http://www.lib.utsa.edu/Databases/Sar/
  Index to an African American newspaper published in San Antonio, covering 1931 to 1953; the library has this paper on microfilm: Film N617.
• The Evans Reference Desk has a list of unindexed papers that you can browse through.
• Wartime Newspapers (examples):
  • Atlanta Daily World. (1931-1997). African American paper. Film N 1002.
  • Japanese Camp Newspapers. (1942-1945). From internment camps. Film N 800. 
  • La Prensa (San Antonio). (1913-1959). Spanish language paper. Film N 1100.
  • Texas Military Camp Newspapers. Most are from WW II. Film N 640 – N 722.

GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS

LibCat only lists U.S. Documents published from 1976+. 

For older items, check the LexisNexis Congressional database which indexes Congressional materials from 1789 onward. Also see the database U.S. Congressional Serial Set. This reproduces reports, documents, and journals of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, from 1817 until 1933.

 The Monthly Catalog. (Evans Ref. U.S. Docs GP 3.8:) for works before 1976

Cumulative Subject Index. Evans Ref. Z1223 .Z9 C9

Cumulative Title Index … 1789-1976. Evans Ref. Z1223 .Z7 L47

Historic Government Publications from World War II
http://worldwar2.smu.edu/

World War II Poster Collection
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/govpub/collections/wwii-posters/

Examples: Federal documents:

Education for Victory. (1942-1945). U.S. Docs FS 5.26: .
Manpower Review. (1943-1945). U.S. Docs PR 32.5209: .
U.S. Women’s Bureau. Special Bulletin. nos.1-20 (1940-1944). U.S. Docs L 13.10: .
Victory. (1941-1943). U.S. Docs PR 32.5008: .

Examples: State documents

Washington (State). Farm War News. nos.1-33 (March 1944-Oct.1944). Microfilm S 1756

HISTORICAL MATERIALS ON THE INTERNET

Use internet resources with caution. You can not check a digital copy for authenticity in the same way as an original document.

• American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library.  Includes over 100 historical collections, covering woman's suffrage, the Haymarket riot, and many other topics. http://memory.loc.gov/
• Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930 Documents immigration to the U.S. from 1789 to 1930. http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/
• Veterans History Project. Reproduces interviews, photos & other materials about U.S. veterans, including World War II. http://www.loc.gov/vets/
• Amache Digital Collections Project. Digitizes some newspapers from Japanese internment camps in the 1940s, plus other related materials. http://carbon.cudenver.edu/public/library/archives/adc.html
• Making of America. Digital collections from Cornell and the University of Michigan, including a variety of books and magazines, mostly from 1865 to 1900. 
  Series 1: http://moa.umdl.umich.edu
  Series 2: http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa
• Everyday Life and Women in America, c1820-1900. This reproduces books, pamphlets and magazines concerning political, social and gender issues, religion, race, education, employment, marriage, sexuality, home and family life, health, and pastimes. You must access this database through the library’s website.

MANUSCRIPTS ON MICROFILM

The Evans Reference Desk has more info; examples include:

• Japanese-American Oral History Collection. Film B2133. Interviews include information about life in the internment camps.
• Records of the Bureau of Vocational Information, 1908-1932. Film HF5382.65 .R43 1989; guide shelved in Microforms Reference. Concerns women in the workplace.

IDENTIFYING SCHOLARLY BOOKS

General guidelines

Books must have footnotes and a bibliography;
They should be from a reputable publisher (a university press is often a good choice);
Collections of essays by multiple authors are not acceptable;
Autobiographies are not acceptable.

Only your professor can tell you if a specific book is appropriate for this assignment.

LibCat includes all kinds of books (including novels, popular histories and children’s books) not just scholarly histories.   While America:  History and Life sometimes lists popular books, you normally will have an easier time identifying scholarly books if you start there.

Step 1:  Go to the database America:  History and Life

Click on the “advanced” tab.

Enter the beginning and ending years for your date range in “time periods” field.

Click on “book reviews” where it says “limit to”.

In publication dates, type the span that your professor allows; for example:  1990-2008

Then, in the keyword box, type one or two broad subject concepts.

Then click on “search.”

If you get a list of books, see if any look promising.  If you have trouble finding books, contact the staff at the Evans reference desk, Mr. Kitchens or Mr. Page, or your professor.

Step 2:  Check LibCat to see whether the Evans Library has a copy of the book(s) you are interested in seeing. 

You can skip step one and search LibCat first, but we recommend against it.

If you want to try LibCat first, search by keywords or subjects.

In LibCat, often you cannot limit books to specific time periods (the 1920s or the 1960s).

In LibCat you usually must use very specific subject headings instead of broad concepts.