Topics

• popular reception after 1945 of German General Erwin Rommel (ca. 1890-1944)
• reception after 1945 of the firebombing of Dresden in Feb. 1945
• the Wyhl, Germany nuclear plant construction site occupation in 1977: its history and role in the formation of the German Green Party
• how the East German (1949-1989) Secret Police Stasi presented itself to the populace, also since 1989
• Polish emigrants (refugees, resettlers) in Germany, especially those arriving in the 1980s
• race relations in Thomasville, Georgia, esp. 1930s-1950s
• history of welfare and social policy in Ventura county
• self-portrayal of the town of Ontario, California, 1890s-present

Primary Sources vs. Secondary Sources

Primary sources of information present data that has not been analyzed or interpreted in any way; these are original research, eyewitness accounts, and creative works from the time period, usually presented in their original form and serve to help interpret an event. Examples: newspaper articles, speeches, diaries, personal narratives, interviews, photographs, interviews, internet communications or other forms of correspondence, sets of data, patents, conference proceedings, autobiographies, government records and congressional hearings.

What is a secondary source?

Finding Sources

From the Library's home page, select RESEARCH then ARTICLE INDEXES & DATABASES to access the following select databases.
To access these databases from off campus, you must go through the proxy server.

Selected databases

History

• America History and Life
• Historical Abstracts

• American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies (ABSEES)
• Expanded Academic
• PAIS International
• Periodicals Archive Online (Article Search)
• Project Muse
• EuroDocs
• WorldCat
• Social Science Citation Index (ISI Web of Science)
• Alternative Press Index
• Socological Abstracts
• LexisNexis
• Readers Guide Retrospective
• Biography Resource Center
• Periodicals Archive online fulltext
• PsychInfo
• Reader's Guide Retrospective

Newspapers

• Historical Newspapers Online
• Los Angeles Times (Current:1985-present)
• Los Angeles Times (historical: 1881-1976)
• New York Times (Current:1999-present)
• New York Times (historical: 1857-1999)
• Newsbank
• Wall Street Jounnal historical (1889-1986)
• LexisNexis News section

• Research in Government Information
  Select California, In-depth California Government for statistics for the Departmnet of Human Services.

• Department of Special Collections
  
• The Library of Congress Country Studies
  
• The Library of Congress European Reading Room
  
• USC Digital Archive
  
• History of Germany: Primary Documents
  Historic German documents in full-text
• Online Archive of California
  

Additional Primary Sources...
Locating resources for the American perspective.

You can search the following online sources to locate book reviews.

• America History and Life Use for post-1974 reviews of U.S history only. (NOTE: Historical Abstracts, the companion database to AHL, which covers non-US history, does not include individual book reviews, only lengthier review essays.)
  SEARCH TIP: In the Limit to field click Book Reviews. In the Add/Remove Search Field click on Author. Enter author's name in pop up field. Searches yield book reviews of the author's work as well as book reviews written by the author.
• JSTOR
  Around sixty core history and history of science journals are included in this full text multi-subject index. Full back files are available for all titles. However, coverage for recent dates- approximately the past five years, is not available on this database. To check coverage dates see Browse Journals.
  SEARCH TIP: On the Advanced Search screen limit your search to Reviews by checking the box at the Narrow Your Search to--These types: Review. Author search results: book and review authors.
• Project Muse
  Another multi-subject full text index; history is one of many humanities subjects covered by this database. Project Muse is useful for reviews published since 1993. To check coverage dates see Browse Journals.
  SEARCH TIP: From the Search screen use the pull down menu to select Author Reviewed or Title Reviewed.
• American Periodical Series
  Good coverage of American, British, and some continuential European periodicals from the 19th and 20th centuries.
  SEARCH TIP: Search for the title in Article Title Keyword and under Scope select Book Reviews Only.
• Periodical Archive Online, 1770-1995
  Good coverage of American, British, and some continuential European periodicals from the 19th and 20th centuries.
  SEARCH TIP: Search for the title in Article Title Keyword and under Scope select Book Reviews Only. (1890-1982)
  

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  Search Strategies
  When available use the advance search function since this gives you all the search options available for each database. You will need to think about the terms you will use, how to combine them, and more importantly, the time period.

  In the advance search field, if you are trying to locate primary sources enter Keyword Indian Removal Act and select Subject sources.

  • Use the " " to search a specific phrase as it appears on the document, (e.g. "American Frontier", " Russian Imperialism","Russian Empire".)
  • Use OR to combine terms when either one will do: Russian Settlers OR Russian Migrants
  • Use AND to force the results to have both terms: Russian State AND Kalmyk Nomads
  • Most databases let you truncate by using a symbol to get other letters: cultur* gets you cultural , culture, culturalise...
    • The truncation symbol can be a *, ?, ! or other symbols depending on the database

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  Finding your Sources in the library (e.g. books, journals etc.)
  

  To find books, use the Keyword search type for searching topics with keywords. After you get the search results you will need the title, call number and location to retrieve the book.

  To find articles, use an article index database (e.g. American: History and Life or Historical Abstracts) to search the terms related to your topic. In order to get the article you will need to write down some information about the article that you will use to find it in the catalog.

  A citation has the following information: journal title, author, article title, publication date, volume and page numbers. The journal title is what you will need to search the catalog to determine if we have it in print or electronic version.
  

  Use Pegasus, to find the periodicals that you need. The Pegasus record will indicate in what formats these titles are available i.e. microfilm, print copy or electronic text. You will need to get the Call Number and location in order to find the particular periodical in the library.
  

  For example:
  • Search Type: "Journal Title Begins with ..." Baltic Review      Main Library D1 .B36
  • Search Type: "Journal Title Begins with..." American Indian culture and research journal     
    
    Native American Studies E98.C9 A44

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  Printed Reference Sources

  The following is a selection of some of the reference books from the UCSB Libraries that might help you further analyze your topic.
  

  • Encyclopedia of American historical documents
     Reference E173 .E54 2004 [Non-circulating]  

  • Encyclopedia of American history
    Reference E174 .E53 2003 [Non-circulating]  

  • Encyclopedia of the North American colonies
     Reference E45 .E53 1993 [Non-circulating]  

  • Documents of American history
     Reference E173 .D59 1988[Non-circulating]

  • The Annals of America
     Main Library E173 .A793 [Regular Loan]

  • The Longman handbook of world history since 1914
     Main Library D421 .C64 1991 [Regular Loan]

  • Encyclopedia of world history
     Reference D21 .E577 2000 [Non-circulating]

  • Historical gazetteer of the United States
     Map & Imagery Lab, Maps E154 .H45 2005 [Non-circulating]

  • Day by day, the forties
     Reference D427 .L4 [Non-circulating]

  • Day by day, the fifties
     Reference D842.5 .M47 1979 [Non-circulating]

  • Encyclopedia of European social history from 1350 to 2000
     Reference HN373 .E63 2001 [Non-circulating]

  • The encyclopedia of the Third Reich
     Reference DD256.5 .G76313 1991 [Non-circulating]

  • Modern Germany:an encyclopedia of history, people, and culture, 1871-1990
     Reference DD14 .M64 1998 [Non-circulating]

  • Documents of American history
     Reference E173 .D59 1988 [Non-circulating]

  • Encyclopedia of the North American colonies
     Reference E45 .E53 1993 [Non-circulating]

  • Encyclopedia of the North American colonies
     Reference E45 .E53 1993 [Non-circulating]

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  Ask for Help! Remember to ASK FOR HELP when you need it. You can find a reference librarian at the Main Reference Desk during the week, weekends and even on holidays. For reference help please call the reference desk (805) 893.3133.
  Chimene Tucker: ctucker@library.ucsb.edu