History 101: Clionautics
Professor Kern
September 11, 2001 in History
Bibliographies and Guides to Research
The American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature. 2 vols.
A selective guide to the literature. See the subject index in volume two.
Ref. [q.] Z6201 .A55 1995
International Terrorism: An Annotated Bibliography and Research Guide.
Ref. Z7164 .T3 N67
Reader's Guide to American History.
Presents a series of brief essays that describe and evaluate significant literature on over 600 topics. Be sure to use the general index.
Ref. [q.] Z1236 .R43 1997
Terrorism: A Guide to Events and Documents.
Ref. HV6431 .K698 2004
Top
Background Information
Dictionary of American History. 10 vols.
Ref. [q.]E174 .D52 2003
Dictionary of Terrorism.
Available online through NetLibrary.
Historical Dictionary of Terrorism.
Ref. HV6431 .A537 2002
Spytalk: The Language of Terror.
Ref. UB270 .J653 2002
See also the sources listed for Government 140 : International Relations
Top
Biographical Information
Be alert when searching non-western names or names of rulers, as you may need to use varying forms of these names.
Biography and Genealogy Master Index.
An electronic version of the printed index, containing citations to useful information in standard biographical sources. It is a great place to begin searching for biographical information about anyone.
The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia.
Contains over 15,000 alphabetically arranged entries; of international scope. Special sections labeled Ready Reference, Connections, and Contemporaries are provided to set the historical contexts for important persons.
Ref. CT103 .C26 1994
To find biographical books about a certain person, search in LUCIA, for the person using the Subject begins with option. Browse through the subject headings to find the subheading which corresponds to your specific interests. Again, be alert when searching non-western names or names of rulers, as you may need to use varying forms of these names. Many times, LUCIA has cross-references for these.
For autobiographical books by and about a certain person, search in LUCIA for persons as Author. Be sure to consult the library's guide on Biographies for further ideas and information.
Top
Finding Books
To find items owned by the library, search LUCIA. Try Title begins with, Author, Subject begins with or Keyword Anywhere searching.
Title begins with
These searches will let you see if we own an item whose title you already know. This search works for titles of books, titles of scores, titles of movies, titles of journals (but not individual journal articles) and more.
Author
Use this search to find works created by the person named. Be sure to enter the last name first. Author searches work for individual writers, composers, directors, and for groups or entities like organizations or government agencies.
Subject begins with
Try a Subject begins with search for an idea or concept like terrorism. LUCIA will list
other subject headings (and subheadings) which may be of interest. For advanced research you should consult the Library of Congress Subject Headings, or LCSH, a guide to the terms commonly used in catalogs like ours. The LCSH can be found on top of the Ready Reference shelves behind the reference desk on the first floor of the library. Along with the names of specific countries, some additional subject headings of interest include:
- Iraq War, 2003
- Qaida (Organization)
- September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001
Keyword Anywhere
In this type of search, LUCIA will look for the terms you specify anywhere in the important areas of the cataloging records, and display a list of those records. Try a search like terror* and security. The asterisk acts as a truncation symbol and tells LUCIA to search for all words starting with terror: terrorism, terrorist, etc. You might want to try searching for some of the terms you find in the LCSH, or target your keyword search by using the Subject Keyword option. This tells LUCIA to look for the terms in the subject area of the records only.
Books are arranged on the library's shelves by Library of Congress Classification. This is a system which organizes materials by general subjects. Once you have a call number from searching LUCIA, see this guide to call number locations at Mudd and the library floor maps to find out where a book might be on the shelves.
Search LUCIA for materials in our library; try WorldCat to find materials beyond the Mudd. Make sure you've thoroughly searched our library before going to WorldCat. See a reference librarian if you need help.
Top
Finding Articles
The best index to use will depend on your topic. Be sure to check the Electronic Resources page for other options, as only a few are listed below. Two of our resources, JSTOR and Project MUSE provide complete full text. Remember, JSTOR will not have articles from the dating from the last five years.
Essential: this should be among your starting points for finding advanced materials.
America: History and Life and Historical Abstracts
The most important index to the scholarly literature of American history, in books and proceedings as well as journals. Provides short summaries of the works indexed. America: History and Life includes material on the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present. Historical Abstracts indexes material on world history, including African, Asian, Latin American and European history, from 1450 to the present.
General and Multidisciplinary Indexes: include citations and some full text of materials from a broad variety of fields including history.
EBSCOhost.
Follow the link for EBSCOhost Web. EBSCOhost provides a single Web source for multiple databases; you might want to select the Academic Search Elite. Contains broad and specialized coverage of academic and general periodicals. Use the Go or Back button on your browser after exiting EBSCOhost to leave the system.
Expanded Academic ASAP and InfoTrac OneFile.
Broad coverage of academic and general periodicals, newspapers, and newswires. Expanded Academic ASAP focuses on the more scholarly subset of InfoTrac OneFile. Both include full text of some articles.
News Sources: in addition to the sources listed here, take a look at the library's research guide to Current Events.
Lexis/Nexis Academic
Provides newswires, citations, abstracts, and more.
New York Times. 1851-current.
Considered to be the American paper of record.
New York Times (1851-2003)
Current issues available from many sources: see BESS
ProQuest Newspapers
Provides access to over 300 local, national, and international newspapers, most in full-text. Dates for backfiles vary by title.
Once you have a citation for an article on your topic, look in LUCIA for the title of the journal or newspaper to see if the library owns it. You should also search BESS, an automated search of the library's fulltext databases, for electronic copies of articles.
Top
Finding Government Documents
Most United States Government Documents are not cataloged in LUCIA. There are several ways to search for government documents, but those listed below will be the most direct. You might also want to take a look at the library's Guide to Understanding the Government Document Numbering System before you head to the Documents shelves on the second floor.
GPO Monthly Catalog
Catalog of US government publications, covering 1976 - current. Searchable in many ways, via FirstSearch.
Google for Government
The popular and helpful Google search applied specifically to finding government information. Searches local, state, military, and national government Web pages.
Top
Web Resources
Created on campus:
Lawrence University History Department
The general page from our historians. It includes a list of Sites for Popular History
Internet
Resources for History
Sources chosen by the librarians here as starting points for historical research.
Web Wise Guide to Searching
From the library. In addition to advanced information about the workings of different search engines, provides links to tutorials and more.
Sources hosted off-campus:
AMDOCS: Documents for the Study of American History
A substantial list from the University of Kansas. See the links for the 2000's.
America Responds
Selected PBS coverage of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
September 11: Bearing Witness to History
Collection and exhibition from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
September 11, 2001 Newspaper Archive
From NewspaperArchive.com. Much of the content is free.
September 11 Digital Archive
Personal accounts, e-mails, images, audio, documents, and more
September 11 Web Archive
Over 30,000 selected Web sites archived from September 11, 2001 through December 1, 2001. The umbrella site, september11.archive.org, provides an interesting framing device for the archive, and includes an analysis of the "September 11 Web Sphere."
Hot Paper Topics:
Attack on America / Terrorism
From O'Keefe Library at the University of St. Ambrose. A substantial list of good places to start.
Librarians' Internet Index: September 11 & Beyond
Includes categories and subtopics like "Archival Collections," "First Person Accounts," and more.
America's War Against Terrorism:
World Trade Center/Pentagon Terrorism and the Aftermath
From the University of Michigan Documents Center, one of the best sources for U.S. Government Documents on the web.
Teaching 9-11
Sources collected by Dickinson College in support of teaching at all levels.
Of course, there are many more web resources available that might be useful in your research. You might want to try looking at sources that select the best of the Web, like these:
It's important to think carefully about any information you find in any format, and to evaluate resources for their accuracy, applicability, and so forth. Evaluation of web resources is especially important. You may want to consult this guide to Evaluating Internet Resources. You can often learn a lot about a page (and a site) by parsing the URL.
Top
Style Manuals
Academic Citation and Writing
Style manuals of the humanities, physical sciences, and the social sciences in the Seeley G. Mudd Library.
The Chicago Manual of Style.
A standard source for bibliographic format.
RRef. Z253 .U69 2003
Citing Electronic Documents
This page provides guidance on citing electronic documents and links to
other guides, some on specific styles of documentation.
Top
About Research on September 11
Material related to the topic of this course will be drawn from many fields besides history; be prepared to look at materials from government, religious studies and ethics, cultural studies, ethnic studies, and gender studies, just to name a few. In addition to consulting catalogs and indexes, be sure to look at bibliographies supplied at the end of relevant articles, chapters, and books, and to search library catalogs for book-length bibliographies.
Your sources must be fully documented in any written work you produce. It may help to look at the information on style before you start your research, so that you will have all the required documentation at hand when you need it. Then as you write, go back to the resources on style for details on the exact format of your citations.
The sources listed in this guide were chosen for the broad coverage they provide. Direct links are provided to Internet resources and searchable databases, as well as links to LUCIA, the library's online catalog. Be sure to check the library's Electronic Resources page regularly to see new databases and indexes; some of these will only be available to users on the Lawrence campus. Also, you may want to take a look at guides on related topics from the Library Research Guides page.
Evaluating the resources you find is an essential part of the research process. See this guide to hints on evaluation of books and articles and this guide to evaluating Internet resources.
As always, if you have any questions be sure to ask a Reference Librarian.
Top
Definitions of terms and abbreviations:
Ref. = Reference collection, first floor
RRef.= Ready Reference, shelved behind the reference desk
Periodicals = Level A
GovDoc = U.S. Government Documents, second floor
Reference Indexes = Alphabetically arranged at the end of the reference collection
Microform Area = Reading room east of the reference desk, near microform drawers
q. = Oversized books: interfiled in reference and M class scores; at end of classes in other collections
Top