2A: Finding Books

Secondary sources are books and articles that analyze historical events and people in order to put them into a historical context.

To find books about historical events and figures, search the library catalog, OSCAR. Tips on searching are provided later on this page.

2B: Finding Reviews of Books
How do you know you that have found the best sources? Check for scholarly book reviews to understand how they are regarded by professional historians.

To locate book reviews use:

• Book Review Digest - located in the Reference Area of Trexler Library, it provides citations to and excerpts from reviews of fiction and non-fiction books.
• Book Review Index - located in the Reference Area of Trexler Library, it provides citations to reviews of books, periodicals, and books-on-tape.
• H-NET Reviews - a Web site for locating historical reviews.

Historical databases provided by the library are also good sources for finding scholarly book reviews.

• JSTOR - includes books review appearing in over 150 scholarly journals.
  The example below shows a typical citation. The full text of the review would be available by clicking on "View Article".

(in Reviews of Books)
_{^{Tax Documents form Theadelphia: Papyri of the Second Century A.D.
John Day, Clinton Walker Keyes
Review author[s]: William F. McDonald
The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 18, No. 1. (Mar., 1958), pp. 115-116.
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-0507%28195803%2918%3A
[Citation][ View Article ][ First Match is in the Citation ] [ Print ] [ Download ]}}

• Historical Abstracts - located in the Index Area of the Trexler Reference area. We own 1955-1993.
• America: History and Life - also located in the Index Area of the Trexler Reference Area. We own 1964-1997.

2C: Findng Journal Articles
You can't use the library catalog to identify articles. Instead, use a historical database (also known as a periodical index) to locate scholarly journal articles about a historical figure or topic:

• JSTOR
• ProQuest (This general database does include a number of history journals)
• Historical Abstracts (Paper index in the Trexler Reference Area)
• America: History and Life (Paper index in the Trexler Reference Area.)

The illustration below shows a citation for a journal article found in a search for the keywords "slavery" and "Spain" in JSTOR. Our search words were matched in the title field.

_{^{National Economy and Atlantic Slavery: Protectionism and Resistance to Abolitionism in Spain and the Antilles, 1854-1874
Christopher Schmidt-Nowara
The Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 78, No. 4. (Nov., 1998), pp. 603-629.
Stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0018-2168%28199811%2978
[Citation][ View Article ][ First Match is in the Citation ] [ Print ] [ Download ]}}

Locating Journals in the Library

After using a historical database or other periodical index to identify useful articles, you will likely find articles that are not in full text. Consult the Trexler library web site to find out if the journal article you need is available in paper in the library or in full text from another database.

Here's a quick way to accomplish this task:

1. Select Online Databases from the library's homepage.
2. Then choose Search Journal List.
3. Search for the TITLE of the journal (not the article title).
4. If the title is listed, the display will indicate that the item is either in Trexler Library or in another database.
5. If the title in NOT listed, you may request the journal article through Interlibrary Loan. Online request forms are available from the library homepage as well as in paper form at the Circulation Desk. Remember, it may take a week or so to receive the article, so you need to allow plenty of time for your research.

2D: Searching Tips

Subject searching is the most precise way to find relevant information in library catalogs and databases. But it is not always easy to determine which subject terms you can use.

A quick way to find useful subject terms is:

1. Begin with a word (or keyword) search, using a few terms that represent your topic.
2. Browse returned records and select one that is relevant.
3. Use some of the subjects shown in that record in a new subject search.
   

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