HIST 2900 : Introduction to the Study of History Subject Guide

Overview

Use this guide as a starting point to complete your annotated bibliography assignment.

Finding Books

Classic Library Catalog WMU's Classic online catalog (also known as WestCat), is used to identify books (including electronic books), government documents, journals, audio and video, slides, music scores, and other items in the University Libraries' collections. The catalog can be searched by title, author, subject heading, keyword, call number, and more.
The truncation symbol is the question mark ? Use this at the end of keywords to pick up variant endings such as plurals.

How to Find Articles

America: History and Life Indexes and abstracts 2,100 journals, book and media reviews, and dissertations about the history and culture of the US and Canada. Searches by subject, author, title, time period, or document type. Coverage from 1964 to the present. Updated monthly.
This subscription is limited to six simultaneous users. Please logout when finished. Truncation symbol is the asterisk *

Historical Abstracts Indexes and abstracts over 2,100 journals, books, and dissertations in world history, excluding the US and Canada, from 1450 to the present. Searches by subject, author, title, time period, or document type. Coverage: 1955 to present. Updated monthly.
This subscription is limited to six simultaneous users. Please logout when finished. Truncation symbol is the asterisk *

Humanities Abstracts Indexes more than 465 major humanities journals in art, history, literature, philosophy, religion, music, and related areas. Coverage from 1984, abstracts from 1994 to the present. Truncation symbol is the question mark ?

Web of Science Contains three major databases: (1) Science Citation Index Expanded (1900-present), (2) Social Sciences Citation Index (1956-present), and (3) Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-present). Cited Ref. Search allows users to search for articles that cite a particular author or work. Tutorial

Please LOGOFF when finished, so others may use the database.

RefWorks Info: For Import Filter, choose "ISI (Institute for Scientific Information)". For Database, choose "Web of Science". Truncation symbol is the asterisk *

Finding Book Reviews

Book Review Index Provides reviews of general interest and some scholarly books published in the US since 1965. This doesn't have the excerpts from reviews that Book Review Digest provides, nor does it go back to 1905, but it does index many more periodicals.
Print: Z 1035 .A1 B6 (Ref)

Social Sciences Abstracts Indexes over 600 periodicals in anthropology, economics, ethnic studies, feminist studies, geography, human services, international relations, law and criminology, police science, political science, population studies, psychology, public administration, public health, social work, sociology, urban studies, and related social science subjects. Coverage: indexing from 1983 and abstracts from 1994. Updated weekly.
Details

Dissertations

Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) Indexes virtually all doctoral dissertations and many masters theses produced in the U.S. since 1860 and many from foreign schools as well. Abstracts available from 1980. Full text for most dissertations available from 1997. Some authors choose to not make their dissertations available. Print and microfilm copies are offered for a fee, but check out Interlibrary Loan before paying for a copy.

RefWorks Info: Dissertations and Theses (Proquest) will export marked citations directly into your RefWorks account. (You will be prompted to login.)

Web Resources

American History Subject Guide to Resources

World History Subject Guide to Resources

Interlibrary Loan

Interlibrary Loan Set up a username & password here to submit automated requests from online indexes. Allow up to 2 weeks for materials to arrive.

Details In most of our databases, using the FIND IT @WMU button will provide you with a direct link to interlibrary loan so you can put in your request while still in the database. Just type in your BroncoNet ID and password. REMEMBER: You can only do this after you have registered and created your account.

Citation Style Guide

Chicago Manual of Style. 15th ed
Provides a detailed and comprehensive guide to proper style and formatting for papers, articles, theses, dissertations, and books. Limited library access only to online source.
For print copies, see Z 253 .C57 (Ref Desk Coll, Visual Resources Library, Education Library)

Click here to see a brief online guide to see examples of how to cite in the Chicago Manual of Style.

Click here to see examples of how to cite Web sites and other electronic sources.

To see more information, visit the Library's Writing Styles page.

Ask A Librarian

Maria A. Perez-Stable
maria.perez-stable@wmich.edu
269-387-5322
Last updated: August 2009