Library Research Guides: History Research Guide: Home

Information Overload!!!

The strength and the challenge of IU's history collection is its breadth. Do you feel overwhelmed? Can't find what you're looking for? This guide can help.

Getting Started

In a rush? Try the tabs below.

The main catalog of books at Indiana University is IUCAT. Watch the video below if you need help finding e-books in IUCAT.

IUCAT This link opens in a new window
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The Indiana University online catalog.
IUCAT, Indiana University's online library catalog, provides comprehensive access to millions of items held by the IU Libraries statewide, including books, recordings, US government publications, periodicals, and other types of material. Users can access IUCAT from any Internet-connected computer or device, whether in the libraries, on campus, or off campus.

If you are just starting a research project and need to know some basic information to get started, encyclopedias and historical dictionaries are great tools.

Oxford Research Encyclopedias
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Access to peer-reviewed research articles across a range of disciplines.
Oxford Reference Library
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Reference resources from the Oxford University Press. Includes English dictionaries and thesauruses, English language reference books, bilingual dictionaries, quotations, maps and illustrations, timelines and subject reference sources.
Gale eBooks
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Database of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources.
Encyclopedias and specialized reference resources in: Arts, Biography, History, Information and Publishing, Law, Literature, Medicine, Multicultural Studies, Nation and World, Religion, Science, Social Science

History Encyclopedias in IUCAT
This link takes you to a list of hundreds of encyclopedias that are available as e-books

Most databases allow you click a box with a name like "scholarly articles," which does a reasonably good job of limiting your results to high-quality, academic articles.

JSTOR
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Provides searchable full-text of historical runs of important scholarly journals in the humanities, arts, sciences, ecology, and business.
JSTOR, a not-for-profit organization established with the assistance of The Mellon Foundation, provides complete runs of hundreds of important journal titles in more than 30 arts, humanities, and social science disciplines. These scholarly journals can be browsed online and searched, and the page images can be printed for those available in full-text. The IUB Libraries subscribe to current content for only some titles available through JSTOR.

All journals in JSTOR start with the first volume. Many include content up to a "moving wall" of 3-5 years ago, although some journals have a fixed ending date for their content in JSTOR. Please check individual journals for exact dates of coverage.

For information about access to this resource for IU alumni, contact the Indiana University Alumni Association.
Historical Abstracts
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Index to journals, chapters and theses about world history, 1450 to present.
Covers modern world history (excluding the United States and Canada which are covered in the database America: History and Life) from 1450 to the present. It currently indexes about 2,300 journals in 40 languages, with indexing also for some books and dissertations. Most of the article citations include abstracts of 75-100 words.
America: History & Life
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Bibliographic database focusing on the history and life of the United States and Canada, indexing more than 1,800 journals published, dissertations and reviews.
In addition to the principle English language sources in the field, it includes some (about 10%) in other languages, as well as some state and local history journals. All aspects of historical inquiry are represented: diplomatic, ecclesiastical, agricultural, cultural, economic, political, military and others. The index also provides citations to book and media reviews from about 100 journals and references to abstracts of dissertations in the field. All abstracts are in English.

Although IU has access to newspapers from around the world, most of our large collections of historical newspapers center on the United States. Check out the "Old News" link below for non-American newspapers.

ProQuest Historical Newspapers
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Digital archive of historical newspapers. Each issue of each title includes the complete paper, cover-to-cover, with full-page and article images.
America's Historical Newspapers
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Digital archive of American newspapers published between 1690 and 1922, representing every state in the U.S.
Based on a collection of rare newspapers held by the American Antiquarian Society, with contributions from the Boston Athenaeum, the Connecticut Historical Society, the Connecticut State Library, the Library Company of Philadelphia; the Library of Congress, the libraries of universities such as Brown and Harvard, and private collections. Fully text-searchable; browseable by newspaper title.

Collections included: African American Newspapers, Series 1 ; African American Newspapers, Series 2 ; Caribbean Newspapers ; Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection ; Hispanic American Newspapers ; Early American Newspapers, Series 1-7, 11-12, and 17-19.
Chronicling America
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Access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages. Search historic newspaper pages from 1789-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present.
Produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). NDNP, a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress (LC), a long-term effort to develop an Internet-based, searchable database of U.S. newspapers with descriptive information and select digitization of historic pages.
Newspapers.com World Collection
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Contains full runs and portions of runs of well-known, regional and state titles to small local newspapers in the United States and other countries.
Includes access to newspapers from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom & Ireland, Australia, and Panama.
NewspaperARCHIVE
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Digital access to more than 1000 historical newspapers from communities within Indiana.
Includes digitized copies and content of the follwing local Indiana Newspapers: Bloomington Evening World (1907-1923), Indiana Daily Student (1867-1923), Madison Herald, Indianapolis State Sentinel, Indianapolis Star, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette,Terre Haute Star and Indianapolis Sun.

Old News: Historical Newspapers and Periodicals
by Scholars Commons Staff Last Updated Apr 12, 2024 1444 views this year

There are countless options for primary sources. In addition to all the physical collections at IU (including the Lilly Library and University Archives), IU has paid for access to hundreds of online databases that include primary sources from all over the world and all periods of human history. Finally, libraries, archives, museums, and other institutions have digitized many of their collections and made them freely available. For most history research, at least through the undergraduate level, you can likely find the sources you need right in Bloomington. Contact me if you need help.

Using Primary Sources for Research:

AM Research Skills
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Online tool designed to support students of the humanities and social sciences. Introduces the key approaches to working with source materials and historical evidence, as well as the methodologies and practicalities of visiting archives, evaluating sources and writing up research. Includes access to module 1: Research Skills Foundations, and module 2: Interrogating Colonial Documents and Narratives.
Includes nearly 200 hundred essays, videos, "How to" guides and case studies by subject specialists which answer questions about working with primary sources. Materials provide guidance on where to find historical documents, and how to best to approach analyzing the content they hold.

Directories of Archives/Special Collections:

ArchiveGrid
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Provides access to online findings aids, detailed collection guides or inventories describing where to find an archival collection, how it's arranged, and what it contains.
ArchiveGrid is a collection of archival material descriptions, including MARC records from WorldCat and finding aids harvested from the web. It's supported by OCLC Research as the basis for experimentation and testing in text mining, data analysis, and discovery system applications and interfaces. Archival collections held by thousands of libraries, museums, historical societies, and archives are represented in ArchiveGrid.

Archives Portal Europe
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The Archives Portal Europe provides access to information on archival material from different European countries as well as information on archival institutions throughout the continent.

Digitized Primary Sources:

AM Explorer
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Allows users to search all Adam Matthew digital collections.
Archives Online at Indiana University
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Portal for accessing descriptions of archival and special collections held by libraries, archives and other cultural heritage units at Indiana University or affiliated with Indiana University.

Digital Public Library of America
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Primary source collections exploring topics in history, literature, and culture.

Eight Centuries
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Database covering source material dating from 1106 until 1960, aggregating indexes, catalogs, collections, and other finding aids.
Eight Centuries (formerly 19th Century Masterfile) is a database covering source material dating from 1106 until 1960 (varies by source). 8C aggregates indexes, catalogs, collections, and other finding aids, and includes citations to 9,000 periodicals in 30+ languages. 8C provides access to articles, newspapers, books, U.S. patents, government documents, and images. Links to open access and subscription full-text sources are included where available.
Gale Primary Sources
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Provides an interactive research environment that allows researchers to cross-search Gale digital archives.
ProQuest History Vault
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Archival collections documenting topics in eighteenth- through twentieth-century American history. Provides access to digitized letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries, and many more primary source materials taken from the University Publications of America (UPA) Collections.

History Research Guide

Information Overload!!!

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