Guide to Resources for History

Reference Books

Printed reference books

The most general dictionaries of history are found under 903 in the Dewey Decimal Classification.

Two subject encyclopedias are Dictionary of American History and Encyclopedia of World History; there are other specialized encyclopedias in the catalog.

Other books are found in the Reference section under the Dewey Decimal Classification numbers 930-999. Biographical sources are found in the 920s.

Some electronic books for reference

netLibrary

To access these books from off campus you will need your My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password (see netLibrary access). The categories below are a small selection from our NetLibrary electronic books.

Oxford Reference

The Oxford Reference Online database has many reference books on history.

To access these books from off campus you will need you My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password.

Gale Virtual Reference

To access these books from off campus you will need you My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password.

Finding other books and and audiovisual materials

Use the library catalog to look for additional materials. The Chemeketa catalog page includes instructions on using the catalog and on requesting materials through the catalog. There are also links to other library catalogs. You can search by key words, by authors, or by subject headings. A suggestion on where to find subject headings to use in the catalog is given below.

The Library of Congress has a Web site where you can search for subject headings. When you put in a search term, the results will list terms in a table. Those with a red button marked, "Authorized and references" are terms that the Library of Congress uses in subject catalogs. Clicking the button may show more specific ("narrower") terms.

Fig. 1. The catalog search

You may have to do several searches to find books that might be pertinent to your subject.

If you live in the Chemeketa Cooperative Regional Library Service (CCRLS) district, you may also access the catalog online at your local public library. In addition to the books in the Chemeketa College Library, the catalog also contains the collections of the 17 public libraries located in the regional library district, and can pass your search through to Summit (see below).

Summit

Chemeketa students registered for credit may use Summit, the Orbis Cascade Alliance catalog, to request items from 34 member libraries in Oregon and Washington. Summit uses a search called WorldCat. Authorized users have access to all of the material in the Chemeketa Community College library, plus about 28 million items in Summit. Chemeketa users may request items using their student number and have them sent to Chemeketa, or they may set up a Visiting Patron account at another Alliance library.

Summit: http://summit.worldcat.org/
Summit Help: http://www.oclc.org/worldcatlocal/help/default.htm
Libraries & Map: http://orbiscascade.org/map/

Databases & Indexes

All the electronic databases listed in this section may be accessed by going to the library's Database Page. If you are accessing the databases from a computer not on the Chemeketa Community College network, you will need your My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password.

Journal Article Databases

Academic Search Premier [EBSCOhost]: The best source for history articles.
Supplementary history indexes: Various indexes, mostly specialized, on the Internet.

Special Guides

Internet Sites

AMDOCS Documents for the Study of American History - http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/: A collection of primary documents organized by time period.
American Memory Historical Collections - http://memory.loc.gov: A large, multimedia meta-collection of historical materials including documents, photographs, recorded sound, and moving pictures. Supported by the Library of Congress.
Federal Government Resources: Historic Documents - http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/fedhis.html: An extensive collection of links to U.S. historical documents online.
The History Guide - http://www.historyguide.org/: Lectures on European history.
Historical Text Archive - http://historicaltextarchive.com/: Historical "articles," including text of documents.
Internet African History Sourcebook - http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/africa/africasbook.html: Full-text source material for the study of African history from ancient times to modern. Arranged by subject and historical period.
Internet History of Science Sourcebook - http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/science/sciencesbook.html: Texts in the history of science, arranged by historical period and subject matter.
Internet Islamic History Sourcebook - http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/islam/islamsbook.html: Full-text source material for the study of Islam from the pre-Islam era to modern times. Arranged by historical period and subject.
Librarians' Index to the Internet - United States History - http://lii.org/search/file/history_united_states: Click "Twentieth Century." A collection of links to sites on 20th century U.S. history.
Picturing the Century: One Hundred Years of Photography from the National Archives - http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/picturing_the_century/home.html: Arranged into "galleries" of memorable photographs from sequential time periods. Click on a thumbnail image to see a larger photo.
Valley of the Shadow - http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/: Original diaries, letters, newspapers, and other primary source material for two communities in the Civil War, one Northern, one Southern.

Guide to Resources for History

netLibrary

Oxford Reference

Gale Virtual Reference

Summit

Contents