Library Catalogs, Bibliographical Search Tools and Reference Materials for Historians

Before you begin to write a research paper in history, it will be useful for you to read this Guide to the Writing of Research Papers in History.

The College of Idaho On-line Catalog and On-line bibliographies / article services

For students at The College of Idaho, the first resource for research should be the Terteling Library Online Catalog now with ability to concurrently search all holdings of the Northwest Nazarene University Riley Library.  Often the Advanced Search function provides a much better tool for specific searches.

The second resource for research should be on-line article and bibliography searches.  Terteling Library's subscription services (most notably for history JSTOR, Project MUSE, and Academic Search Premier) are offered with others on the Terteling Library Homepage.  For thorough literature reviews the single most comprehensive source for history searches, Historical Abstracts & America: History & Life also provides direct hotlinks to many full-text articles subscribed to by Terteling Library. In addition, Google Scholar also offers an impressive search function for scholarly books and articles. In addition, OCLC's FirstSearch provides excellent search capabilities and enormous numbers of full-text article links and Ingenta provides additional resources for finding scholarly articles.  If you are looking for a specific journal, see the Terteling Library Periodicals List. You may also want to consult Terteling Library's History resources page. 

Books:  Online and University Library Catalogs

The premier university and public library catalog search system, OCLC, is available using WorldCat.  When you find books that you would like to look at, you can order them using the Interlibrary Loan tab available on the full record of each book.  If you have more complex needs, please see the Terteling Library Interlibrary Loan Page and seek the assistance of the library staff.

In addition, Google Books has now scanned an enormous number of eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth-century books (all out of copyright) and provides both keyword searchable text to these (use the advanced search), and also .pdf files of the entire book that can be downloaded. There is thus, in effect, now an enormous nineteenth-century library, including many bound periodicals, at your disposal. In addition, however, Google Books also provides keyword reference to contemporary books: while you cannot see them in their entirety or download them, you can see snippets of the text (surrounding your search terms) and if potentially useful, you can secure them through Interlibrary Loan.

The Boise State University/Idaho State University online catalog, Voyager offers access to the closest university library catalog and materials that can be quickly and easily retrieved through Interlibrary Loan.

For links to other university libraries through WWW pages, visit the Yahoo Library List.

Other Search Engines

  1. For a list of useful links and tools for scholarly searches on the WWW, see the National Coalition of Independent Scholars (NCIS):  Specialized Search and NCIS:  General Internet Searchs.
  2. The Library of Congress, particularly its Digital Collections Program.
  3. The Center for Research Libraries offers a search engine to its considerable collection.  It is possible to order these materials through Tertling Library for a very substantial fee.

Reference Materials

  1. The excellent Encyclopedia of World History, edited by Peter Stearns, offers detailed chronological narratives of historical development by regional and topical categories.  Use this link for general entry-level research on a historical topic.
  2. The WWW-VL History Central Catalogue provides perhaps the best starting point for web-based historical research, including an excellent and exhaustive set of online reference links.
  3. Hyperhistory offers a timeline-based introduction to many historical subjects, also useful for entry-level research on a historical topic.  Other sites useful in the early stages of research include History Research Online, The Google Web Directory on History and  Sparticus SchoolNet.

On Line Bookstores

For those interested in ordering books or determining if a book is in print (and how much it costs), several online bookstores are available:

  1. Amazon On-line Bookstore: Advanced Search.  Undoubtedly the largest and most famous on-line bookstore.
  2. Powell's New & Used Bookstore.  The famous Portland Powell's used books . . .on-line.
  3. WH Smith.  British bookseller . . . British titles.
  4. Bookfinder.  Looking for an out-of-print title?  Try these too:  ABE Books;  Alibris;
                                                                                                     AddAll Book Net
  5. Links to Publishers.

On Line Magazines, Newspapers and Video Sources

  1. The Guardian, London  (Observer)
  2. The Independent, London
  3. The Daily Telegraph, London
  4. The Times, London
  5. New York Times
  6. Washington Post
  7. NewsLink Web.

  8. Virtual Library Video rental.

  9. More Newspapers
    The Australian
    Boston Globe
    CS Monitor
    Chicago Tribune
    Financial Times
    Globe & Mail
    Ha’aretz
    Times of India
    Jerusalem Post
    Los Angeles Times
    New York Times
    New Zealand Herald
    Sydney Morning Herald
    USA Today
    Washington Post

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Last revised on 04/30/08