For MSCH J450, you will be writing a research paper on a topic in American history prior to 1960 which intersects with journalism or media. This paper should include primary sources including, but not limited to, newspapers, magazines government documents, oral interviews, court cases, broadsides, films and novels, as well as secondary sources in which scholars have already performed an analyses of such documents.
This guide will provide recommended resources and tips for finding information for your particular topic. Use the tabs on the left hand side to navigate to different sections.
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Use AND, OR, and NOT to narrow or broaden search results.
Using AND:
Note: in most, but not all, databases, the AND is implied. For example, Google automatically puts an AND in between search terms.
Venn Diagram: Search for "renewable energy AND China"
Using OR:
Venn Diagram: Search for "renewable energy OR solar OR wind."
Using NOT:
Venn Diagram: Search for "peacekeeping NOT United Nations."
Records in library databases are made of "fields." Fields can help narrow your search. Example of fields include:
Improving Search Results with Fields:
Image: Keyword searching using fields.
Adapted from: SAIS Library, Johns Hopkins Univ. "Database Search Tips" Guide (no longer extant).
Primary sources sources as a key component of a successful history research paper. Here you will find highlighted databases available through IU Libraries that include a range of primary sources related to American history.
For a more comprehensive list of databases, check out the IU Libraries' History Resource Suggestions and Journalism Resource Suggestions pages. You can narrow your focus by clicking the concentration tabs such as "Early U.S. History," "19th Century U.S. History," etc. on the left side of the page.
This collection of African American newspapers contains a wealth of information about cultural life and history, with first-hand reports of major events and issues of the day. Includes complete text of articles published in the United States.
This resource offers more than 100,000 early American books, pamphlets, broadsides and rare printed materials. Featuring extensive indexing and full bibliographic information, they together illuminate more than 250 years of American history, literature, culture and daily life.
Most texts included are from the 18th and 19th centuries.
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.
Full-color digital facsimiles of 18th- and 19th-century American ephemeral publications (broadsides, ballads, programs, sermons, libretti, etc).
Based on the American Antiquarian Society's landmark collection, American Broadsides and Ephemera offers fully searchable facsimile images of approximately 15,000 broadsides printed between 1820 and 1900 and 15,000 pieces of ephemera printed between 1760 and 1900. The diverse subjects of these broadsides range from contemporary accounts of the Civil War, unusual occurrences and natural disasters to official government proclamations, tax bills and town meeting reports. Featuring many rare items, the pieces of ephemera include clipper ship sailing cards, early trade cards, bill heads, theater and music programs, stock certificates, menus and invitations documenting civic, political and private celebrations.
Historic American publications, books, broadsides, ephemera, newspapers, dating from as early as 1535 through the 20th Century.
Based on Charles Evans' American Bibliography, this database covers American life and comprises 36,000 works and 2,400,000 images, from 1639 to 1800.
Includes a wide variety of material types, including maps, textbooks, songs and novels. The texts are searchable and browsable by type.
Access to legal materials on slavery in the United States and the Europe. This includes every statute passed by every colony and state on slavery, every federal statute dealing with slavery, and all reported state and federal cases on slavery.
In addition to newspaper collections and books published in the antebellum era, the resource includes documents from several archives originally available only on microfilm. Includes the following sections: Part I: Debates Over Slavery and Abolition ; Part II: Slave Trade in the Atlantic World ; Part III: The Institution of Slavery ; Part IV: The Age of Emancipation.
Adapted from University Library, California State University, Los Angeles. "Differences between Books / Articles, Scholarly Journals / Magazines, Primary Sources / Secondary Sources " Guide http://web.calstatela.edu/library/guides/History-Guide.pdf
In order to gain a more complete picture of your issue and understand how historians have interpreted your topic of interest, you will want to locate secondary sources.
Secondary Sources interpret and/or analyze events, facts and primary sources. From a date perspective they are usually one or two steps removed from the event. Most of the time, in academia, "scholarly sources" are preferred, i.e. sources that have been peer-reviewed, include documentation (footnotes/endnotes), critical analysis and/or studies. In the fields of History and Journalism there are several library databases/indexes that identify these materials including:
Provides full-text coverage of magazine, newspaper, and scholarly journal articles for most academic disciplines.
This multi-disciplinary database provides full-text for more than 4,500 journals, including full text for more than 3,700 peer-reviewed titles. PDF backfiles to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals, and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles.
This resource offers worldwide full-text content pertaining to communication, linguistics, rhetoric and discourse, speech-language pathology, media studies and related fields.
Communication Source features full text for more than 800 titles, including over 600 active full-text titles and 150 full-text titles not found in other EBSCO academic databases.
Provides full text access and indexing for e-journals and e-books from a variety of scholarly publishers. Covers the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and many others.
Always cite your sources. Follow these Quick Style Guides or the complete style manuals.
Quick Style Guides
Are you working with government publications? You may want to consult A Guide to Citing U.S. Government Publications developed by the Government Information, Maps and Microforms Services Department (GIMSS).
Full Style Manuals
Most citation questions can be answered with the quick guides above. For more specific questions, refer to these full manuals, or consult a librarian.