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! If you're still having trouble, please let me know! You can also make use of the much larger history research guide linked below.
Quick start resources
- IUCAT This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
IUCAT, the online catalog for all titles available through IU Libraries, is the often the best place to start a search for books and ebooks, and also includes government documents, videos, and sound recordings.
- Use broad search terms to give IUCAT the best chance of finding relevant titles.
- Use the red Request This button to have print materials delivered to the most convenient library for pick-up.
- Use the filters like Subject and Publication Year on the left side of the page to narrow your search results.
- When you find one title that looks promising, use the hyperlinked Subject headings to locate additional titles.
- Watch this brief video tutorial on searching and accessing books and ebooks in IUCAT.
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 Reference
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.
- History Encyclopedias in IUCATThis link takes you to a list of hundreds of encyclopedias that are available as e-books
- Oxford Research EncyclopediasThese encyclopedias have thousands of articles, many written by top scholars in their fields, in the areas of
- US history
- African history
- Asian history
- Latin American history
- JSTOROne of the most prominent databases for research in the humanities, JSTOR provides access to a wide range of journals, book chapters, and more.
- Historical AbstractsLimited to publications focused on history, Historical Abstracts contains and links out to full-text articles on a broad range of historical topics.
- America: History & Life
Bibliographic database focusing on the history and life of the United States and Canada, indexing more than 1,800 journals published, dissertations and reviews.
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.
- Chronicling America
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.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Digital archive of historical newspapers. Each issue of each title includes the complete paper, cover-to-cover, with full-page and article images.
- Newspapers.com World Collection
Contains full runs and portions of runs of well-known, regional and state titles in addition to small local newspapers.
- NewspaperARCHIVE
Digital access to more than 1000 historical newspapers from communities within Indiana.
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.
- Archives Online at Indiana University
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.
- Gale Primary Sources
Provides an interactive research environment that allows researchers to cross-search Gale digital archives.
- ProQuest History Vault
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.