Research Guides: HIST 114C Race and Policy / Fergus / SP 25: Welcome and Places to Start Your Research

Your Research for this Class and this Guide

Hello! Welcome to the Research Guide for HIST 114: Race and Policy.

The main purpose of this guide is to offer selected databases for primary and secondary for both your analytical essays and your collaborative policy briefings. This guide is meant to begin your research. There are many other databases listed in the additional subject guides below. This guide also has sections on Special Collections, search strategies, and citing and citation managers.

Please remember that we are here to help and that you can contact and make appointments with me and other librarians.

Now (or thereabouts): Researching the Present Day and a bit into the past (Primary and Secondary)

Academic Search Premier
Why search here? Good starting point when researching topics that intersect with multiple disciplines.
Content type: Scholarly articles, newspaper articles, magazine articles, trade journal articles
Coverage dates: 1887-present; varies by title
Language: English, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Turkish, French, Chinese, Arabic etc.
Keywords: ASP
Nexis Uni
Why search here? Search here for comprehensive coverage of news and current events, government, business, medical, and legal topics, as well as general reference information.
Content type: Newspaper articles, trade journal articles, broadcast transcripts, financial reports, federal and state case law, medical abstracts, corporate profiles
Coverage dates: 1980-present
Language: English, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Portuguese
Keywords: Lexis Nexis
New York Times (current)
Why search here? Search here for the full-text of the current print editions of The New York Times newspaper.
Content type: Newspaper articles
Coverage dates: 1980-present
Excludes website-only content. This subscription is not the same as a subscription to the New York Times website, which is offered to students through some of the 5Cs.
Language: English
Keywords: NYT
Ethnic NewsWatch
Why search here? Search here for full text articles from newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press.
Content type: Scholarly articles, newspaper articles, magazine articles, trade journal articles, dissertations and theses, conference proceedings, blogs
Coverage dates: 1959-present
Includes unique community publications as well as top scholarly journals on ethnicities and ethnic studies.
Language: English, Spanish, French, etc.
Keywords: News Watch

Then: Main Databases for Secondary, Scholary in US History And Policy

America: History and Life
Why search here? Useful for anthropological and historical research concerning the United States and Canada from pre-history to the present.
Content type: Scholarly articles, magazine articles, dissertations, conference proceedings, books
Coverage dates: 1914-present
Language: English, French, Russian, German, Spanish, etc.
Historical Abstracts
Why search here? The main index for scholarship in early modern to present day World History, excluding United States and Canadian history.
Content type: Abstracts of scholarly articles, magazine articles, dissertations and theses, books
Coverage dates: 1953-present
Language: English, French, German, Spanish, etc.
PAIS Index
Why search here? Good for abstracts and citations of political science literature from a wide range of international and domestic sources.
Content type: Abstracts and citations for scholarly articles, monographs, government documents, statistical directories, research reports, conference papers, web content
Coverage dates: 1915-present
PAIS Index combines two databases: PAIS International and PAIS Archive. PAIS International is the electronic version and continuation of the print publications PAIS Bulletin and PAIS Foreign Language Index. PAIS Archive is the electronic version of the print publication PAIS Annual Cumulated Bulletin.
Language: English, German, French, Spanish
Sage Data
Why search here? Gateway to billions of datapoints from a range of organizations with valuable tools to help interpret and visualize selected data sets.
Content type: Data
Coverage dates: 1948-present
Language: English
Keywords: Data Planet Insight

Then: Primary, Historical Sources into the deeper past

American Periodicals
Why search here? Discover articles from a broad selection of historical, U.S.-based periodicals that are not always covered elsewhere, including professional journals and both children's and women's magazines.
Content type: Magazine articles, trade journal articles, scholarly articles, newspaper articles
Coverage dates: 1740-1940
Articles come from labor, trade, literary, scientific, and photographic periodicals.
Language: English
Keywords: American Periodicals Series APS Online
Early American Newspapers, Series I (1690-1876)
Why search here? Search here for a selection of regional early American newspapers with scans of articles and full pages.
Content type: Newspaper articles
Coverage dates: 1690-1879
This platform allows you to search through two databases: Early American Newspapers, Series 1: From Colonies to Nation (1690-1879) and African American Newspapers (1827-1999).
Language: English
New York Times, Historical
Why search here? Access full page scans of the print edition of The New York Times newspaper complete with advertisements.
Content type: Newspaper articles, advertisements
Coverage dates: 1851-2012
Language: English
Keywords: NYT ProQuest Historical Newspapers
Readers' Guide
Why search here? Good for discovering articles from backfiles of magazines on a variety of subjects that are not indexed elsewhere in one place.
Content type: Magazine articles, scholarly articles
Coverage dates: 1890-present
Updated daily. Most publications are North American popular sources. Searches both Reader's Guide Retrospective: 1890-1982 and Reader's Guide Full Text Mega (1983-present).
Language: English
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Race Relations, 1933-1945
Why search here? Search here for materials from FDR's Official File to learn more about the early development of the Civil Right's Movement including texts on segregation, race riots, and employment discrimination.
Content type: Primary sources, government documents
Coverage dates: 1933-1945
Language: English
Keywords: Archives Unbound

Primary Sources in Library Catalogs

Primary sources of all types can also be found in our regular, circulating books, in special collections, and beyond. Here are few ways to find primary texts and sources by using our own The Library Search.

1. Use the author search to find books we have by a particular author, politician, journalist or another type of historical witness

2. Do an advanced keyword search in The Library Search and then limit by publication year under “limit your search”) (note: you can also limit by language and many other ways)

3. . Do an advanced keyword in Library Search and then limit by years and then limit to the word "sources" in the subject field (by using the dropdown menu), for example:

race inthe keyword field

"sources" in the subject field.

(this brings us the Library of Congress Subject subheading “sources” which is sometimes used to designate primary source collections of different kinds — as in African Americans—Education—History—20th century—Sources.

Another sample search: "Thomas Jefferson" and "sources" in the subject field

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