Locating Books and Call Numbers
Most books that deal with historical topics are shelved in the Central Library. The catalog shows the book call number and location.
A book that is CHECKD-OUT may be recalled, once you login with your VUnet ID, by clicking on the Request link in the "Get It" section, near the middle of the catalog record. You will be notified when the recalled item is available for your use.
Need help making sense of the Call # you found in Library Catalog? or where to find the book in the library?
Finding Sources
- Library Search This link opens in a new windowCheck out the Library Search which finds print and electronic items, including journal and newspaper articles, book chapters, books, reviews, legal documents, and much more. Note: Due to licensing restrictions, some content is only available to current students, faculty, and staff.
Keyword vs. Subject Searching
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Step 1: Start your search process by brainstorming a list of keywords that describe the main concepts of your topic or question. |
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Step 2: Use these keywords for your initial searches. Step 3: Use the Subject Heading links in the Library Catalog record to refine your search. |
- GreenFILE (EBSCO host) This link opens in a new windowInformation covering all aspects of human impact to the environment. Scholarly, government and general-interest titles on global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more.
- History of Science, Technology, and Medicine This link opens in a new windowJournal articles, conference proceedings, books, dissertations, serials, maps and other related materials covering topics on the role of scientific discovery in society and culture, and the historiography of scientific disciplines from prehistory to the present.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowLarge and important archive for academic journals, books, and primary sources in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Many journals do not have current issues.
- Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new windowHumanities and social sciences periodicals. Includes Foundation Collection. Sister database to Periodicals Index Online.
- ProQuest This link opens in a new windowSearch all ProQuest databases simultaneously. Includes arts, humanities, social sciences, news, and science and technology.
- Zoological Record This link opens in a new windowWorld’s leading taxonomic reference and oldest continuing database of animal biology.
Google Scholar provides access to "peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations."
What Google Scholar does not contain, in most cases, is the fulltext of the articles -- but it does work with the library's Findit@VU service to help you get to the fulltext when available. If you are on campus, Findit@VU will automatically appear -- but if you are off campus it won't. Not clicking on Findit@VU may lead to you receiving a message indicating that you must purchase the article to view it.
Bookmark this link as your access point to Google Scholar to ensure that the Findit@VU links appears in your searches or follow the instructions for setting your preferences in the video below. Don't get caught paying for articles when you don't have to!
- Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new windowNewspapers, books, manuscripts, maps, and photographs. Simultaneously search: 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers, 19th Century U.S. Newspapers, Sunday Times (London), Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), Making of the Modern World, Times Literary Supplement, and Times Digital Archive, Financial Times (London).
- History Vault This link opens in a new windowDigitized letters, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, financial records, diaries, and other primary source materials.
• American Indians and the American West
• American Politics and Society
• Civil Rights and the Black Freedom Struggle
• International Relations and Military Conflicts
• Southern Life, Slavery, and the Civil War
• Women's Studies
• Workers and Labor Unions - HathiTrust This link opens in a new windowDigitized collections of some of the nation’s great research libraries, established in this repository to archive and share their digital content.
- Children's Literature and Culture This link opens in a new windowDigitized rare books, games, ephemera, and artwork produced for, about and, in some cases, by children.
- Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639-1800 This link opens in a new windowComplete text of works cited in Charles Evans' American Bibliography, as enhanced by Roger Bristol's Supplement to Evans' American Bibliography. Resource for information about life in 17th- and 18th-century America, from agriculture and auctions through foreign affairs, diplomacy, literature, music, religion, the Revolutionary War, temperance, and witchcraft.
- Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker, 1801-1819 This link opens in a new windowAmerican books, pamphlets and broadsides published in the early part of the 19th century which are many of the rarest materials published in early America. Based on the noted "American Bibliography, 1801-1819" by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker.
- Sabin Americana This link opens in a new windowBooks, pamphlets, serials and other works about the Americas, through the early 1900s. Original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions, etc.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowLarge and important archive for academic journals, books, and primary sources in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Many journals do not have current issues.
- Web of Science This link opens in a new windowCitation database from journals and international conference proceedings. Cross-search of the Web of Science Core Collection, BIOSIS Previews, and the SciELO Citation Index (Latin America, Spain, Portugal, the Caribbean and South Africa).
- Wiley Digital Archive This link opens in a new windowUnique or rare historical primary sources, digitized from leading societies, libraries, and archives around the world, and made accessible in ways that tie directly to research outcomes and educational goals. Contains tools for searching, browsing, analyzing and visualizing primary source content.
- ProQuest News and Newspapers This link opens in a new windowDirect link to the newspaper section of ProQuest. Includes Alt-Press Watch, Ethnic NewsWatch, GenderWatch, Latin American Newsstand, Canadian Newsstand Complete, ProQuest Newsstand, ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Times of London, and The Tennessean.
- ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new windowHistorical access to the following newspapers: Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta Daily World, The Baltimore Afro-American, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Defender, The Christian Science Monitor, Chicago Tribune, The Cincinnati Enquirer, Cleveland Call & Post, The Commercial Appeal, Detroit Free Press, The Globe and Mail, Hartford Courant, The Jerusalem Post, The Jewish Advocate, The Jewish Exponent, Korea Times, Knoxville News Sentinel, Leftist Newspapers, Los Angeles Sentinel, Los Angeles Times, Louisville Courier Journal, Michigan Chronicle, New York Amsterdam News, The New York Times, New York Tribune, Norfolk Journal & Guide, The Philadelphia Tribune, Pittsburgh Courier, San Francisco Chronicle, South China Morning Post, St. Louis Post Dispatch, The Tennessean, The Times of India, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.
- Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new windowNewspapers, books, manuscripts, maps, and photographs. Simultaneously search: 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers, 19th Century U.S. Newspapers, Sunday Times (London), Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO), Making of the Modern World, Times Literary Supplement, and Times Digital Archive, Financial Times (London).
- America's Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new windowCover-to-cover reproductions of early American newspapers offers an unprecedented look back into the history of the United States—the story of its people, ideals, commerce, and everyday life. Includes the following collections: African American Newspapers Series 1 & 2, American Religion: Denominational Newspapers, Caribbean Newspapers, Early American Newspapers, Series 1: From Colonies to Nation Early American Newspapers, Series 2: The New Republic, Early American Newspapers: 1690-1789, Early American Newspapers: 1780-1789, and Hispanic American Newspapers.
- American Periodicals This link opens in a new windowSpecial interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines and many other historically-significant periodicals. Includes Ladies' Home Journal, Harper's, and professional journals.
- British Periodicals This link opens in a new windowPeriodicals from the late seventeenth century to the early twentieth. Literature, philosophy, history, science, the social sciences, music, art, drama, archaeology and architecture.
- Magazine Archives (EBSCOHost) This link opens in a new windowCollection of popular magazine archives.
- 19th Century UK Periodicals This link opens in a new windowBased on the repositories of the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, the National Library of South Africa, the National Library of Australia, etc.
