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 window
Check 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. |
- America: History and Life This link opens in a new window
Index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada. Journal articles, book titles, book reviews, and dissertations.
- 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.
- ProQuest This link opens in a new window
Search all ProQuest databases simultaneously. Includes arts, humanities, social sciences, news, and science and technology.
- Periodicals Archive Online This link opens in a new windowHumanities and social sciences periodicals. Includes Foundation Collection. Sister database to Periodicals Index Online.
Vanderbilt affiliates have access to thousands of journals concerning history. About 25% of these journals are available electronically:
Use The Library Catalog to find journal titles available in print and/or microform formats. Select full-text journal articles do appears in the catalog.
To find History journal articles by subject, see information on the Databases A-Z, Subject: History page.
Databases A-Z: History
https://browzine.com/libraries/519
(PCs and Laptops)
thirdiron.com/download
(Mobile Devices)
BrowZine is an app for tablets and smartphones that delivers and lets you browse, read, and save articles from thousands of the library's journals in one newsstand. BrowZine is compatible with iOS and Android tablets and smartphones. BrowZine can now be used on your laptop or computer as BrowZine Web.
With BrowZine, you can:
- Browse journals by subject area and across disciplines
- Create your own personal journal bookshelf
- Download articles in full-text in a uniform format, without having to search multiple platforms for what you need
- Save articles for offline reading, export to services Zotero and Mendeley
- Get alerts when new articles appear in your favorite journals
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!
- 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.
- ProQuest News and Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Direct 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.
- Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Journals, magazines, and newspapers from ethnic and minority presses. National and regional publications: African American, Caribbean, African, Arab, Middle Eastern, Asian/Pacific Islander, European, Eastern European, Hispanic, Jewish, Native People.
- Magazine Archives (EBSCOHost) This link opens in a new windowCollection of popular magazine archives.
- News, Policy, & Politics Magazine Archive This link opens in a new windowArchive of 15 major magazines (including Newsweek), spanning areas including history of politics, current events, international relations, and public policy.
- American History, 1493-1945 This link opens in a new windowPrimary source documents from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History that cover the major themes of American History.
- Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 This link opens in a new windowExplores the dynamic period of social, political, and cultural change in the U.S. and U.K., covering such topics as music and television, the Vietnam war, student protests, the civil rights movement, and women's liberation. Includes the Social Protest Collection from UC Berkeley, a wide range of zines and alternative press publications, posters, and multimedia.
- Rock's Backpages This link opens in a new windowArchive of music journalism: articles, reviews, and interviews from mainstream music publications and zines. Audio interviews.
- Vanderbilt Digital Archive Collections on JSTORInclude digitized items from Vanderbilt Special Collections, including early U.S. republic and Civil War era, and more.
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Vanderbilt is home to the The Internet Archive's TV News Archive has captured video of television broadcasts, from June 2009 to current. It covers news and current event programs from over 20 US networks, including Spanish language networks. Local news coverage from a number major market network affiliates is also available in this archive.
Users can search by date, network and show using keywords. Videos appear in one minute segments. Commercials are included and political ads is a search limiter.
- Academic Video Online This link opens in a new windowDocumentaries, interviews, performances, news programs and newsreels, field recordings, commercials, raw footage, and thousands of award-winning films.
- Docuseek2 This link opens in a new windowStreaming access to documentary and social issue films from a variety of distributors, including Bullfrog, Collective Eye, and Icarus Films.
- HistoryMakers Digital Archive This link opens in a new windowOral history interviews with both well-known and unsung African American artists, business leaders, scientists, athletes, and intellectuals.
- Kanopy This link opens in a new windowOn-demand streaming video service for documentaries, training films, and theatrical releases. Films under a current license agreement are available for immediate viewing. Other films may require a request through the Kanopy site. Viewing films in a group forum is permitted as long as the viewing is by Vanderbilt authorized viewers only (current faculty, staff, or students) and it is not for commercial benefit (i.e. no admission costs are charged and no profit is made from the screening).
- Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 This link opens in a new windowExplores the dynamic period of social, political, and cultural change in the U.S. and U.K., covering such topics as music and television, the Vietnam war, student protests, the civil rights movement, and women's liberation. Includes the Social Protest Collection from UC Berkeley, a wide range of zines and alternative press publications, posters, and multimedia.
- Socialism on Film This link opens in a new windowThis collection of films from the communist world reveals war, history, current affairs, culture and society as seen through the socialist lens. It spans most of the twentieth century and covers countries such as the USSR, Vietnam, China, Korea, much of Eastern Europe, the GDR, Britain and Cuba.
- Theatre in Video This link opens in a new window
Streaming performances of the world's leading plays and film documentaries representing hundreds of leading playwrights, actors and directors. Gull text of plays, their history of performance, production background, reference materials and ephemera. Plays are predominately 20th century and Shakespeare productions.
- Gallup Analytics This link opens in a new windowUS and global polling data, new and historical, at the city, state, and national level. Microdata is available upon request. Please visit this resource guide to learn more about available data and to request access.
- iPOLL (Roper Center) This link opens in a new windowPublic opinion poll data: poll questions and answers, datasets, and survey questionnaires from academic, commercial, and media polls on opinions and behaviors from major survey research organizations in the United State, including Gallup, Pew, Annenburg Public Policy Center, and news organizations, such as CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, the New York Times.
- HeritageQuest Online This link opens in a new windowCollection of genealogical and historical sources, with coverage dating back to the 1700s. Searches U.S. Federal Censuses, genealogy and local history books, Periodical Source Index (PERSI), Revolutionary War records, Freedman's Bank Records, slave records (from either the 1850 or 1860 US Census) including counts of enslaved people by state, and the Memorials, Petitions and Private Relief Actions from the U.S. Serial Set.
- Social Explorer This link opens in a new window
Current and historical census data and demographic information: US Census, American Community Survey, religious membership, carbon emissions data, etc. Customizable maps, charts, and reports.
- Statistical Abstract of the United States (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowExtensive selection of statistics for the United States, with selected data for regions, divisions, states, metropolitan areas, cities, and foreign countries from reports and records of government and private agencies.
- Statista This link opens in a new windowQuantitative data, statistics, infographics, and related information compiled from market research institutes, trade publications, scientific journals, and government databases.
