History 479/679: Race and Ethnicity in American History
Information Sources
- Using the Library Catalog to Find Primary and Secondary Sources
- Recommended Databases for Articles, Books and Citations to Other Materials
- Reference and Biographical Sources
- Reserve Readings for this Course
- Census and Demographic Sources
- Microform Sources
- Information Resources for History
- Connecting to Databases Linked From This Page
Recommended Databases for Articles, Books and Citations to Other Materials
- Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost) (1965- present). Indexes 7,800+ scholarly journals, with full text for 4,000 titles. Covers social sciences, humanities, education, computer science and engineering, general science, medicine, ethnic studies, and more.
- America: History and Life (1964-present). Citations to articles, book reviews and dissertations on North American History. Articles from selected journals are available in full text. If full text of a desired article is not available online, check the UNR Library Catalog for books and journals cited in this database. Explore the Clio Notes section of this database for topics on race and ethnicity. For example, under Postwar America, 1946-1960, look at the section on Desegregation and Civil Rights. Try searching on the suggested subject terms.
- Ethnic NewsWatch (1990-present). Articles, editorials, reviews, etc. from newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic, minority, and Native American press. Full text of articles available.
- MLA International Bibliography (1926-present). The basic index to scholarly work on literature; cites articles, books, collections of essays.
- National Union Catalog of Pre-1956 Imprints. Over 700 volumes listing millions of books printed before 1956. Especially useful for tracking down what someone wrote, or editions of a particular work (it includes every known edition of each work). Z 881 A1 U373
- WorldCat. Records of any type of material cataloged by member libraries worldwide. Listings include manuscripts written as early as the 12th century.
Census and Demographic sources
Selected reports from the U.S. Bureau of the Census cover individual racial and ethnic groups. Census reports
provide data and also reflect contemporary cultural views. See the BGIC staff for reference assistance with
Census data and reports.
Some links to the Census Bureau's Web site for recent data and analysis:
- American Indian and Alaska Native Populations
- Asian and Pacific Islander Populations
- The Black Population of the United States
- The Hispanic Population of the United
States
Microform Sources
- Black Culture Collection. Main Reference Microfilm C10. An index guide is available on the
Microforms Index Table in Main Reference.
Reference and Biographical Sources
- American Immigrant Cultures: Builders of a Nation. Main Reference E184.A1 A63448 1997
- American National Biography. An excellent online source. Print copy also available at Main Reference CT213.A68 1999
- Biography and Genealogy Master Index, on the Library web site
- The Blacks in America, 1492-1977: a Chronology & Fact Book. Main Reference E185 .S57 1977
- Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History . Main Reference E185 .E54 1996
- The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights in America. Main Reference E185.61 .E544 1998
-
Handbook of North American Indians. BGIC SI 1.20/2:
- See especially Volume 2, Indians in Contemporary Society and Volume 4, History of Indian-white Relations. Titles in this series are available for check out.
- Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970 . Main Reference HA202 .B87 1975; BGIC C 3.134/2:H 62/789-970
- The New York Public Library African American Desk Reference. Main Reference E185 .N49 1999
- Notable Asian Americans. Main Reference E184.O6 N67 1995
- U·X·L Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. Main Reference E76.2 .U85 1999
Information Resources for History
This library web page provides access to subscription databases such as Historical Abstracts, Biography and Genealogy Master Index, Dissertation Abstracts, Global Newsbank, PAIS Archive, a growing list of electronic journals and freely available websites related to historical study. Links are also included to web-based syllabi for some UNR History courses.
World Wide Web Access has replaced most history-related CD-ROM databases in the UNR Libraries. A great deal of literature searching is possible using these online sources, and several full text primary sources are available, including HarpWeek and Global Newsbank. Although increasing numbers of sources are available online, it is still necessary for one to use printed bibliographies, reference works and microform collections to do competent and thorough historical research.
Using the Library Catalog to Find Primary and Secondary Sources
- From the UNR Library's Main Menu, select UNR Library Catalog
- The Catalog provides information about books, magazine and journal titles, audiovisual materials, and some government publications held by the UNR Libraries and other college libraries in northern Nevada.
-
For subject searching in the Library Catalog, the most effective options are:
- (search words in title, name & subject fields by typing any combination
of keywords or constructing a Boolean search statement)
Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Searching by Library of Congress Subject Headings is often more precise
and may yield more relevant information than does Subject searching.
Below are examples of recommended LC subject headings pertinent to
racial and ethnic history:
African Americans
American literature -- African American authors
Jews -- Cultural assimilation -- United States
Race -- Social Aspects -- United States
United States -- Civilization -- African American influences
- (search words in title, name & subject fields by typing any combination
-
Searching by personal names:
You may use the Library Catalog's Author Search to find an author's writings,
or search a person's name as a Library of Congress Subject Heading
to locate books about the individual. Some examples are given below:
Library of Congress Subject Heading Search:
Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963
Subject subheadings for information about Du Bois include
Political and Social Views, Philosophy,
and Views on world politics. - A search in the Catalog normally results in a list of titles, authors or subject headings. Choose the most relevant entries and display the information for individual titles. Carefully check the Location information for each title you want, since the collections are housed in several different libraries, departments, and branches. Likewise, check the Status of each item to determine its current availability.
- Note: The Catalog does not provide information about articles in magazines and journals, or most government
publications held by the participating libraries.
Connecting to Databases Linked from this Page
UNR's Library Catalog is freely available on the World Wide Web and requires no user login or authentication. You may connect to the UNR Library Catalog from any Web-enabled computer workstation.
America: History and Life, Ethnic NewsWatch, Academic Search Premier, electronic journals, and other sources linked from this page are accessed via subscriptions from commercial database providers. These services are available at Web-enabled computer workstations on the University of Nevada, Reno campus and off-campus to UNR students, faculty & staff with a current library card (with the exception that some electronic journals may not be accessible from workstations off campus). Off-campus users should click here to use these and other subscription databases. To use the subscription databases, return to this page (or any UNR Libraries web page) after completing your authentication.
Patrick Ragains, Business & Government Information Librarian
Updated 2 September 2003
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