Alabama's Public Liberal Arts University

Carmichael Library

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Welcome to the History 310 Historiography Guide

 

This guide is the starting point for identifying, locating, using, and evaluating  materials relating to History  in the Carmichael Library and on Internet.  If you need additional assistance, please Ask a Librarian or contact Kathleen Lowe, Reference and Instruction Librarian, at lowek@montevallo.edu or 665-6109

 

Finding Library Materials     
Library Catalog
The Library Catalog is often the best place to begin research. Search by author, title, subject, keyword, or a variety of other specialized searches.

Several examples of standard subject headings appropriate for use in the Main Catalog when searching for History materials are:

To obtain an authoritative list of subject headings check the Library of Congress Subject Headings, call number:

Cat. Z 695 .Z8 L524a 2006.

 

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Call Numbers
Library of Congress classification provides a method to arrange books on the library shelves by subject using call numbers. These call numbers can be used as a guide for browsing the shelves for books in History.  

  • D: General History  
  • DA: British History
  • DB: Austria-Hungary
  • DC: French History
  • DD: German History
  • DE: Classical History [General]
  • DF: Greece, Ancient and Modern
  • DG: Rome and Italy
  • DK: Russia
  • DL: Scandinavia
  • DP: Spain and Portugal
  • DS: Asia
    • DS35-254: Middle East
    • DS500s: South East Asia
    • DS700s: China
    • DS800s: Japan
  • DT: Africa
  • E70s: Native North Americans
  • E185s: African-Americans
  • F100-999: U.S. States
    • F 321-335 Alabama
  • F1001-1121: Canada
  • F1204-1386: Mexico
  • F1434: Middle American Indians
  • F2229: South American Indians

Library of Congress Call Numbers for Alabama History include:

Alabama F 321 +
Alabama -- Afro-Americans E185.93.A3
Alabama -- Confederate History E551.1 +
Alabama -- Indians E78.A28
Alabama -- Reconstruction, 1865-1877 F326
Alabama -- Slavery E445.A3
Alabama -- Civil War E495.1 +
Alabama -- Civil War -- Military Operations  E470.6, E470.7, E471 +, E471.52

 

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Reference Materials
Reference materials include dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, and indexes.  They are good starting points in the research process.

The American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature
 Ref. D 9 .A55 1995
 Provides a selected list, with appropriate commentary, of books and articles in every field of historical scholarship.  Works are chosen for inclusion on the basis of several factors: (1) reliable synthesis or reference works; (2) works that set the standard of excellence in various fields of history; (3) major alternative interpretations represented in scholarly debate. 

Alabama History:  An Annotated Bibliography
Ref.  F 326 .A43 1998
The most current comprehensive bibliography of Alabama history. Indispensable for researchers. Complies the best and most usable books, articles, dissertations, theses, and reference works published through December 1996.

Encyclopedia of Historians and Historical Writing
Ref.  D 14 .E53  1999
Provides a guide to influential historians and historical debates including the western historical canon and beyond to include writers from other cultures and traditions. 

Harvard Guide to American History
Ref. E 175.7 .H37 1974
The basic reference bibliography for American history.  A selective listing covering the whole range of American history including citations to both books  and periodical materials. 

Writings on American History
Ref. E 172 .A60
An excellent annual bibliography and index to books and articles published on the history of the U.S. or Europe with some coverage of Latin America and the Pacific Islands.  No bibliographies issued for 1904-9105, 1941-1947 due to war.

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Print Indexes
Indexes are used to identify published articles in specific journals.  Most of the indexes in the Carmichael Library are electronic and are available from the Databases page.  However, many electronic resources often only cover the latest 20 years.  

  • New York Times Index  
    1856 - present 

  • Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature 
    1899 - present

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Journals and Periodicals
Journals and periodicals are published at regular intervals in print and electronically.

Print periodicals on the topic of History available in the Carmichael Library include the following:

Check the CATALOG > Journal Title to locate the exact volume and year.

Alabama Heritage 

Alabama Review 

American Historical Review 

Civil War History 

English Historical Review 

French Historical Studies

Journal of British studies 

Journal of African American History 

Journal of Southern History 

Past & Present 

Sixteenth Century Journal 

Speculum 

William and Mary Quarterly 

Electronic Resources
Databases

Electronic access to journal articles is available from the Databases page.  Most databases can be searched using author, title or subject in either basic or advanced search formats. The results of a search will include either a citation, a citation and abstract, or a citation, abstract and full text of the article depending on the database searched.

Listed below are databases you could use to locate information about Alabama History.  You can access these, and other databases, from the Databases by name page or the Databases by subject page.

Additional information about specific databases is available at each database site. 

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Book Reviews

Book reviews can serve many functions. Reviews are important ways to establish the credibility and authority of a book, because they often discuss the author's qualifications. Reading several reviews of the same book is valuable. A single review represents a single opinion and will often mirror the editorial policy of the publication in which it appears. Scholarly reviews often appear as much as four or five years after the publication of the book.

Electronic Sources
Reviews are indexed in many of the periodical indexes such as:

America: History and Life
Covers the history of the United States and Canada, America: History and Life indexes book reviews from around 140 journals.  From the Advanced search screen, there is the option to limit a search by document type. Next to the document type search box, click on the magnifying glass icon.  Select the book review option. 

Historical Abstracts
Covers the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the Unite States and  Canada, which are covered  in America history and life). From the Advanced search screen, there is the option to limit a search by document type. Next to the document type search box, click on the magnifying glass icon.  Select the book review option. 

JSTOR

Primary Sources

Primary sources provide an eyewitness account of an event. 
Discoveries of old letters, diaries and papers are being made every day.  Primary sources include manuscripts, archives, letters, diaries, and speeches.  

The CATALOG provides access to letters, diaries, speeches and personal narratives in the collection.  Include the keywords or phrases below in your search to locate primary sources: 

·        Personal narratives 

·        Diaries 

·        Correspondence 

·        Sources 

·        Records 

·        Letters 

Examples of a keyword search in the CATALOG might be: 

·        Civil War and personal narratives 

·        Women pioneers and diaries 

·        Witchcraft and sources 

In addition, the Library has some unique primary source materials on microfilm located on the Main Level in the Reference area.  Included are colonial American newspapers from South Carolina and Virginia dating back to 1732. 

Web Review Assignment

Choose a web site from the following list for your assignment.  
Critical analysis of a web site is similar to analysis of a book or journal article.   

CHOICES for Web Review Assignment : you must choose from this approved list

Choose a web site from the following list for your assignment.  
Critical analysis of a web site is similar to analysis of a book or journal article.   

Famous Trials

Gilda Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance & Abolition

Irish History on the Web

Medieval English Towns

Nazi and East German Propaganda Guide page
The German Propaganda Archive includes both propaganda itself and material produced for the guidance of propagandists. The goal is to help people understand the two great totalitarian systems of the twentieth century by giving them access to the primary material.

Nippon in the World

Vietnam Project - Texas Tech Univeristy

Consider the following when assessing the Web site:

I . Comparison

Compare the difference and similarities in content from the web site to other information formats:
    Peer reviewed journal articles
    Scholarly books
    Specialized encyclopedias in the Reference Collection
    Other web sites on similar topics

How deep does the web site go into the topic?  Does the web site provide sufficient factual information?
Does it supply sufficient primary sources?

Compared to other sources does this web site reveal any specific information?
Controversial information?

Does the site have a bias compared to other sources you've reviewed on the topic?
Often a web site provides photographs or images of an event.


II.  Corroboration

Corroborate and verify information from the web site against one or more different sources

Is your web site questionable?  

The more sources you can find to corroborate information the more reliable the web site. 

III. Would the web site be appropriate to use for an undergraduate assignment?

What type of audience is this site appealing to?

IV.  Authorship
Who wrote the web site?  What are their credentials?
Who sponsors this site?

V. Compare your site to one from...
Librarians'  Internet Index: Websites You Can Trust

VI. Additional sources for how to evaluate information on the web
World Wide Web Virtual Library 
Cornell University Library provides further guidance in evaluating a Web source   

VII. Of Interest
AHA: History Doctoral Programs in the United States and Canada

Careers for History Majors

Careers in Public History

History Matters
Designed for high school and college teachers and students of U.S. history survey courses, this site serves as a gateway to web resources and offers unique teaching materials, first-person primary documents, and guides to analyzing historical evidence.

OAH Publications, Reports and Statements
The Organization of American Historians promotes excellence in the scholarship, teaching, and presentation of American history, and encourages wide discussion of historical questions and equitable treatment of all practitioners of history.

Spurious Web sites

California's Velcro Crop under Challenge\

The Jackalope Conspiracy

Feline Reactions to Bearded Men

Bibliographic  Essay Assignment

"A bibliographic essay is a narrative discussion, a review, of the literature of a topic. It is the equivalent of a conversation in which someone not only advises you about "what's out there" but shapes that raw material into a coherent survey of the materials available. Like all bibliographies, the bibliographic essay enumerates sources and, like an annotated bibliography, it describes and analyses them; it goes beyond performing these functions, however, to comparing, contrasting, and evaluating the relationships among works. A bibliographic essay thus draws a picture of the literature of a topic, and in so doing, unlike a list and like an essay, it tends to take a position and establish an interpretive point of view."   -- Haverford College Libraries, Reference Department,

  •  Choose 5 Books on your topic

  •  Ideally 1 book will be the book you reviewed for the Book Review Assignment

The Bibliographic Essay is a second, more extended format of reporting.  It is in paragraph form; it is a written narrative, with bibliographic citations sprinkled into its narrative.  The bibliographic essay is frequently used in the category of literature Freides calls "research reviews."  - University of Oklahoma, School of Library and information Studies

Some examples of Bibliographic Essays include:

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Compiled by Kathleen Lowe 10-07