Contents for History
- Starting research: reference books
- Other electronic books
- Finding articles in journals: article databases
- Streaming video
- Courses and self-tests
- Finding pictures: image databases
- Special guides for classes
- Resources on the Web
- Additional resources, including print
- Help from a librarian
Good Starting Places: Reference Books
Reference books are a good place to start research. They can help you find background information, choose topics, and understand concepts and terminology. To access online resources from off campus you will need a your My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password; host provider students may obtain a login from the instructor or librarian.
Encyclopedias & Handbooks
Specialized encyclopedias, which cover a single subject area, have longer and more detailed treatments of subjects than either dictionaries or general encyclopedias. The best and most comprehensive online encyclopedia of U.S. History is Dictionary of American History, which is part of the 
Gale Virtual Reference Library database.
The best and most comprehensive online encyclopedia of World History is World History Encyclopedia, which is part of the Gale Virtual Reference Library database.
There are numerous, more specialized, history encyclopedias:
American History
- The American Economy: A Historical Encyclopedia
- Americans at War: Society, Culture, and the Homefront
- Corporate Disasters: What Went Wrong and Why
- Dictionary of American History
- Early Civilizations in the Americas Reference Library
- Encyclopedia of American Disability History
- Encyclopedia of American Environmental History
- Encyclopedia of Media and Propaganda in Wartime America
- The Encyclopedia of Middle East Wars: The United States in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq Conflicts
- Encyclopedia of Recreation and Leisure in America
- Encyclopedia of Rural America: The Land and People
- Encyclopedia of Tariffs and Trade in U.S. History
- Encyclopedia of the New American Nation
- Europe 1789-1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of Industry and Empire
- Historical & Multicultural Encyclopedia of Female Reproductive Rights In the United States
- Historical Encyclopedia of U.S. Presidential Use of Force, 1789-2000
- History of Science in the United States : An Encyclopedia
- Gale Library of Daily Life: Slavery and America
- Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia
- Television in American Society Reference Library
- Tobacco in History and Culture: An Encyclopedia
- Treaties with American Indians: An Encyclopedia of Rights, Conflicts, and Sovereignty
- The Underground Railroad: An Encyclopedia of People, Places, and Operations
- Vietnam War Reference Library
- Witchcraft in America
- Women During the Civil War : An Encyclopedia
Asian History
Australian History
British and Irish History
Economic History
European History
- Ancient Europe, 8000 B.C. to A.D. 1000: Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World
- Ancient Greece and Rome: An Encyclopedia for Students
- Encyclopedia of Russian History
- Europe Since 1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of War and Reconstruction
- Hutchinson Encyclopedia of the Renaissance
- Middle Ages Reference Library
- World War I Reference Library
Fashion History
Latin American History
Middle East History
Military History
Scientific History
Women's History
World History
Dictionaries
These dictionaries define specialized terms, identify important figures and concepts, and explain symbols. To access online resources from off campus you will need a your My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password; host provider students may obtain a login from the instructor or librarian.
Browse dictionaries of archaeology and history
Search in all Oxford dictionaries of history
Finding More Electronic Books
To access these books from off campus you will need your My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password. Type a word or phrase describing the subject in the search space below:
Finding Articles on Your Subject
All the electronic databases listed in this section may be accessed by going to the library's Database Page. To access online resources from off campus you will need a your My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password; host provider students may obtain a login from the instructor or librarian.
All the electronic databases listed in this section may be accessed by going to the library's Database Page. If you are accessing the databases from a computer not on the Chemeketa Community College network, you will need your My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password.
- JSTOR
- JSTOR is a digital archive of journal articles. You may find it helpful to click on Advanced Search. Check off Article under Item Type; this will eliminate book reviews from your search results.
- Academic OneFile [Gale]
- A source that includes history articles.
You may need to use some special techniques in Gale Academic OneFile:
You may need to combine multiple search terms to find articles on your topic. The Gale Advanced Search screen has find a form for entering multiple terms.
TIP: When using keywords, try truncating: theor* finds theory, theories, theoretical, etc. (* is the truncation character for Gale).
If you find an article that meets your needs, look at its description for additional terms you can use to search.
Streaming Video Databases
- Intelecom
- Intelecom has history content in of streaming video, offered in short clips that focus on a single topic.
Images
- ARTstor
- ARTstor offers numerous illustrations on historical subjects.
- ImageQuest
- A Britannica database of more than two million images. All images are rights-cleared for non-commercial, educational use.
Special Guides
- American history resources to 1840
- American history resources, 1840 - 1900
- American history resources, 1900-present
- World history resources
Internet Sites
Try our customized search, or browse the list of sites below.
Customized Search
Browsing List
- AMDOCS Documents for the Study of American History - http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/
- A collection of primary documents organized by time period.
- American Memory Historical Collections - http://memory.loc.gov
- A large, multimedia meta-collection of historical materials including documents, photographs, recorded sound, and moving pictures. Supported by the Library of Congress.
- Historic War Battles
- Somewhat miscellaneous set of links on various famous battles; links to some good resources
- Historical Text Archive - http://historicaltextarchive.com/
- Historical "articles," including text of documents.
- The History Guide - http://www.historyguide.org/
- Lectures on European history.
- Internet African History Sourcebook - http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/africa/africasbook.html
- Full-text source material for the study of African history from ancient times to modern. Arranged by subject and historical period.
- Internet History of Science Sourcebook - http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/science/sciencesbook.html
- Texts in the history of science, arranged by historical period and subject matter.
- Internet Islamic History Sourcebook - http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/islam/islamsbook.html
- Full-text source material for the study of Islam from the pre-Islam era to modern times. Arranged by historical period and subject.
- Librarians' Index to the Internet U.S. History - http://www.ipl.org/IPLBrowse/GetSubject?vid=13&cid=1&tid=6964&parent=6962
- Click "Twentieth Century." A collection of links to sites on 20th century U.S. history.
- Picturing the Century: One Hundred Years of Photography from the National Archives - http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/picturing_the_century/home.html
- Arranged into "galleries" of memorable photographs from sequential time periods. Click on a thumbnail image to see a larger photo.
- Valley of the Shadow - http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/
- Original diaries, letters, newspapers, and other primary source material for two communities in the Civil War, one Northern, one Southern.
- The History Guide - http://www.historyguide.org/
- "The History Guide has been created for the high school and undergraduate
student who is either taking classes in history, or who intends to major in history in
college. The purpose of The History Guide is to better prepare yourself for your
history classes and to make your time in class more enjoyable and proficient.
"The History Guide contains the complete content of three undergraduate courses in European history which will certainly be of use to those of you studying such topics at the college level or in A.P. European history classes. Upon its completion, The History Guide will contain more than seventy lectures in European history from ancient Sumer to the fall of Soviet-style communism in 1989." - Spartacus Educational - http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/welcome.html
- This textbook publisher maintains free, full-text hypertext "encyclopedias" : the Medieval World; Encyclopedia of British History, 1700-1900; First World War Encyclopedia; Investigating the Vietnam War; Emancipation Of Women: 1860-1920. Scroll down to see all the offerings.
- This Day in History - From the Archives of The History Channel - http://www.history.com/tdih.do
- Gives a summary of a historical event for today's date; a link to other events for the same day is available. A pulldown menu allows you to search for events which happened on any day in the year.
For electronic texts of historical documents and books, see also Electronic Texts: History
Finding Additional Resources
See a list of printed reference books.
The library subscribes to the following current periodicals in printed form:
- American Historical Review
- American History
- Current History
- History Today
- Wilson Quarterly
Finding other books and and audiovisual materials
Use the library catalog to look for additional materials
- The catalog page includes instructions on using the catalog, as well as links to other library catalogs
- You can search by key words, by authors, or by subject headings
- A suggestion on where to find subject headings to use in the catalog is given below
Fig. 1. The library catalog search
The Library of Congress has a 
Web site where you can search for subject headings.
When you put in a search term, the results will list terms in a table. Those with a red button marked, "Authorized and references" are terms that the Library of Congress uses in subject catalogs. Clicking the button may show more specific ("narrower") terms.
You may have to do several searches in the library catalog to find books that might be pertinent to your subject. Try different combinations of key words.
If you live in the Chemeketa Cooperative Regional Library Service (CCRLS) district, you may also access the catalog online at your local public library. In addition to the books in the Chemeketa College Library, the catalog also contains the collections of the 17 public libraries located in the regional library district. You can request books through the catalog, and can pass your search through to Summit (see below).
Summit
Chemeketa students registered for credit may use Summit, the Orbis Cascade Alliance catalog, to request items from 37 member libraries in Oregon and Washington. Summit uses a search called WorldCat. Authorized users have access to all of the material in the Chemeketa Community College library, plus about 28 million items in Summit. Chemeketa users may request items using the barcode number from their ID card, and have them sent to Chemeketa, or they may set up a Visiting Patron account at another Alliance library.
- Summit: http://summit.orbiscascade.org/
- How to use Summit: http://library.chemeketa.edu/information/summit.php
- More Summit Help: http://www.oclc.org/worldcatlocal/help/default.htm
- Help with the WorldCat interface: http://www.oclc.org/support/help/navpatron/ApplicationHelp.htm
- Libraries & Map: http://orbiscascade.org/index/member-map
To comment or request help, please e-mail Reference or call 503.399.5231.
Address of this page: http://library.chemeketa.edu/information/virtual/history.php
Updated: 21 March 2013
