Professor Watkins

Primary sources:

"`Primary sources are materials produced by people or groups directly involved in the event or topic under consideration, either as participants or as witnesses. Examples of primary sources include eyewitness accounts, decrees, letters and diaries, newspapers and magazines, speeches, autobiographies, and treatises... For recent history, oral sources, such as interviews with World War II veterans or Holocaust survivors, can also be primary sources. By examining primary sources, historians gain insights into the thoughts, behaviors, and experiences or the people of the past. When using a written primary sources, it is important to read the source itself. Do not simply rely on another historian's analysis of the source." (Rampolla, Mary Lynn. A Pocket Guide to Writing in History, p. 4.)

"Primary sources may be published or unpublished. A book by Ernest Hemingway and newspaper review of Hemingway's book are both published, but the former is a primary source and the later is a secondary one. Alternatively, however, if researching how critics reviewed Hemingway's works, the newspaper reviews would be a primary source for that investigation. Newspapers, magazines, mail-order catalogs, government publications, corporate annual reports, and a host of other published items are primary sources of great significance". (D'Aniello, Charles A. Teaching Bibliographic Skills in History, p. 266)

Reference books:

Reference resources provide a good way to get an overview, find background information, identify specific dates and  individuals or locate bibliographies on a topic.

 

Current Biography                                                                          Ref CT 100 C93 1940 - present

Black Americans: A Statistical Sourcebook                                    Ref E 185 B55 1992
Timetables of African-American History                                         Ref E 185 H295 1995
Negro Almanac: A Reference Work on the African America          Ref E 185 N385 1989       
African American Desk Reference                                                   Ref E 185 N49 1999
Encyclopedia of African-American Civil Rights                              Ref E 185.61 E54 1992
Civil Rights Movement: An Eyewitness History                              Ref E 185.61 W548 1993
Dictionary of Black Culture                                                            Ref E 185.96 B33
Notable Black American Women                                                    Ref E 185.96 N68 1992
Encyclopedia of Southern Culture                                                  Ref F 209 E53 1989
 

Bibliographies/Guides to the Literature:

American Historical Association's Guide to Historical Literature   Ref  D 20 A55 1995

Reference Sources in History                                                            Ref D 20 F72 1990

Index to Afro-American Reference Resources                                  Ref E 185 S77 1988
Black Americans in Autobiography                                                  Ref Z 1361 N39 B67
The Negro in America: A Bibliography                                            Ref Z 1361 N39 M5 1970
 

Books:

OSCAR

OSCAR is Milne Library's online catalog of books, videos, compact discs, and other materials (NOT individual articles). Searchable by keyword, author, title and subject. Can limit by collection or format. Look at subjects connected to an individual book and click on one to find other books with the same subject. 

 

Hartwick College

SUNY Oneonta students may borrow materials with a valid SUNY ID card.

 

WorldCAT

A catalog of books owned by libraries around the world. Searching WorldCAT is a good way to discover what is available on any topic. Can request material through Interlibrary Loan.

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Indexes to Journals, magazines, and newspapers:

America History and Life (located on the Milne Library home page under Find Articles/Complete list). Abstracts of articles & dissertations covering U.S. and Canadian history from prehistory to the present. Journal coverage is from 1981 to the present.  The print version is in Milne Library Reference E 11. H5.

Expanded Academic ASAP (located on the Milne Library home page) Contains references to over 8,000,000 articles from about 2300 journals, newspapers, and magazines (1300 are full text) across all fields, including United States history. Journal coverage is  from 1980 to the present.

JSTOR archive (link on the Milne Library home page) Provides access to the full text of 322 scholarly journals across many subject areas including sociology. The objective of JSTOR is to provide all issues back to Volume 1, Issue 1 for all journals.  (Due to copyright restrictions, the most recent 3-5 years are unavailable.)

New York Times Archive, 1851-2000  (located on the Milne Library home page under Find Articles/Complete list) The New York Times archive provides full page and article images with searchable full text back to the first issue. The Guided Search usually works best. To obtain the entire article, you need to change the article format from Cite/Abstract to Page Image. Printing is a challenge! If you want a printout in a font readable without a magnifying glass, you need to enlarge the text and then use the Graphics Select  Tool to select the portion of the page you want printed. Be sure to print using the print button in Adobe Acrobat rather than the print button on your web browser. It can be helpful to search the print index located at Ref AI 21 N44.

Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. (Milne Library REF AI 3 R48) Since this index covers 1890 to the present, it can be used to find articles written during a certain time period. Covers mostly popular magazines (not scholarly journals). It is available via FirstSearch beginning in the early 1980s.

Biography Index (Ref CT 100 B5) A quarterly index to biographical material in books and magazines.

Bibliographic Index (Ref Z 1002 B47)  A cumulative bibliography of bibliographies.

Humanities Index  (One of the FirstSearch databases located on the Milne Library home page under Find Articles/Complete list). Many of the journals indexed here are also in Expanded Academic ASAP.  However, it may be easier to locate relevant articles in this index in the printed index, Ref AI 3 R491.

PAIS Public Affairs Information Service database includes references to scholarly journal articles, books, reports, and government documents. Available through FirstSearch. Printed index at Ref JA 1 P9.

Find the article: Milne Library does not have everything you can locate in an index such as Expanded Academic ASAP or America: History & Life.

How to determine if Milne Library subscribes to an online version of a periodical:

Under Find Articles on the Milne Library web site, click on Serials Solutions. Look for the title of the magazine or journal needed (sometimes called the source) and check the dates of coverage. Click on the link to the database that provides that periodical, then search for the author or title of the specific article needed.

 

How to determine if Milne Library owns a physical copy of the periodical:

Check the Milne Library Serials List or OSCAR to determine if the library owns a print copy of a journal or magazine. Periodicals are kept in the Periodical Room in the basement of the library, filed on the shelves alphabetically by title. Although the majority of journals and magazines are in print format, some are in microform format.

Interlibrary Loan:

If Milne Library does not own a book or periodical, you can check to see if it is owned by Hartwick College. If not, you can make an Interlibrary Loan Request. The databases provided through FirstSearch link to ILL directly.  You can also use the Milne Library Electronic Interlibrary Loan Service. Interlibrary loans may take 2 weeks. Rare and out-of-print items may be unavailable through Interlibrary Loan. You may need to visit a research library for rare items. Please ask at the Reference Desk if you need assistance.

Other:

Black History Hotlist

 A collection of internet sites assembled by the California-based Knowledge Network Explorer staff.

Writing Your Paper:

Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations     Ref  LB 2369 T8 1996

http://www.oneonta.edu/library/courses/fall2003/hist394af.html