This Web page was compiled to accompany a Yale University Library Research Colloquium for History Senior Essay writers on 20th Century American Social, Ethnic, Cultural and Intellectual History.
URL: http://www.library.yale.edu/rsc/instruction/ushist20.html

Table of Contents:

• Finding Books
• Finding Articles
• Finding Primary Sources
• Finding Images
• Useful Links

TIP #1: You will not find articles in Orbis, only journal titles. For articles, look in an article database.
TIP #2: When doing keyword seaches you MUST use AND, OR, NOT logic.

Orbis
Orbis is the Yale University library online catalog. Use Orbis to determine what materials Yale owns (books, journals, etc.) and where they are located.

Eureka
Eureka has information on books, journals, maps, sound recordings, musical scores, films, archives, and computer files held in research, corporate, and public libraries, as well as museums, archives and historical societies. Use the REQUEST Button in Eureka to request items that Yale does not own through Interlibrary Loan.

WorldCat
WorldCat has information on books and other materials held in thousands of academic, public, special and national libraries around the world. Use WorldCat to locate materials outside of Yale, in almost any area of study, or to locate items in specific libraries and research collections.

TIP #1: As in Orbis, keyword and subject searching work in most article databases.
TIP #2: To find the actual article in the Yale Library after finding a citation, you have to search Orbis for the title of the journal.

For instance, to find the following article,

Elteren, Mel van, "The Subculture of the Beats: A Sociological Revisit." Journal of American Culture 1999 22(3): 71-99.

do a title search in Orbis for Journal of American Culture.

TIP #1: Primary Sources can be found in a wide variety of places, including newspapers, magazines, manuscript and archival material, maps, government documents, and dissertations.
TIP #2: The Primary Sources Tutorial and the Manuscripts and Archives Tutorial offer further guidelines.

Newspapers

• Newspapers on Microform in the Yale University Library
• Academic Universe
• Historical Newspapers Online
• The New York Times Index
  --SML Starr Main Reference Rm (index case) AI21 N44 (LC), (1861-1944)
  --SML Microtext Room AI21 +N44 (LC), (1945-present)
• Indexes for other newspapers
  --SML Starr Main Reference Rm, Index Cases

• Academic Search
  
• Readers' Guide Abstracts/Full Text
• Ethnic Newswatch

• Eureka
• ArchivesUSA
• Yale University Library Finding Aid Database

• Government Documents and Information Center
  
• Orbis (for holdings of the U.S. Federal government published after 1976)

• Yale Map Collection web page
• Bibliographic tools for identifying maps

• Dissertation Abstracts

TIP #1: Use both print and electronic resources for finding images.
TIP #2: Often journal articles will contain images. Citations usually indicate if there are images, plans, elevations, maps, etc.

Yale Image Collections
Digital and print image collections at Yale. This page also includes databases that the library subscribes to that contain images.

Ask a Reference Question

Research Guide in American History and American Studies

List of Libraries and Collections

Yale University Library Online Research Workshop.
Last revised 10/02. Comments to barbara.rockenbach@yale.edu or laurel.bliss@yale.edu
Copyright 2002, Yale University Library