Finding Books - WebCat will help you find books in the Shenandoah University Libraries.  If we do not owe the book you need, you can try WorldCat which provides access to the holdings of 60,000 libraries world wide.

Finding Articles - Shenandoah University Libraries have contractual agreements with various publishers and others to provide you with the citations, abstracts, and in many cases, the fulltext of over 30,000 journals, magazines and newspapers.  These databases include materials which are authoritative and accurate, and have search interfaces designed by experts to make your search for information easier.  Using these databases will generally provide more accurate information, more quickly and easily, than using "free" Internet sources.  They are for the exclusive use of University students and faculty and are password protected. 
            Click here for information about passwords and off campus access.

Journal Locator - once you have a specific article in mind you are ready to use Journal Locator.  It is a comprehensive list (over 30,000) of all the journals, magazines, and newspapers to which University Libraries provide fulltext access electronically or in print.  It is searchable and you can browse it by subject.

Free Internet Sites - most resources listed here are provided by non-profit or government entities, and have been carefully selected for their authority and stability.  Although these web sites are "free" for anyone to use, they have been selected as reliable sources that provide accurate information.  As always, carefully evaluate all information found at free Internet sites.

Researcher Services - click for help with

            Ask a Librarian - Get Help with Research Projects or Any Question - Large or Small                

            Off-Campus - Distance Education Support                   Faculty Guide to Library Services

Databases for Finding Books

WebCat - the database used to locate books and all other materials owned by the Shenandoah University Libraries.  Don't forget that "ink on paper" resources are generally authoritative and are still the easiest to use for many questions.  Remember too, that "Power Search" allows you to limit to by item type (journals and magazines for example), by language, publication date(s) etc.

WorldCat - contains records of over 95 million items in over 400 languages from 60,000 participating libraries from around the world.  As you might expect, most records are of books, but you will find records of any conceivable item a library might own including audio and video recordings, computer programs, archival materials, maps, musical scores and more.  Some items in this database date to before 1,000 B.C. Approximately one million items are being added annually, and WorldCat is updated daily.  (remote access requires username and password)

Finding Articles in Journals, Magazines, and Newspapers

Databases with an English/Literature Focus

MLA International Bibliography - is produced by the Modern Language Association of America.  It  indexes journals, books and other materials written about literature, language, linguistics and folklore. Coverage begins in 1963 and the database now includes over 1,400,000 records.  (remote access requires username and password)

Arts and Humanities Search   indexes over 1,300 periodicals in the arts and humanities (not just literature).  It is updated weekly and now contains over 2,500,000 records.  Some periodicals have been indexed since 1980.  This database can be accessed both on-campus and off-campus through remote proxy access.  (remote access requires username and password)

Fulltext Databases Helpful to American Studies Students

Project Muse - this full-text resource provides access to 45 scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences and mathematics. (remote access requires username and password)

Literature Resource Center - combines the MLA database with fulltext from Contemporary Authors, Dictionary of Literary Biography, Contemporary Literary Criticism, Twayne's Author Series and Scribner's Writers Series  (remote access requires username and password)

Academic OneFile - provides indexing to more than 11,000 scholarly journals in the humanities, sciences and social sciences. The fulltext of articles is available for approximately 3,500 of the titles indexed. Some of the journals indexed may be available in the University Libraries. (remote access requires username and password)

JSTOR - an archive of scholarly journals providing the fulltext (PDF files) of hundreds of  journals from all disciplines.  Coverage extends back decades for many titles, but most have a "moving wall" which blocks access to the most recent articles.  (remote access requires username and password)

Cambridge University Press - this full-text resource provides access to 120 scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences (remote access requires username and password)

Oxford University Press Journals Online - this full-text resource provides access to 120 scholarly journals in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and mathematics. (remote access requires username and password)

Wilson OmniFile Full-Text, Mega Edition - provides access to indexing and abstracting for approximately 3,500 journals and magazines from the humanities, social sciences, and science and engineering, with fulltext available for about 1,750 titles.  Coverage for some titles begins as early as 1982.  (remote access requires username and password)

Harp Week - provides fulltext access to issues of Harper's Weekly: Journal of Civilization published between January 3, 1857 and December 29, 1877.  You can both browse and search;  Harp Week provides subject, illustration, advertisement, and published literature indexes, or you can search the fulltext of all available issues.  One can also browse by date.  (remote access requires username and password)
 

Miscellaneous Databases and Research Related Digitized Tools

Dissertation Abstracts - Indexed doctoral dissertations and theses from universities in the U.S. and abroad.  Over 1,560,000 items from all fields of study, dating back to 1861.  Abstracts provided for records since 1980 - thesis abstracts since 1988.  This database can be accessed both on-campus and off-campus through remote proxy access.  (remote access requires username and password)

Journal Locator - is an alphabetical list of journals and magazines to which the University Libraries provide access.  This title list will, in most cases, tell you the dates available for a particular electronic title, and you can connect to the appropriate database.  You can then search the database for the title you need. 
If we subscribe to a title in print format, "SU Journal Collection" will be stated and you can connect to the catalog record which will show our subscription holdings.  The catalog record will tell you whether a title is available in paper or on microfilm.
Over 30,000 titles are now listed.

Search Journal Locator  -  Find Both Print and Electronic Journals Available Through University Libraries

RefWorks - a bibliographic citation manager which allows users toImport citations from online databases to create your own personal bibliographic database. Off-campus Requires separate password - see Dr. Jacobs for access information

InterLibrary Loan Forms - just click here to bring up the forms for books and journals.  Remember, you must make sure that we do not have access to what you need in our local collection, BEFORE you make a request. 

    Remember to read on-screen instructions; some systems are actually quite friendly.

     Use online help features for more detailed explanations of how to search each particular
     database.
      

Tell Us About Your Project - Research Project Consultation

    Undergraduates can call:        David McKinney at 540-665-5444        or        Cindy Thomas at 540-665-5421

    Graduate students call:        Rosemary Green at 540-665-4634       

Always feel free to ask a librarian for help!! 

We want to save you time, help you find the best materials, and help you learn to become a more efficient researcher.

Free Internet Sites

As always, carefully evaluate all information found at free Internet sites. 

American Studies Web - this searchable, well organized site offers gender, demography, sexuality, art, environment, and many other topics.  Founded by David Phillip's (Yale University American Studies), it is provided courtesy of Georgetown University
Making of America - primary sources in American social history.  The University of Michigan has scanned over 8,500 books and 50,000 articles and they consider this just a good start.  It's searchable is like browsing "the stacks of a major archive."
The Sixties Project - personal narratives, primary documents, research links, and more courtesy of the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH), University of Virginia at Charlottesville
American Memory:  Historical Collections for the National Digital Library - these are special collections from the Library of Congress and consist of primary source and archival materials.  Samples include women's suffrage and vaudeville
African American Women Writers of the 19th century - a searchable database of "30 hitherto inaccessible volumes of 19th century African American women's literature"
American Authors on the Web - an easily used, browsable metasite of American authors arranged chronologically
The Academy of American Poets - check out these themes - Poems of Love, of Work, of Ancestry...
American Religious Experience - regional, ethnic, women's, and other topics appear.  Though some of the research areas are thin, the quality is high.  Courtesy of Brian Turley of West Virginia University and other scholars from various institutions
Changing America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-being by Race and Hispanic Origin
"Prepared by the Council of Economic Advisers for the President's Initiative on Race."  Courtesy of the Government Printing Office, the index to this report offers many valuable links, but requires Adobe Acrobat to view the text
Contemporary American Poetry Archive - "an electronic archive designed to make out-of-print volumes of poetry available to readers, scholars, and researchers"

Literature Sources

American Authors on the Web - an easily used, browsable metasite of American authors arranged chronologically
The Academy of American Poets - check out these themes - Poems of Love, of Work, of Ancestry..
Contemporary American Poetry Archive - "an electronic archive designed to make out-of-print volumes of poetry available to readers, scholars, and researchers"
Voice of the Shuttle - a metasite for humanities research courtesy of Professor Alan Liu of the University of California Santa Barbara
Project Gutenberg - thousands of e-texts in plain text or "zipped" formats (for downloading)
Children's Literature Web Guide - courtesy of Professor David K. Brown at Calgary University
Modern Language Association - "for over a hundred years, members have worked to strengthen the study and teaching of language and literature"

History Sources

Metasites

WWW - Virtual Library - HISTORY - "The WWW Virtual Library (VL) is the oldest catalog of the Web.... the VL pages are widely recognized as being amongst the highest-quality guides to particular sections of the Web."
WWW Virtual Library - HISTORY: UNITED STATES

General Sources

American Memory:  Historical Collections from the National Digital Library -  Library of Congress provides "a gateway to rich primary source materials relating to the history and culture of the United States. The site offers more than 7 million digital items from more than 100 historical collections"
National Archives and Records Administration - a federal agency charged with the preservation and access to historical documents provides this browsable, searchable site which has over 83,000 digitized copies.  Examples include the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation
American and British History Resources on the Internet - a metasite for scholarly sources.  It's not yet searchable, but is browsable by subject area and chronologically.  Courtesy of Rutgers University
International Institute of Social History - a valuable source for for labor history and related subjects
Cold War International History Project - courtesy of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, it focus is to facilitate release of Cold War documents from all governments
The African American Mosaic:  A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History
American Women's History:  A Research Guide - twenty seven subject areas including general and biographical sources. Courtesy of Kenneth Middleton of Middle Tennessee State University
The American Folklife Center:  The Library of Congress
Index of Native American Resources on the Internet - a browsable metasite, some subject areas lack depth, but provides many worthwhile links nonetheless
NativeWeb - covers indigenous peoples not only of North America, but is international in scope
The Sixties Project - personal narratives, primary documents, research links, and more courtesy of the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH), University of Virginia at Charlottesville
African American Odyssey - covers "more than 200 years of African American struggle and achievement."  Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Oyez Oyez Oyez - offers transcripts, oral arguments, abstracts dating to 1891, and links to fulltext.  Audio is available for some recent cases.  Courtesy of Northwestern University
American Cultural History: The Twentieth Century - "The purpose of these pages is to present a series of web guides on the decades of the twentieth century"  Courtesy of Kingwood College, Peggy Whitley, and several reference librarians from around the United States

Online Documents for the Study of American History

Making of America - University of Michigan - primary sources in American social history.  The University of Michigan has scanned over 1,600 books and 50,000 articles, and they consider this just a good start.  It's searchable, but if you want to browse, it's like browsing "the stacks of a major archive."
Making of America - Cornell University - materials accessible here are Cornell University Library's contributions to Making of America (MOA), a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology.  This site provides access to 267 monograph volumes and over 100,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints
Documenting the American South:  Beginnings to 1920 - "is a digital publishing initiative that provides Internet access to texts, images, and audio files related to Southern history, literature, and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20th century. Currently DocSouth includes seven thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs."  Courtesy to the University of North Carolina
Documents for the Study of American History - a "bibliography of primary documents available on the Internet which are essential for the study of US history."  Courtesy of the University of Kansas
The Avalon Project at Yale University - reproductions of historical documents in many fields.  Examples are the Jefferson Papers, The Federalists Papers, and The Confederate States of America Papers
Documents from the Women's Liberation Movement:  An Online Archive - courtesy of Duke University
History Channel Speeches -  "Hear the words that changed the world.  From Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a dream" speech to Lou Gehrig's farewell to baseball"  Brief background information is provided to help place each speech in context.  Be prepared to endure advertising.
Early Americas Digital Archive - "The Early Americas Digital Archive (EADA) is a collection of electronic texts and links to texts originally written in or about the Americas from 1492 to approximately 1820. Open to the public for research and teaching purposes"  Courtesy of Professor Ralph Bauer, at the University of Maryland at College Park.

Historical Maps and History of Cartography

Map History/History of Cartography:  The Gateway to the Subject - courtesy of the Institute for Historical Research, School of Advanced Study at the University of London
Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection - is perhaps the single best source of maps and map information on the Internet.  Courtesy of the University of Texas-Austin

The American Civil War

The American Civil War Homepage - is perhaps the single largest collection of links about Civil War history on the web.  Courtesy of Dr. George H. Hoemann of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Mary E. Myers
The United States Civil War Center - Mission statement:  "To promote the study of the Civil War from the perspectives of all professions, occupations and academic disciplines.  To locate, index, and make available all appropriate private and public data on the Internet regarding the Civil War."  Courtesy LSU Libraries Special Collections

Women in American History

American Women's History - A Research Guide - courtesy Ken Middleton and Middle Tennessee State University Libraries

Images

Imagebase - courtesy of Virginia Tech, contains pictures of a wide variety of items, many with a focus on the state of Virginia and its history
Historical Picture Collections - courtesy of Steve Schoenherr and the Department of History at the University of San Diego.  Provides links to the best photo archives on the web