History Research Guide
- Getting Started
- Find Books and Films
- Find Articles
- Find Primary Sources
- Citing Sources
Getting Started
This guide is designed to provide undergraduate researchers with helpful tips and suggested print and electronic resources about history. The guide is divided into 5 different sections. Each is designed to assist the researcher with ideas on how to track down material relating to their history research topics.
How to do History Research
Readings, Writing, and Researching for History provides a detailed introduction on how to read, write, and research for history—from developing reading skills for critical primary and secondary sources to formulating an argument. This site is highly recommended for those who have never written a university-level history paper.
Reading, Writing, and Researching for History
Finding Background Information
Background sources, such as specialized encyclopedias and dictionaries, are an essential piece of the research process. They can help you:
- Gather information about your topic and understand the scope of the research
- Locate reliable sources and clarify keywords
- Pinpoint important authors, texts, ideas, and keywords about the research area. Knowing what the primary phrases and concepts are will help you as you search through library databases and online sources.
GriffinSearch
GriffinSearch is a good starting place if you are looking for reference titles, books, journal articles, films, and other material related to history available in the library. In addition to searching the Giovale Library catalog for physical materials, GriffinSearch finds e-books and articles from several of our databases, including the Research Starter database.
Credo Reference
Credo Reference is a multi-publisher collection of high-quality reference titles covering everything from the arts, astronomy, and law to literature, science, and Shakespeare. Available titles also include a range of multimedia options including thousands of high-quality diagrams, photographs, maps, and audio files. Credo Reference offers several relevant titles to history and more.
Find Books and Films
Print and e-books are valuable sources for academic research. They will help you to gain an overview of your topic and often contain in-depth information about the scholarship or history of research on a subject. Some books are written by single authors, while others include essays or chapters by multiple scholars within a discipline. Don’t let the length of books intimidate you because you don’t need to read them from cover to cover. Look at the table of contents and index to find the sections that are relevant to your work.
Books as Secondary Sources
Sometimes history papers will require secondary source materials as part of the assignment. In a history research paper, secondary sources are generally scholarly books and articles that describe, discuss, interpret, comment upon, analyze, evaluate, and summarize primary sources as a non-fiction work. Keep in mind that not all authors of secondary sources on historical subjects are professional historians.
Find Books Using GriffinSearch
GriffinSearch is a good starting place if you are looking for books, journal articles, films, and other materials available in the library. In addition to searching the Giovale Library catalog for physical materials, GriffinSearch finds e-books and articles from several of our databases. To get started, search by keyword or type in the title of a book here:
Academic Videos Online (AVON)
Academic Videos Online (AVON) provides unlimited access to a comprehensive selection of videos curated for the educational experience.
WorldCat
WorldCat lets you search for books, articles, videos, and other material that are available in libraries worldwide. If you are doing in-depth research on a topic and are considering requesting resources through Interlibrary Loan, WorldCat can help you discover resources that might not be in the Giovale Library collection.
Interlibrary Loan (ILL)
Interlibrary Loan is a service where patrons of one library can borrow books and other materials, and access journal articles that are owned by another library.
Explore Interlibrary Loan Materials
Utah Academic Library Consortium
Giovale Library participates in the Utah Academic Library Consortium (UALC) and Westminster University students have reciprocal circulation privileges at UALC partner libraries. Each UALC library has different circulation policies, but all require a current, valid, legal photo identification and proof of current enrollment at Westminster. Some libraries may also require other verification methods, so it is recommended that you contact the library you are interested in for details.
Popular Titles and Featured Texts
Against Erasure: A Photographic Memory of Palestine before the Nakba
Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution
Toward a Global History of Latin America's Revolutionary Left
Queering Mesoamerican Diasporas: Remembering Xicana Indigena Ancestries
Find Articles
The Giovale Library provides access to a number of subject databases that you can use to find journal articles on topics within a specific discipline or field of study. The databases listed on this page are those that are most useful for finding research published in the field of History.
Articles as Secondary Sources
In a history research paper, secondary sources are generally scholarly books and articles that describe, discuss, interpret, comment upon, analyze, evaluate, and summarize primary sources as a non-fiction work. Secondary source materials can be articles in newspapers or popular magazines, book or movie reviews, or articles found in scholarly journals that discuss or evaluate someone else's original research. Keep in mind that not all authors of secondary sources on historical subjects are professional historians. Biographical details about the authors are often available, and they will help you to determine how popular or scholarly a particular source may be. Articles that have gone through a peer-review process—an examination by a series of scholars in similar fields—will usually be good sources for your research.
GriffinSearch
GriffinSearch is a good starting place if you are looking for books, journal articles, films, and other material available in the library. In addition to searching the Giovale Library catalog for physical materials, GriffinSearch finds e-books and articles from several of our databases.
US History Collection (Gale)
The Gale US History database provides access to scholarly journals and magazines useful for historical research related to US History. This resource also provides content on the coverage of events in US history and scholarly work being established in the field.
JSTOR
JSTOR is an interdisciplinary archive of full text articles from journals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. It includes retrospective coverage of publications which means that most of the articles will be 1 to 5 years old. To search for subject specific articles, after entering your search terms, scroll down to “Journal Filter” and select a subject.
SocINDEX with Full Text (EBSCO)
SocINDEX with Full Text includes full text for numerous peer-reviewed sociology journals dating back to 1908. It also includes full text books and conference papers. The database encompasses all sub-disciplines of sociology and closely related areas of study, including sociological history, making it an invaluable resource for social history research.
Find Primary Sources
Primary sources include historical documents, government and legal documents, eyewitness accounts, flyers and pamphlets, statistical data, pieces of creative writing, audio and video recordings, speeches, and art objects. Anything that provides direct or firsthand evidence about an event, object, person, or work of art could be considered a primary source. Interviews, surveys, emails, hand-written correspondence, diaries, and blogs are also primary sources.
For more information about evaluating primary sources, the American Library Association provides an excellent set of guidelines.
Learn more at RUSA – Evaluating Primary Sources
Collections of Digitized Primary Sources
African Online Digital Library
AODL is an open access digital library of African cultural heritage materials created by Michigan State University in collaboration with museums, archives, scholars, and communities around the world.
Search African Online Digital Library
Digital Public Library of America
Digital Public Library of America provides access to millions of texts, images, audio files, video files, and other resources digitized by libraries, archives, museums, and other organizations in the United States. The Digital Public Library of America is an incredible resource for primary source material.
Search Digital Public Library of America
EuroDocs
EuroDocs, hosted by Brigham Young University, features European primary historical documents that are transcribed, reproduced in facsimile, or translated. In addition, you will find video or sound files, maps, photographs or other imagery, databases, and other documentation. The sources cover a broad range of historical happenings (political, economic, social, and cultural).
Library of Congress Digital Collections
The Library of Congress Digital Collections currently has over 2.2 million historical materials available through their online collection, including photographs, correspondence, music, manuscripts, maps, and much more. Historical materials date from the year 1000 to present from all over the world.
Search the Library of Congress Digital Collections
New York Public Library Digital Library Collections
The New York Public Library Digital Library Collections include a wealth of primary source materials related to American history, Russian history, and many more topics of research. The collection is ever growing, and includes digitized company records, early photographs and films, collections of letters, books, newspapers, and more.
Search NYPL Digital Collections
Smithsonian Collections
The Smithsonian Collections search center is an online catalog containing most of the Smithsonian major collections from their museums, archives, libraries, and research units. There are catalog records relating to areas for art and design, history and culture, and science and technology and includes images, videos, audio files, podcasts, blog posts and electronic journals.
Search Smithsonian Collections
Utah State Historical Research Center
The Utah State Historical Research Center is a public research facility operated by the Utah State Archives and Utah State History Divisions. This collection houses manuscripts, photographs, maps, historic state and local government documents, and more from 1850 to the present.
Search Utah State Historical Research Center
Finding Non-Digitized Primary Sources
There are many things to consider when looking for primary sources. Interlibrary loan and the Utah Academic Library lending agreement can assist with access to some primary source materials, however primary source materials that have not been digitized can be very difficult and take a long time to get access to—if they can be accessed at all.
If a primary source is not available digitally, it might be something that can be requested through interlibrary loan in microfilm or microfiche format or as a special request scan from a lending library. These requests can take several weeks to several months to be filled.
Primary sources come in a wide range of mediums and formats, some of which are too fragile for scanning or circulation through interlibrary loan. It may not be possible to get access to non-digitized primary sources unless they are available locally.
WorldCat
WorldCat is helpful for locating primary source materials. This site lets you search for books, articles, videos, and other materials that are available in libraries worldwide. If you are doing in-depth research on a topic and are considering requesting resources through interlibrary loan, WorldCat can help you discover resources that might not be in the Giovale Library collection. It can also show you what may be available at local libraries, such as the University of Utah.
Citing Sources
Citation Resources
Properly citing your sources shows that you’ve done research to become knowledgeable about your topic and helps you avoid plagiarism. Explore citation resources to learn how to correctly cite sources based on style.
Need help with your research?
Get in touch with:
Robyn Ward
Liaison Librarian for History801.832.2267rward@westminsteru.eduLibrarians are happy to answer questions via email, phone, or in-person.
Contact Robyn with a question or to schedule a research help appointment.
Faculty: Contact Robyn to suggest edits to this research guide.