History: Books

Controlled vocabulary legislate the use of predefined, authorised terms that have been preselected by the designer of the vocabulary, in contrast to natural language vocabularies, where there is no restriction on the vocabulary.

Subject headings are a controlled vocabulary. A single term or phrase is determined by an authority (Library Congress or a database vendor) to describe a subject. For example, try searching for the subject "roaring twenties" in West-Cat and see what you get.

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)

• United States--History--1919-1933--Sources
• history--methodology
• history, modern
• history, ancient
• Middle Ages
• Renaissance

• roller blading
• gulf war
• vietnamese conflict
• jim crowism
• history, medieval
• Renaissance art

Contemporary Authors Series (REF/PN/451/C6)

A bio-bibliographical guide to writers in general non-fiction, fiction and others. Use the soft cover cumulative index to find the author in question. This is the first place to look for biographical information on authors.

Biography and Genealogy Master Index

Indexes reference sources, such as Who’s Who, Biography Index and Contemporary Authors. From the library homepage, click on online databases. Then click on alphabetical listing.

Google

My favorite all-purpose web search engine. Uses “next generation” searching technology. Useful for finding author information. The advanced search screenhelps refine searches.

Who’s Who on the Web

The Complete Marquis Who's Who on the Web comprises every person-active, retired, or deceased-who has appeared in any of 20 Marquis Who's Who titles from the past decade.

 

WestCat/I-Share

An online catalog of the University Libraries’ books, periodicals and other library materials. Easy access from the library homepage (http://www.wiu.edu/library). On the Books tab click  I-Share. Sign in at the top with your Ecom and password. Search for the book or topic you want. Click on the book in the results. To request a book from a non-WIU library, click on “Request”. 

 

WorldCat

One of the databases available from FirstSearch. Bibliographic records of any type of material cataloged by OCLC member libraries. Includes manuscripts written as early as the 12th century. Includes 52 million bibliographic records. If you learn how to use this tool, you will be able to tap into a huge amount of bibliographic information, including many historical documents. Use the Library of Congress Subject Headings to refine searches. To find primary sources, use the subject headings "sources."

Consider using Google Books to find the full text of books published years ago.

America: History and Life

Covers North American history from ancient times to the present. Click on the Online Databases link on the library’s homepage. To locate book reviews, change the document type to book review. Note that this feature is not available in Historical Abstracts.

Book Review Digest (REF/Z/1219/C95)

Book Review Digest provides excerpts from and citations to reviews of fiction and non-fiction. Over 7,000 English-language books are covered each year. Concise, critical evaluations are chosen from 109 periodicals in the humanities, social and general sciences, as well as library review media. Covers 1905 to the present.

Book Review Index (REF/Z/1035/A1B6)Book Review Index (BRI) contains references to more than 2,000,000 reviews of approximately 1,000,000 distinct book and periodical titles. The title dates from 1969 to the present and covers every review published in nearly 500 periodicals and newspapers. Each record includes the author and title of the work being reviewed, journal name, date of review, and page number. Does not include excerpts.

H-NetH-Net is an interdisciplinary organization of scholars and teachers in the humanities and social sciences who are using the Internet to help them reach their research and pedagogical objectives. Click on the reviews tab to locate current book reviews.An Index to Book Reviews in the Humanities (REF/Z/1035/A1I63/1960-90)An annual index (ceased in 1990) to book reviews appearing in humanities periodicals. Comprehensive coverage of the indexed periodicals. Arranged alphabetically by author's last name as listed on the title page of the book. Each entry includes the book title, the reviewer's name, and a numeric code that identifies the periodical from which the review was taken. Includes a list of periodicals indexed in a given year.InfoTracEngage the advance search option in order to locate only book reviews. In one of search boxes type “book review” as a keyword. In the second search box type the title of the book, or a few significant words from the title, as a keyword. If the book was published before 1980, chances are no book review citations will be retrieved.