Resources for History 104: Europe and the Modern World

Finding sources in the library      Reference      Articles       Web Sites

• Finding sources - primary and secondary- on your topic at Todd Wehr Library
• Search Tips and Strategies – Begin at the Advanced Search Page
• To focus, use limits. For example for “pre-9/11 terrorism”, limit search to “Before 2000”
• Checking to see if we own a journal

Exercises Searching Carroll library's online catalog:
(Remember: a subject encyclopedia may help you refine your search, select terms, etc. See Reference Materials below)                     

• Take a look at your topic:                             The Middle East Conflict
• Choose terms related to your topic:               Arafat, Israel, Palestine, Oslo, “camp david”
• Think of alternate terms:                               “jewish arab relations”
• Conduct a search in PioPac.  Go directly to the Advanced Search.

Reference Materials:

Historic Documents  Ref E839.5 H571   2002 European union

Encyclopedia of Eastern Europe  Ref DJK6 E53 2000   

Encyclopedia of the United Nations / John Allphin Moore, Jr., Ref  KZ4968 .M66 2002.

The Middle East and North Africa 1994 Ref DS 49 .M53 1994

A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People Ref DS 117 .J8513 1002

Great debates at the United Nations : an encyclopedia of fifty key issues, 1945-2000  Ref KZ4968 .G67 2001

Africana : the encyclopedia of the African and African American experience Ref DT14 .A37435 1999

The World Today series, including:

Africa  Ref  DT1 .D6.

The Middle East and South Asia. Ref DS44 .C55.

Western Europe      Ref D1050 .W41.

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Finding Articles – Using Databases

Academic Search Premier Academic Search Premier provides full text of more than 1,850 academic, social sciences, humanities, general science, education and multi-cultural journals. In addition, this database offers indexing and abstracts for 2,900 journals. Full-text and indexing go as far back as January 1985.

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Web Sites

Search Engines and Subject Directories – web search tools are not all created equal! Search Engines (Google, Yahoo, Altavista) build databases with computer “crawlers” or “spiders.”  These are OK but no one evaluates, looks at, or annotates the sites

Subject Directories Directories such as Librarians Index to the Internet (lii.org); WWW Virtual Library (http://vlib.org/); and Open Directory Project (http://dmoz.org) build databases with human input. People look at and evaluate the sites and often write annotations. These function like a Table of Contents for the Web and will be a good resource for finding primary sources on the Internet.

Existing sites – if someone else has done the work, take advantage of it, but evaluate carefully

EuroDocs: Western European Primary Historical Documents from the library at

Brigham Young University:http://library.byu.edu/~rdh/eurodocs/

Using Primary Sources on the Web – from RUSA /ALA:

http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/History/RUSA/

Resources for Teaching your topic:

Merlot - MERLOT is a free and open resource designed primarily for faculty and students of higher

education: http://www.merlot.org/Home.po

The Awesome Library: http://www.awesomelibrary.org/about.html

http://www.awesomelibrary.org/Classroom/Social_Studies/History/History.html

Librarians Index to the Internet  (Courtesy of the California State Librarian): http://lii.org/

search:  teaching history 

Evaluating what you find on the Web

The Web is self-publishing. Anyone, with a few tools can publish.  Check for:

• Authority: who authored, wrote the page. What kind of a domain is it? .edu, .com, .net?
• Accuracy: Are the facts correct? Where could I go to check dates, facts
• Currency: When was the page created, updated? Are the links working?
• Purpose: Is this a site that is trying to sell me something, convince me one way or another, educate, entertain, inform?  Is there an obvious bias? What is it? Does the bias affect the validity of the information?

For more information on evaluating web sites, visit this site from Esther Grassian of the UCLA College Library: http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/college/help/critical/index.htm

For Additional Help

Ask at the Reference Desk.   

Call the Carroll University Library Reference Desk at 262-650-4892.

Contact Librarian Sue Riehl.

For more information contact the library.

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