This guide contains links to over a hundred catalogs, databases, and digital libraries for US History Research. The guide is organized on the top tabs:
Search Tips: Use this section if you need assistance searching for sources or writing your paper.
Background Research: Links to databases for reference sources and topic ideas. These sources will provide background information, keywords, and source ideas.
Print and E-Books: Primary and secondary books. Books are a great place to find in depth information about a topic.
Databases: Library subscription database to find primary and secondary sources. Sources include scholarly journal articles, popular magazines, historic and current newspapers, video, and images.
Primary Sources: Digital Libraries are online and free and contain access to millions of digitized primary sources. The digital libraries are organized according to content and time period:
Citation: Information about how to cite using Chicago Manual of Style and NoodleTools.
Notecards: Directions on how to use NoodleTools to keep track of your notes.
Footnotes: Information about how to format footnotes using Chicago Manual of Style and using NoodleTools to automatically format them for you.
When at school, you can use the Spence Library resources using the links on the guide through automatic IP authentication.
When at home, the first time you use a library resource in your browser you will be redirected to a log-in screen in order to authenticate that you are a member of the Spence Community. To do so, enter your Spence username (for most students this is: first initial + last name + year of graduation) and the master password you were given by Spence at the beginning of the school year. After you authenticate, you will be automatically directed to the database you select. You only need to authenticate once during a browsing session.
