Content last reviewed:
Key Resources
Covers Canada and the United States
Covers the world, except Canada and the United States.
Digital archive of journals, books and primary sources.
Collection of scholarly journals in the arts, humanities and social sciences.
Full text digital image archive of the London Times, 1785-1985.
Use encyclopedias or companion handbooks to find authoritative definitions
- A dictionary of contemporary world history
- Fifty key works of history and historiography
- Routledge companion to historical studies
- Routledge handbook on the history of development
- Short history of the world
Research Methods and Theory
- Sage Research Methods database is designed to support researchers with writing a research question, choosing a method, gathering, analyzing data, and writing up & publishing the findings.
- Tip: When browsing by discipline, look for 'History' to find a number of handbooks and case studies.
Other suggested books and websites:
To find journal articles, you have two options:
1. Search Omni, the library's main search box to easily find peer-reviewed journal articles on any topic
- Remember to refine your search by selecting the filters such as: Peer-Reviewed Journals, Articles and Subject (optional) to obtain high quality, academic literature
- If you need more help, use the finding journal articles instructions
2. You can also search databases by subject. Databases offer many advanced features and search results are more precise.
Recommended databases for History:
- America History and Life (covers Canada and the United States)
- Historical Abstracts (covers the world, except Canada and the United States)
- American Periodicals Series Online
- Bibliography of British and Irish History
- Bibliography of Native of Native North Americans
- Cairn.info: full-text of journals from France, many subject areas covered
- Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database
- CPI-Q (Canadian)
- HAPI Online (Latin American)
- History of Feminism
- Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages & Renaissance
- International Medieval Bibliography
- JSTOR (multi-disciplinary)
- Nineteenth Century Short Title Catalogue (Britain and Colonies)
- Peels Prairie Provinces (Canada)
- Periodicals Archive Online
- Periodicals Index Online
- Persée: moving wall archive similar to JSTOR - contains scholarly journals from France in the humanities
- Readers' Guide Retrospective
- Web of Science Core Collection (multi-disciplinary)
- Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824-1900
Dissertations:
Interlibrary Loans
Begin with:
- Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Sources - the web page describes each type of source with examples
Searching for primary sources using Omni
Search your topic (or historical person of interest) by using Omni the library's main discovery too. Find primary sources (or reproductions) in our collection by using keyword searches that include the following terms: diar* (for diary or diaries), correspondence, letters, memoir, personal narrative, recollections, reminiscences, journal, sources.
- Sample search string: nurses AND war AND diar*
Other search tips:
- Use bibliographies and footnotes of secondary sources on your topic to help identify primary source material.
- Useful e-book on alternative sources: History Beyond the Text : A Student's Guide to Approaching Alternative Sources
- Original documents can also be found by searching our archival collections. Contact the Archives and Research Collections (ARC) staff for help.
Browse the CU Databases for Archives and Primary Sources
Historical Newspaper Databases
Primary Sources on the web
- Archives and Primary Sources Databases
- Archives of Ontario
- Digital Public Library of America
- Internet Archive
- Gallica: digital library of the Bibliothèque nationale de France
- Hathi Trust Digital Library
- Library and Archives Canada
- Library of Congress Digital Collections
- National Archives (UK)
- New York Public Library Digital Collections
- SUDOC (Système Universitaire de Documentation) The collective catalogue of France's universities and research centres
- WorldCat: search library catalogues of 1000's of libraries around the world
Other libraries with significant primary source collections:
- Center for Research Libraries (CRL) - Carleton University Library is a member of the CRL consortium. It regularly acquires and preserves newspapers, journals, documents, archives, and other traditional and digital resources for research and teaching and makes them available to member institutions.
Citation
Government Information
- Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History and Diplomacy
- House of Commons Parliamentary Papers
- U.S. Congressional Serial Set (1817-1980) with American State Papers (1789-1838)
Maps
- Best of History Sites - Maps
- British Atlantic, American Frontier (Canadian-American Center)
- David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
- Dutch Colonial Maps
- European History 1945-90
- Historical Maps (Library of Congress)
- Maps of Scotland
- Perry-Castaneda Library Map Collection Historical Map Sites (University of Texas)
- World War II Military Situation Maps (Library of Congress)
Historical GIS sources:
- Bomb Sight: mapping the WW2 bomb census
- Hidden Patterns of the Civil War
- Historical Maps of the Habsburg Empire
- Holocaust Geographies
- Muninn Project
- ORBIS: The Stanford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World
Other selected resources related to GIS:
Images
Videos
- Films and Videos @ CU
- Geohistory - Géohistoire Canada
- GIS & the Humanities (Stanford) - most links are historical
- The Historical GIS Research Network (UK) - overview of HGIS and resource links
- ARTstor
- Life Photo Archive - search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.
- NYPL Digital Gallery
- Smithsonian Institution Libraries: Gallery of Images
- World Digital Library
