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Civil War and Reconstruction

AHST 233 ; Prof. T. Heed
Guide for finding sources at the George T. Potter Library
 

October 6 , 2006

Susan B. Kurzmann

skurzman@ramapo.edu

 I. Library Homepage: http://library.ramapo.edu

• Provides access to the catalog (OPAC), databases, interlibrary loan forms, etc.

II. Finding Primary and Secondary Sources

• Primary sources enable researchers to get as close as possible to what actually happened during an historical event or time period. The information and ideas were either created during the time period or created later by a participant or observer of the event being studied.

• Some examples of primary sources to study the history of the pre-Civil War through Reconstruction period:
  •  Memoirs, diaries, letters, interviews, and other first-person accounts
  • Government documents
  • Newspaper articles
  • Paintings

• Catalog: Use this to find books, periodical titles (NOT articles ), government documents, reserve items, music, and movies owned by the Library. You may limit a search by language, year(s) of publication, type of material, etc. This may take a few seconds to load.

• Searching the catalog for primary source material :   
  • Use the Advanced Search option

OR

• Use the Command line / Boolean terms search option under Basic Search
• Both these options allow you to enter additonal terms that will insure that your results will be primary source material
• For example
  • in Advanced Search, enter civil war [and] sources
  • in Command line / Boolean terms option, enter "civil war" and sources
• Using words like correspondence, memoir, letter, interview, autobiographies, or diaries will help you to locate source material
• Click on the Related Records tab on the top of a record to see the subject headings associated with that particular item. These linked subject headings will take you to other material on the same subject matter.

• Searching the catalog for secondary source material:

• In Basic Search, use the keyword default setting for a basic search to find material, for example:
  • search for "Gettysburg address " or slaves emancipation to locate a broad range of materials the library has on these keywords
• Results will be ranked by relevance; you may then re-sort them by title, author, publish [=publication] date, or publish date descending
• When you find an appropriate title, click on the Related Records tab located at the top of a catalog record to see which Library of Congress subject headings are discussed in that particular book/DVD/periodical

OR

• Use the Subject Browse feature to look for material about a particluar person, for example:

Lincoln, Abraham

Goldman, Emma

• Also use the Subject Browse feature if you know the relevant Library of Congress (LC) subject heading, for example:
  • United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865

    subheadings:

    • --Drama
    • --Periodicals

  • Reconstruction (U.S. history, 1865-1877)
• Women--Southern States--History--19th century
• United States--Politics and government--1865-1869

 

OR

• Go to Advanced Search
  • The Boolean search terms are built in for your use
    • AND: you are commanding the system to search for material that addresses both terms you've entered
    • OR: you are commanding the system to search for material on either of the search terms you have entered
    • NOT: you are commanding the system to search for material on the first term you have entered and to exclude any material on the second term you have entered
  • The catalog system will provide more focused results  
Tips

1. Start with broad searches. It is much easier to discard too much rather than start with too little.
2. If you don't know the Subject Heading, use the Related Records tab located on the top of a catalog record to get to the headings. This will help you focus in on more relevant material.
3. Can "virtually" browse the shelves by clicking on the call number in a record.

III. Electronic Resources

• Journal Finder: this provides information about where to find the full text of articles when available in the George T. Potter Library in print, microform, or through a full-text database. This feature also appears in many of our databases. Linked under Quick Links.

• Interlibrary Loan: allows you to borrow a book or article that the George T. Potter library does not own. There is a link from the Journal Finder screen and also under Quick Links.

Some useful Databases for your projects:

Tips

1. Use the Advanced Search page in a database. This will give you more control over your results
2. Use Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT) and quotation marks when running a search, for example:

"civil war " and reconstruction

reconstruction or "Andrew Johnson "

3. Always check your Spelling if the database results are zero
4. Use the Subject Terms or Thesaurus link if available to find the best terms to use in a particular database

• Check the following Subject Resources linked under History:

 

• American Memory (Library of Congress)
• Searches American primary sources
• Provides access to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, motion pictures, photos, and sheet music that document the American experience
  
• National Archives and Records Administration
  • Public documents of all varieties and relevant topics that encompass the "American Experience"

 

• Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture

• The site of a national research library devoted to collecting, preserving and providing access to resources documenting the experiences of peoples of African descent throughout the world

 

• Resources in Black Studies

• University of California at Santa Barbara site offers links to sixteen different research categories, but is especially strong in news media, historical texts, and documents

 

• The History Cooperative

• A premier resource for historians on the Web. The American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, the University of Illinois Press, and the National Academy Press have joined in this project, which includes full text of current issues of some history journals

 

• The Making of America

• Materials accessible here are Cornell University Library's contributions to Making of America (MOA), a digital library of primary sources in American social history from the antebellum period through reconstruction. Provides access to 267 monograph volumes and over 100,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints

 

• See the following Subject Resources linked under Newspapers & Electronic Media

• Television News Archives: Vanderbilt University

 

• National Public Radio

 

• For Web searching, consult Evaluating Websites to determine if the site is authoritative enough to use in your paper

• Useful Websites

• The American Civil War Homepage

Prof. George Henry Hoemann, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

• Civil War Sites The Virginia Center for Civil War Studies

 

• H-Net:

 

• PBS: American Experience

American Experience and many other PBS programs are good sources of information

V. Bibliographies and Annotated Bibliographies

• Use the Citing Websites and Print Sources for "Works Cited" citation style guidance
• Follow the examples given for the Chicago/Turabian citation style

 

VI. Reference Material

• The reference stacks are located on the 3rd floor (this is also the library's entrance).

• Useful reference materials for your projects:

Primary Sources
Annals of America	Ref E173 .A793 2003 (volumes 9 & 10)
Civil War America: Voices from the Home Front	Ref E468.9 .M127 2003
The Civil War Archive: The History of the Civil War in Documents	Ref E464 .C45 2000
The Civil War Chronicle: The Only Day-by-Day Portrait of America's Tragic Conflict as Told by Soldiers, Journalists, Politicains, Farmers, Nurses, Slaves, and Other Eyewitnesses	Ref E655 .C49
Documentary History of Reconstruction	Ref 3668 .F58 1960
Documents of American History	Ref E173 .D59 1988
Documents of American Prejudice	Ref E184 .A1D64 1999
The Reconstruction Era	RefE668 .D545 2003
The State of the Union Messages of the Presidents: 1790-1966	Ref J81 .C66
Secondary Sources
American Social History Since 1860	Ref Z1361 .C6 B7
Civil War Archive	Ref E464 .C45 2000
The Civil War Dictionary	Ref E468 .B7 1988
Civil Rights in the United States	Ref E184 .A1 C47 2000
Dictionary of American Biography	Ref E176 .D56
Encyclopedia of the American Presidency	Ref JK 511.E53
Encyclopedia of the Confederacy	Ref E487.E55 1993
Encyclopedia of the American War	Ref E468 .E53 2000
Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century	Ref E169.1 .E626 2001
A Financial History of the United States	Ref HG181 .M297 2002
History of American Presidential Elections, 1789-1968	Ref E183 .S28
Manifest Destiny and the Coming of the Civil War	Ref E301 .Z99 F4
The Nation in Crisis, 1861-1877	Ref E456 .Z99 .D6
Nineteenth Century Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature	Ref Indexes (back of reference section; shelved alphabetically)
St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture	Ref E169.1 .S764--print edition (Online access)
Timetables of American History	Ref E174.5 .U75 1983
Women During the Civil War: An Encyclopedia	Ref E628.H37 2004
Writings on American History	Ref Z1236 .L331
Atlases
Atlas of American History	Ref Atlas Tables G 1201 .S1 A8 1984
Historical Atlas of the United States	Ref Atlas Tables G 1201 .S1 H5 2003
Mapping America's Past: A Historical Atlas	Ref Atlas Tables G1201 .S1 C3 1996

Need more help? Visit or call the Reference Desk: 201.684.7574

Use QandA NJ: a 24/7 virtual chat with a reference librarian.