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History Seminar: American Indian History

HIST 410; Prof. C. Meyer
Guide for finding sources at the George T. Potter Library
 

September 18, 2008

Susan B. Kurzmann

skurzman@ramapo.edu

• Library Homepage
• Find Books
• Reference Material
• Find Articles (Databases)
• Journal Finder & Interlibrary Loan
• Websites
• Bibliographies

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

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

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II. Finding Primary and Secondary Sources

• Use the Catalog  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.
• Primary sources enable you 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, for example:

• Memoirs, diaries, letters, interviews, and other first-person accounts
• Government documents
  • You might want to limit your search to Online material (listed under Quick Links) or to the Documents Without Shelves collection)
• Newspaper articles
• Paintings or music

 

Searching the catalog for primary source material:   

• Use the Advanced Search option where the Boolean search terms are built in for your use:
  • AND: you're telling the system to search for material that addresses both terms you've entered, e.g., cherokee removal and sources. Use words like correspondence, memoir, letter, interview, autobiographies, or diaries to locate source material
  • OR: you're telling the system to search for material on either of the search terms you have entered, e.g., american indians or native americans
  • NOT: you're telling the system to search for material on the first term you've entered and to exclude any material on the second term you've entered
  • The catalog system will provide more focused results

OR

• Use the Command line / Boolean terms search option under Basic Search
• For example, enter "cherokee removal" and sources
• Both these options allow you to enter additonal terms that will insure that your results will be primary source material

 

• Click on the Subjects, etc. 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 "indian problem" or "indian-white relations" to locate a broad range of materials the library has on these keywords
• Your results will come up ranked by relevance, which you can then re-sort them by title, author, publish [=publication] date, or publish date descending (the  most recent items will be listed first)
• When you find an appropriate title, click on the Subjects, etc. 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

• Search the catalog using Subject Browse feature if you know the relevant Library of Congress (LC) subject heading, for example:
  • Indians of North America

         See subdivisions, e.g.,

• --Treaties
• --Legal statutes, laws, etc.
• ---Economic conditions
• --Government relations
• Indian land transfers
• Pueblo Indians
• Indian women--United States
• Indians in literature
• Tribal government--United States

Tips

1. Start with broad searches. It's much easier to discard too much rather than start with too little.
2. If you don't know the Subject Heading, use the Subjects, etc. 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. You can "virtually" browse the shelves by clicking on the call number in a record.

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III. Reference Material

Useful reference material for your research:

Primary Sources
American Decades Primary Sources	Ref E169.1 .A471977 2004
Annals of America	Ref E173 .A793 2003
Documents of American Indian Diplomacy	Ref KF8202 1999
Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties (The Koppler Report)	Ref KF8203 1903
Documents of American Indian Diplomacy	Ref KF8202 1999
Indian Affairs. Laws and Treaties (The Koppler Report)	Ref KF8203 1903
Secondary Sources
American History through Literature 1820-1870	Online. Direct access on campus. From off-campus, enter title in the Catalog.
American Indian Biographies	Ref E98 .A46 2005
American Indian Chronology: Chronologies of the American Mosaic	Ref E77 .W47 2006
American Indians and U.S. Politics: A Companion Reader	Ref E93 .A44 2002
A Bibliographical Guide to the History of Indian-White Relations in the United States  [1977]	R Ref Z1209.2 .U5 P67
Dictionary of American Biography	Ref E176 .D56
Dictionary of the American Indian	Ref E77 .S84
Encyclopedia of Native Tribes of North American	Ref E76.2 .J64 2007
Encyclopedia of New Jersey Indians	Ref E78 .E2 E515
The Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes	Ref E77 .G15 1998
Handbook of North American Indians	Ref E76.2 .H36
Native America in the Twentieth Century	Ref E76.2 .N36 1994
The Native North American Almanac	Ref E77 .N37 1994
The Praeger Handbook on Contemporary Issues in Native America	Ref E98 .S67 J65 2007
Treaties with American Indians: An Encyclopedia of Rights, Conflicts, and Sovereignty	Ref KF8203.6 .T74 2008
Atlases
Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States	Ref atlas tables G1201 .S1 P3 1932a
Historical Atlas of the American West	Ref atlas tables G1381 .S1 B4 1989
[Mapping America's Past]	[Ref atlas tables G1201 .S1 C3 1996]

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IV. Finding articles (databases)

Useful databases for your projects:

   Tips

1. Switch to the Advanced Search page in a database. This will give you more control over your results.
2. Use the Boolean Operators-AND, OR, NOT and Quotation Marks when running a search. For Example: Indians and (United States or Canada) and Indians OR ("economic conditions" or "social conditions")
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 database.

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 V. Journal Finder & Interlibrary Loan

• Journal Finder: locate the full text of articles in specific periodicals (journals, newspapers, magazines) to which we have access either in our print or microform collection or through a full-text database.

  • See Quick Links on the library's homepage.

   

• Interlibrary Loan: allows you to borrow a book or article that our library does not own. There's a link from the Journal Finder results screen and under Quick Links on the library's homepage.

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VI. Using Web Sources

To determine if a website is authoritative enough to use in your paper, see:

Techniques for Evaluating American Indian Web Sites by Elaine M. Cubbins, University of Arizona (also see her article from Technology and Native American Culture, Autumn, 1998)

Or use the more general Evaluating Websites

Useful websites:

• Native American Sites and Home of the American Indian Library Association Web Page, Lisa A. Mitten

• Index of Native American Resources on the Internet, Karen Strom

• The Library of Congress: American Memory (Also linked uder Subject Resources › History, see below.)

  Access to primary source documents: written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music

   

• National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)

 

• Native American Sites and Home of the American Indian Library

• NativeWeb: Resources for Indigenous Cultures around the World

• PBS: American Experience

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

• American Indian Tribes , part of the Resource Directory of Indians.org

Check the following Subject Resources linked under History:

• National Archives and Records Administration

• Making of America

Check the following Subject Resources linked under United States Government:

• USA.Gov

 

Check the following Subject Resources linked under Newspapers & Electronic Media

• National Public Radio

• Television News Archives: Vanderbilt University

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Use Google Scholar to locate scholarly articles; use the Journal Finder to check our access

VII. Bibliographies and Annotated Bibliographies

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

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

OR

Use QandA NJ.org, a 24/7 virtual chat service with a reference librarian.

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