HIST 400 - Huey
Finding Articles
America: History and Life
Covering the period prehistory-present, America: History and Life contains citations from over 1,700 publications on all aspects of American History. Articles published since 1964 are included. Over 16,000 citations are added each year.
If you have a citation from America: History and Life and need to see if FLITE owns the article in any format, use the Find It links in the database.
If you've determined that Ferris does not own the journals which contain articles indexed in America: History and Life, request the article as an InterLibrary Loan. Generally, InterLibrary Loans take about 5-10 business days to arrive.
*Click here to access a guide on using America: History and Life.
American Periodicals Series: 1740-1900
This database offers digitized pages from over 1,100 periodical titles, including literary journals, published in the United States. A work-in-progress, American Periodical Series currently includes material through the early twentieth century.
The Gerritsen Collection: Women's History Online, 1543-1945
The Gerritsen Collection is an internationally renowned resource covering women’s history, formerly available only on microfilm. The Gerritsen database contains over 2 million full-text, digitized pages spanning books, periodicals, and pamphlets from 1543-1945.
*Click here to learn about using the Gerritsen Collection.
Historical Abstracts
Historical Abstracts is a companion database to America: History and Life, covering World History from 1450 to the present. Over 22,000 citations are added each year, with coverage going back to 1955.
*Click here to learn about using America: History and Life and Historical Abstracts.
Historical Newspapers
The set of six historical newspaper databases contain every article published in each paper up to a point in the recent past. To search all six at once, click into any one of the Historical Newspaper databases, click on Select Multiple Databases, check all six, and then click on Continue. The six are:
Chicago Tribune
Christian Science Monitor
Los Angeles Times
New York Times
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post
*Click here to access a guide on using Historical Newspapers.
JSTOR
JSTOR is a multidisciplinary database which contains the full-text of articles from core journals in several academic disciplines, including history. Coverage is from each journal's first issue and continues through 2-5 years from the most recently published issues.
*Click here to access a guide on using JSTOR.
Project MUSE
A partnership of several non-profit publishers, Project Muse offers full-text articles from over 250 journals. Full-text coverage for each journal varies but usually starts in the mid- to late- 1990s. Journals in Muse encompass the social sciences, humanities, and the arts; specific fields covered by Muse include history.
*Click here to access a guide on using Project Muse.
Off-Campus Access
For information on accessing databases from off-campus, click here. If you are a Distance Education student, see our Distance Education Library Services page.
Journal Locations
If you have a citation and need to see if FLITE owns the article in any format, use the Find a Periodical database.
These are locations for journals FLITE has in physical formats:
Current Periodicals - Second Floor
Bound Periodicals (1999 - present) - Second Floor
Bound Periodicals (before 1999) - Lower Level
Microforms (microfilm and microfiche) - Second Floor
If FLITE does not own the article in any format, use InterLibrary Loan.
Finding Books
Reference sources can often be a first place to go when beginning research on a topic. FLITE subscribes to many online history reference books and has many more print versions in the building. Remember that while print Reference books can't be checked out, you are welcome to use them within the library and to make photocopies of relevant material. Print reference books are on the first floor of FLITE.
For books in the circulating collection (Main Stacks), use the Online Catalog. Try Keyword searches to ascertain which Subject Headings are appropriate for your topic; you can click on Subject Headings from individual book records or redo the search as a Subject search.
WorldCat
For a broader range of books, try WorldCat, a national library database. Try Subject searches using Subject Headings you've mined from the Ferris Online Catalog. Books in WorldCat that Ferris owns have a Ferris State University flag in the citation. To request a book Ferris doesn't own, click into the title of the book and then on the ILL (InterLibrary Loan) button to make an online request.
Citing Sources
Whenever you are quoting or using information from a source, you must credit or cite that source. Failure to do so is plagiarism which can lead to expulsion from the University.
Chicago Citation Guide
An online version of FLITE's quick guide for Chicago style citations.
RefBase
RefBase is a citation management resource provided by the library. You can create an account and format your citations in a fraction of the time it takes to format citations without this great tool.
Guide to Exporting Citations from Databases to RefBase
Contact: Paul Kammerdiner / Email / Phone: 231-591-3037 / Office: FLITE 331
Don't forget, you are welcome to come to the Oval Information Desk and ask for help any time. You can also call us 231-591-3602 or chat with us.
Last update: September 1, 2010