History: FLITE Resources

Finding Articles

Use the subscription databases available from the library's Web site to locate history articles. The following are the databases that will be most relevant:

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 a Periodical 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.

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. Coverage is from each journal's first issue and continues through 2-5 years from the most recently published issues. Fifty-Eight History journals are included in JSTOR.

*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.

For information on accessing databases from off-campus, click here.

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 (1997 - present) - Second Floor
Bound Periodicals (before 1997) - Lower Level
Microforms (microfilm and microfiche) - Second Floor

Remember that the staff at the Information Desk on the Second Floor can help locate journals and use the microforms.

If FLITE does not own the article in any format, use InterLibrary Loan.

Finding Books

For a list of Reference sources (which can often provide an excellent start to the research process), see the Research Guide: U.S. History handout. Remember that while Reference books can't be checked out, you are welcome to use them within the library and to make photocopies of relevant material. 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.

If you have any questions about using the library for research, Email Paul Kammerdiner.

Don't forget, you are welcome to come to the Oval Information Desk and ask for help at any time. You can also call us 231-591-3602 or chat with us.

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Last update: February 20, 2008