HIST 372 - Mehler
Finding Primary Sources in FLITE Databases
A primary source is a document, speech, or other sort of evidence written, created or otherwise produced during the time under study.
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.
Ethnic NewsWatch
Ethnic NewsWatch provides full-text articles from over 240 ethnic press newspapers, including several Arab American papers, in the United States from 1990-present.
*Click here to access a guide on using Ethnic NewsWatch.
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.
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.
Finding Secondary Sources in FLITE Databases
Secondary sources provide interpretation and analysis of primary sources. Secondary sources are one step removed from the original event.
Historical Abstracts
Covering World History from the period 1450 to the present, Historical Abstracts contains citations for articles published since 1955. Over 22,000 citations are added each year.
If you have a citation from Historical Abstracts 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 Historical Abstracts, request the article as an InterLibrary Loan. Generally, InterLibrary Loans take about 5-10 business days to arrive.
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 (2000 - present) - Second Floor
Bound Periodicals (before 2000) - Lower Level
Microforms (microfilm and microfiche) - Second Floor
If FLITE does not own the article in any format, use InterLibrary Loan.
Finding Books
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.
Regional News Links
Aljazeera
The most prominent Arab operated news service in the Middle East.
The Jordan Times
The Jordan Times is a moderate, English-language newspaper published in Amman, Jordan.
The Star (Jordan)
Jordan's highly respected political, economic and cultural weekly covering the Arab world.
International News Links
The Economist Middle East Section
The Economist is one of the oldest and most respected news magazines in the world.
Other Web sites
The Armenian National Institute
A site devoted to the Armenian genocide, The Armenian National Institute contains photos, documents, a chronology, and more.
The CIA World Factbook
The CIA World Factbook contains information on all countries and territories of the world. Maps and statistics are included in each entry.
United Nations Development Programme: Human Development Reports
Includes a link to the UNDP's 2010 Human Development Report.
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.
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: January 24, 2011