Research & Learning Librarian
All-Hours Research Help
Generalist librarians offer particularly helpful guidance with online source identification and access.
Links to other Research Guides/Collections
- Archives and Special Collections Subject GuideA guide dedicated to the special collections at LUC.
- Civil Rights: Loyola University Chicago Archives and Special Collections This category encompasses the subjects of Civil Rights, Affirmative Action, Minorities, and Race. Some of the collections included here may only have 1 or 2 files on these subjects while other collections will have more information. Collections will be added to this list as they are uncovered at the Loyola University Chicago Archives & Special Collections.
- Political ScienceDatabases and useful links for research in Political Science.
- ElectionsA guide to researching both current and past elections in the United States and around the world.
HIST 389W: Races to the White House
This course focuses on primary and secondary source-based research.
Getting Started: Searching the Library Catalog
The library catalog is a great place to start your research. Here are some tips to make searching more effective:
- Make sure that you sign in. This allows you to see your access options for library materials, save searches, set notifications on saved searches, and save items to your favorites.
- Use Boolean operators if you're doing a keyword search. For example:
- Voting Rights Act AND voter suppression - the catalog will return only materials that mention both search terms.
- Voting Rights Act AND (voter suppression OR voting rights) - the catalog will broaden your search to include materials that discuss either voter suppression or voting rights alongside other instances of the term 'Voting Rights Act.'
- Voting Rights Act AND voter suppression NOT Shelby County - the catalog will reduce your search results by returning materials that mention Voting Rights Act and voter suppression but do not mention Shelby County.
- Make sure that you enter Boolean operators in all caps: AND, OR, NOT
- Use truncation and/or wildcards. For example:
- Entering the search term vot* will return results for voting, vote, voter, votes, etc.
- Entering the search term wom?n will return results for woman, women
- Group your terms using parenthesis to do multiple searches at once. For example:
- ("voting rights" OR "voter suppression") AND "1965 Voting Rights Act"
- Narrow your results to a specific genre, place, or time. For example:
- "Voting Rights Act" AND "United States" AND "1965"
- "civil rights" AND "United States"
- "United States" AND "presidential race" AND "20th century"
How To Read Call Numbers
This is an explanation of how books with Library of Congress call numbers are sorted. This gives a better understanding of Library of Congress shelving.
- The first line is always a letter line and is filed alphabetically.
- The second line is a whole number line and is filed numerically.
- Sometimes the second line has a decimal and continued on the same line or the third line. Anytime you see a decimal point, always take each space separately.
- Other lines may include volume numbers, copy numbers, dates, or a combination.
- No dates come before a date.
Choosing a History Database
Select a history-focused research database using the lists linked below:
- JSTOR This link opens in a new windowFull-text scholarly journal articles and ebooks related to the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Coverage: 2-5 years from current.
- LUC Library Catalog Advanced Search This link opens in a new windowA search tool for finding books, journal articles, media, and other materials in the library collection. The advanced search provides filters and scopes to narrow your search results.
- WorldCat Discovery Advanced Search This link opens in a new windowAdjust result list sort to relevance in order to eliminate weighting of locally-held titles.
- Alexander Street Press Streaming Video This link opens in a new windowVideos and audio covering a wide variety of subjects. Individual collections include Black Studies in Video, Black Thought & Culture, Counseling and Therapy in Video: Vols.1-3, Criminal Justice and Public Safety in Video, Ethnographic Video Online :Vols.1-2, Filmmakers Library Online: Vols.1-2, LGBT Studies in Video, New World Cinema: Major Independent Features and Shorts, Nursing Education in Video, and Theatre in Video: Vol.2.
- Kanopy Streaming Video This link opens in a new windowDocumentaries, independent and classic feature films, educational videos, and award-winning films and shorts. Distributors include PBS, Media Education Foundation, Documentary Education Resources, California Newsreel, Criterion Collection/Janus Films, Psychotherapy.net, and more.
- Oral History Online This link opens in a new windowFull-text primary sources including audio and video files with transcripts on American history.
- Project MUSE This link opens in a new windowFull-text journals covering literature, history, visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, and gender studies. Coverage: 1993 - present.
- Newspapers.com – World Collection This link opens in a new windowThis collection includes digital reproductions providing access to both full runs and portions of runs for thousands of newspapers.
Choosing a Political Science Database
- Social Science Citation Index This link opens in a new windowMultidisciplinary index of social science journals. Coverage: 1980 - present.
- Humanities and Social Sciences Retrospective This link opens in a new windowIndex of scholarly journals covering humanities and social sciences. Coverage: 1907 - 1984.
- World Wide Political Science Abstracts This link opens in a new windowIndexes of political science and international relations literature. Including abstracts of journals, provides abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and working papers. Coverage: 1975 - present.
- Military & Government Collection This link opens in a new windowFull-text journals, periodicals, and U.S. Government Documents pertaining to all branches of the military. Coverage: 1954 - present.
- Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new windowIndex with some full-text and abstracts covering world history, excluding the United States and Canada. Coverage: 1450 - present. Limited to 6 simultaneous users.
- Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new windowAbstracts and indexes from international journals in sociology, social psychology, and behavioral sciences. Coverage: 1952 - current.
- Filmakers Library Online II This link opens in a new windowDocumentary films with a focus on social and political issues. A wide range of topics are covered including anthropology, race and gender studies, human rights, globalization and global studies, multiculturalism, international relations, criminal justice, the environment, bioethics, health, political science and current events, psychology, arts, and literature. Coverage: 1980s-2017.
- HeinOnline This link opens in a new windowFull-text of historical and government documents in a searchable, image-based format. Includes law journals and historical collections of U.S. federal government documents. Coverage: 1925 - present.
- Homeland Security Digital Library This link opens in a new windowFull-text collection of U.S. policy documents, national strategy documents, theses, and research papers from the Center for Homeland Defense and Security and the Naval Postgraduate School, and homeland security executive orders. Includes notices of events and conferences pertaining to homeland security, and news items drawn from various news sources. Coverage: 1811 - present.
- ProQuest Congressional This link opens in a new windowComprehensive access to U.S. legislative information. Includes congressional publications, Legislative Histories for public laws, testimony from congressional hearings, bill tracking and research reports from the Congressional Research Service and LRS.
- ProQuest Legislative Insight This link opens in a new windowArchive of public law from its early consideration to its enactment, including development that spans more than one Congress. Coverage: 1789 - present.
- Dissertations & Theses (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowIndex of dissertations and theses with abstracts and full-texts. Coverage: 1861-present.
- Scopus This link opens in a new windowIndex of scientific journals, books and conference proceedings focused on the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities.
- Alternative Press Index 1991-Present This link opens in a new windowComprehensive index of alternative sources, radical and left periodicals, newspapers and magazines covering international and interdisciplinary subjects. Coverage: 1991-present.
- America: History and Life This link opens in a new windowIndex, abstracts and some full-text on the history of the United States and Canada. Coverage: 1960 - present.
- EconLit This link opens in a new windowJournal articles, dissertations and working papers from the American Economic Association. Topics include economic theory and practice, fiscal theory, econometrics, agricultural economics, public finance, demography, monetary theory, international economics, and more. Coverage: 1886 - present.
- GenderWatch This link opens in a new windowIndex of some-full text articles and abstracts related to gender studies, including women's studies, feminism, masculine studies, masculinity studies, transgender studies, LGBTQ, LGBTQA, and sexuality.
- Philosopher's Index This link opens in a new windowIndex, including abstracts and some full-text, of books and journals related to philosophy and ethics. Coverage: 1940 - present.
- PsycINFO This link opens in a new windowIndexes literature in the field of psychology and psychological aspects of related disciplines, such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business, and law. Updated weekly. Coverage: 1800s - present.
- Making of Modern Law: U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs, 1832-1978 This link opens in a new windowArchive of U.S. Supreme Court Records and Briefs including primary sources underlying court decisions in legal and constitutional history. Coverage: 1832 - 1926.
- Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises 1800-1926 This link opens in a new windowThe Making of Modern Law covers the watershed period of legal development during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This archive is the world's most comprehensive full-text collection of Anglo-American legal treatises of the period.
- Making of Modern Law: Trials 1600-1926 This link opens in a new windowFull-text archive of documents from Anglo-American trials. Also contains English-language titles about trials in other jurisdictions, such as France. Coverage: 1600 - 1926.
Newspapers, Databases, and other Collections
- AdForum This link opens in a new windowA searchable library of commercials, ad campaigns of all media types and a directory of advertising and marketing agencies. Also includes case studies, advertising awards information, industry news, and job resources. Coverage: 2000 - present. Limited to 10 concurrent users.
- African American Newspapers 1827-1998 This link opens in a new windowFull-text content from African American newspapers published nationwide. Coverage: 1827 - 1998.
- African American Periodicals 1825-1995 This link opens in a new windowFull-text content from African American magazines and journals published nationwide. Coverage: 1825 - 1995.
- Alternative Press Index Archive This link opens in a new windowFull-text bibliographic containing journal, newspaper, and magazine articles from alternative, radical, and left sources with focus on socialism and revolution, ecology, democracy and anarchism, feminism and organized labor, indigenous peoples, and gays/lesbians. Coverage: 1969 - 1990.
- American Periodical Series I, II & III (1741-1940) This link opens in a new windowDigitized images of full-text articles from American magazines and journals, including special interest and general magazines, literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and other historical sources. Coverage: 1741-1900.
- Chicago Tribune Historical This link opens in a new windowDigitized images and full-text articles related to Chicago news, history, and advertising. Coverage: 1849-2012.
- Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new windowFull-text historical newspaper articles from the Chicago Tribune (1905 - 1975), the New York Times (1850 - 2001), the Los Angeles Times (1881-1987), and the American Periodical Series I, II & III (1741-1900).
- Indigenous Peoples: North America Archive This link opens in a new windowCovers the historical experiences, cultural traditions and innovations, and political status of Indigenous Peoples in the United States and Canada. The archive includes monograph, manuscript, newspaper, periodical and photograph collections. Sources include the National Archives and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Library, the Alaska Indian Language Collection of Gonzaga University, and the W.S. Prettyman photograph collection of Wichita State University.
- New York Times Historical This link opens in a new windowFull-text archive of the New York Times with Index. Coverage: 1851 - 2018.
- Newspapers.com – World Collection This link opens in a new windowThis collection includes digital reproductions providing access to both full runs and portions of runs for thousands of newspapers.
- Nineteenth Century U.S. Newspapers This link opens in a new windowFull-text news articles from 19th century newspapers published in the United States.
- Vogue Archive This link opens in a new windowFull-text and full-image content from Vogue magazine (US edition). Coverage: 1892 - present.
- Women's Magazine Archive This link opens in a new windowFull-text archive of consumer magazines aimed at a female readership including Good Housekeeping, Ladies’ Home Journal, and Woman's Day. Also includes titles such as Parents, Seventeen, Cosmopolitan, and Essence. Coverage: 19th century - 2005.
- Chicago Foreign Language Press SurveyThe Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey was published in 1942 by the Chicago Public Library Omnibus Project of the Works Progress Administration of Illinois. The purpose of the project was to translate and classify selected news articles that appeared in the foreign language press from 1855 to 1938. The project consists of 120,000 typewritten pages translated from newspapers of 22 different foreign language communities of Chicago.
- Historical newspapers and magazine databasesBrowse a list of databases for historical newspapers and magazines.
- Access World News This link opens in a new windowFull-text newspapers, magazines, web-only content from U.S. and international news sources. Coverage: 1978 - present.
- Alternative Press Index 1991-Present This link opens in a new windowComprehensive index of alternative sources, radical and left periodicals, newspapers and magazines covering international and interdisciplinary subjects. Coverage: 1991-present.
- Global Newsstream This link opens in a new window Provides access to current, full-text newspapers including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, Newsday, and Los Angeles Times as well as over 80 Gannett regional and local titles. In addition, Global Newsstream content also includes newswires, news journals, television and radio transcripts, blogs, podcasts, and digital-only websites.
- Latin American Newspapers - World Newspaper Archive This link opens in a new windowFull-text content from Latin American newspapers. Coverage: 1805 - 1922.
- Listener Historical Archive 1929-1991 This link opens in a new windowComplete archive of The Listener, a BBC weekly periodical. Coverage: 1929 - 1991.
- Mideast Wire.com This link opens in a new windowA daily email newsletter of translated briefs covering some of the key political, cultural, economic and opinion pieces appearing in the media within 22 Arab countries, Iran and the Arab Diaspora.
- Times Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
- Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive This link opens in a new window
Images printed in Newspapers and Periodicals, as well as other audio and video recordings.
- AP Newsroom This link opens in a new windowPhotographs, graphics, charts, news stories, and audio clips provided by The Associated Press. International in scope. Coverage: 1826 - present.
- Vogue Archive This link opens in a new windowFull-text and full-image content from Vogue magazine (US edition). Coverage: 1892 - present.
- Oral History Online This link opens in a new windowFull-text primary sources including audio and video files with transcripts on American history.
- Media Burn Independent Video ArchiveArchive of documentary films on topics in cultural history, including a Chicago-focused collection.
- Image and sound CollectionsFurther resources to find image collections.
- American Folklife CenterProvides digital primary source collections from this unit in The Library of Congress.
- EuropeanaExplore 51,532,090 artworks, artefacts, books, videos and sounds from across Europe
- Internet ArchiveContains digital images, sound recordings, videos, and texts.
- NYPL Digital CollectionThe New York Public Library (NYPL) Digital Collections platform is the primary portal for engaging with our digitized collections and their descriptions, over 922,495 items and counting.
- United Nations Digital LibraryPlatform provides access to UN-produced materials in digital format free of charge.