Michigan State University Libraries

Things (about the MSU Library) that History Undergraduates Should Know

• Performing the basic searches: Author, Title, Subject, "classic" Keyword, and the Encore discovery tool.
  
  
• Restricting search to locations, periodicals, or electronic materials.
  
  
• Realizing that the online Catalog contains material from the MSU Library system, the Library of Michigan, and the MSU Archives
  
  
• Finding bibliographies: Keyword search "s:bibliography and [word or phrase]"
  
  

• Recalling checked-out materials
  
  
• Requesting books & journals from Remote Storage
  
  
• Requesting materials from other libraries
  
  
• • MeLCat (Michigan E-Library Catalog)
    
    For books and videos only. Searches the catalogs of many public and academic libraries in Michigan. The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor does not participate.
  • Illiad
    
    For books, articles, videos, dissertations, etc.
  • WorldCat (OCLC)
    
    For everything except articles. WorldCat contains more than 1 billion records describing items owned by over 10,000 libraries worldwide. Each record indicates library holdings and contains a "Request this item in ILLiad" link.

• Books
  
  Author. Title. Place of publication (sometimes omitted): Publisher, Year of Publication. Number of pages (sometimes omitted).
  Example:
  Berry, Daina Ramey. "Swing the sickle for the harvest is ripe" : gender and slavery in antebellum Georgia. Urbana : University of Illinois Press, c2007. 224 p.
• Articles in Journals or Magazines
  
  Author. "Title of Article' Title of Journal or Magazine Numbering (Issue Date): Pages of Article.
  Example:
  Michael Unsworth. "Floating Vengeance: Japanese Balloon Attacks on Michigan," Michigan History, Vol. 71, no. 2 (March/April 1987): 8-14.

• Gale Virtual Reference Library
  
  Includes a number of reference works by the Gale Group and affiliated publishers.
• Reference Universe
  
  This database searches the complete indexes of more than 10,000 reference titles. Nearly 2,000 of these titles are online editions.

• Restricting your search to the type of resource (indexes, journals, etc.)
  
  
• Searching for a specific title
  
  
• Finding material by broad subject area
  
  

• "Find Text @MSU"
  
  This link is displayed in many of the databases that the MSU Libraries own. It is a tool to help you link from an article citation to the full text of that article. Use it only for articles; it does not work for books, reviews or other types of materials.
• Secure Remote Access to the Campus Network
  
  If you have an MSU UserName & Password, go to this link if you are denied access to databases.
• Learning to Do Historical Research: A Primer
  
  
• Historical Research Tools
  
  
• OLD:Fast Track to Library Research