- Edith Garland Dupré Library
- Research Guides
- Resources for History
- Finding Secondary Sources
Resources for History
This guide will provide students doing research in history with a platform for finding primary and secondary sources for their papers.
Article Databases
Dupré Library gives you access to several databases which focus primarily on history or have significant amounts of articles on historical topics or environmental history.
- Dupré Library - Reference Online Center (ROC)To find other databases with primary or secondary resources in environmental history
- Dupré Library - DatabasesTo find other databases with primary or secondary resources in environmental history
- Dupré Library - Databases on HistoryA complete list of history databases
- Academic Search Complete | EBSCO ** This link opens in a new windowComprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals.
- America: History & Life | EBSCO This link opens in a new windowAn index of literature covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistory to the present. With indexing for 1,700 journals from 1964 to present, this database is a bibliographic reference tool for students and scholars of U.S. and Canadian history.
- Credo Reference ** This link opens in a new windowFull text, online reference sources including dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographies, quotations, and bilingual dictionaries. Content pages also include news, images, and videos.
- Biography: In Context | Gale ** This link opens in a new windowThis database combines award-winning biographies from respected Gale Group sources. Biography in Context also includes full-text articles from hundreds of periodicals. Search for people based on one or more personal facts such as birth and death year, nationality, ethnicity, occupation or gender, or combine criteria to create a highly-targeted custom search.
- Dissertations & Theses Global | ProQuest ** This link opens in a new windowThe world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1861 to the present day.
- eBook Collection | EBSCO ** [see Note] This link opens in a new windowProvides access to an extensive collection of e-book titles online.
- History Reference Source | EBSCO ** This link opens in a new windowComprehensive, full text history database featuring reference books, encyclopedias, non-fiction books, magazines, and historical documents, photos, maps and videos. Coverage: prehistory - present.
- JSTOR ** This link opens in a new windowThe library’s subscription to JSTOR includes the Arts & Sciences I, II, III, IV, V, and VII Collections. The Arts & Sciences Collections represent the building blocks of an multi-disciplinary archive of journals in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.
- Oxford Reference ** [see Note] This link opens in a new windowFind a wealth of facts, figures, timelines, definitions, and translations from 308 academic reference titles. More than 9 million entries include in-depth, scholarly articles and 13,000 quotations.
- Project Muse ** This link opens in a new windowProvides full-text, online access to humanities and social sciences journals. Dupré Library subscribes to the Standard Collection.
- WorldCat via FirstSearch This link opens in a new windowCataloging information for books and other materials from libraries around the world.
What is a Secondary Source?
Secondary sources are published or unpublished works that represent raw data or information that has been evaluated, analyzed or summarized already to form some sort of conclusion. These conclusions represent original additions to the primary or secondary works being evaluated. An easy way to think of it is that secondary sources typically analyze events that have already happened using historical context, whereas primary sources report directly on an event via first-person accounts.
Examples of secondary sources
- Journal and magazine articles
- News reports
- Encyclopedias
- Textbooks
- Books
Where can I find secondary sources?
You can find secondary sources a number of ways.
- Dupré Library - Catalog SearchMany books in the library catalog offer analysis and context of historical events.
- Dupré Library - DatabasesMost peer-reviewed journal articles as well as magazine and newspaper articles are good secondary sources and can be found using our electronic databases.
- Dupré Library - Reference & Research ServicesIn addition, many encyclopedias are available in our reference section - just ask a reference librarian for help.
Finding Materials Not in Dupré Library
Can't find something in the Dupré Library Catalog or through available databases or archives?
- WorldCat via FirstSearch This link opens in a new windowSearch many of the world's libraries for books, articles or media material.
- Dupré Library Interlibrary LoanTo log-in and check out materials via Interlibrary Loan, you'll need to access the ILL homepage.
Finding an Article Citation
Found an article you think you need but can't find the full-text in the Dupré Library Catalog or article database?
- Publication FinderPublication Finder allows you to search for journals by title or subject, browse journals by subject and search within those journals.
Search These Places
Search the Dupré Library Catalog to find print books, eBooks, periodical titles, and government documents.
- Credo Reference ** This link opens in a new windowFull-text, online reference sources including dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographies, quotations, and bilingual dictionaries. Content pages also include news, images, and videos.
- Coverage: varies, updates vary
- Access: Received through LOUIS membership
- Vendor: Infobase
- Subjects: General, eBooks, Reference
- Google ScholarFrom one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, and other sources. Google Scholar provides links to Dupré Library to check for availability. Include 'library.louisiana.edu' in the library links section of your Google Scholar settings to automatically link to full-text through the library.