Reference Sources
Books: LC Class Number Guide
Books: LC Subject Headings
Primary Sources in Schaffer Library
Government Documents
New Acquisitions
Periodical & Newspaper Articles

Encyclopedias, Handbooks, and Specialized Dictionaries

Below are a few titles in the Reference Collection of Schaffer Library that may prove helpful. Some have entries that will be directly informative about the period.   Others are bibliographies that will refer the user to other literature.   Although some of these books are non-recent, many of their references are "classic" and valuable.  And of course newer thinking can be found by using the other sections of this Web-page. 

American Economic and Business History Information Sources; an Annotated Bibliography. Robert W. Lovett.  Detroit: Gale Research Co., 1971.

CALL NUMBER: Ref Bib HC101 .L66 

American Economic History since 1860. Compiled by Edward C. Kirkland.  New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1971.

CALL NUMBER: Ref Bib HC101 .K53 

American Immigrant Cultures : Builders of a Nation. Edited by David Levinson, Melvin Ember.  New York : Simon & Schuster Macmillan, 1997.

CALL NUMBER: Ref E184.A1 A63448 1997 -- v. 1-2

American Labor History and Comparative Labor Movements; a Selected Bibliography, James C. McBrearty. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1973.

CALL NUMBER: Ref Bib HD4801 .M15

American Social History since 1860. Compiled by Robert H. Bremner.  New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1971.

CALL NUMBER: Ref Bib E162 .B7

Dictionary of American History.   New York : Scribner, 1978.

CALL NUMBER: Ref E174 .D52 1976 -- v.1-8 

Encyclopedia of American Economic History.  Edited by Glenn Porter.   New York : Scribner, 1980.

CALL NUMBER: Ref HC103 .E52 -- v1-3 

Encyclopedia of American Social History. Mary Kupiec Cayton, Elliott J. Gorn, Peter W. Williams, Editors.
New York : Scribner , 1993.

CALL NUMBER: Ref HN57 .E58 1993 -- v.1-3   

The Encyclopedia of Democracy.  Edited by Seymour Martin Lipset.  Washington, D.C. : Congressional Quarterly, 1995.

CALL NUMBER: JC423 .E53 1995 -- v.1-4

Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century.  Edited by Stanley I. Kutler, et al.  New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1996.

CALL NUMBER: Ref E740.7 .E53 1996 -- v. 1-4

Harvard Guide to American History. Frank B. Freidel.  Cambridge, Mass.:  Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1974.

CALL NUMBER: Ref Bib Z1236 .F77 1974 
         

The Progressive Movement, 1900-1920: Recent Ideas and New Literature. George E. Mowry.  Washington, D.C.: Service Center for Teachers of History, 1958.

CALL NUMBER: Ref 016.97391 M936p

U.S. Cultural History : a Guide to Information Sources. Philip I. Mitterling.  Detroit : Gale Research Co., 1980.

CALL NUMBER: Ref Bib E169.1 .M57 

Oxford Reference Online: History. [ Online ] Oxford University Press, 2002. Available: http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/SUBJECT_SEARCH.html?subject=s11 (Accessed 3 October 2002).

A searchable and browsable collection of history dictionaries from Oxford University Press including: Who's Who in the Twentieth Century, A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century World History, and A Dictionary of World History.

Bibliographies

U.S. Cultural History : a Guide to Information Sources. Philip I. Mitterling.  Detroit : Gale Research Co., 1980.

CALL NUMBER: Ref Bib E169.1 .M57 

Citation Guides and Style Manuals

Style manuals and citations guides illustrate how to cite book, journal, and other research sources, including materials found in online databases and on the Web according to the conventional format of a particular discipline. Subject-specific citation guides are listed below, and a complete listing appears at Reference Sites: Citation Guides and Style Manuals.

Chicago:  Turabian Style Guide. [ Online ] Available: http://www.lib.usm.edu/~instruct/guides/turabian.html

Online! A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources. [ Online ] Andrew Harnack and Eugene Kleppinger. http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/

Books in Schaffer Library are arranged by Library of Congress Class number. Class numbers are searchable in the Web Catalog and browsable in the Stacks and Reference Collection.

D 1 - 1075	History (General)
D 501 - 680	World War, 1914-1918
HC 106.2	World War, 1914-1918 - economic history and conditions
HN 16 - 18	Social reform - 20th century
HN 51 - 85	United States - social conditions
E 151 - 740	United States History (General)

Subject Search For general histories, try: united states commercial policy united states economic conditions united states social conditions united states politics and government world war, 1914-1918 economic aspects world war, 1914-1918 social aspects world war, 1914-1918 united states For specific topics, try: african-americans Civil rights History 20th century business and politics conscientious objectors draft industrial workers of the world monopolies petroleum industry and trade prohibition railroads and state social reformers temperance women suffrage

Library Web Catalog. Click here to reach the Library's computer catalog.  Searching examples are given at each "portal", e.g., author, title, subject, and keyword.

Keyword Search examples: african-americans and politics and history trusts or monopolies tariff and history and united states

A hint--When you find a relevant book listing, look at the subject list attached to the record for that book.  You can click on any of those subjects listed and branch out.  It's a rich and powerful search technique, but you can get off your original path very quickly.  We suggest you jot down good subject headings (and keyword combinations) so you can get back to them later.

A further hint--There remains a small card catalog in the Basement of Schaffer Library.  Although shrinking steadily in proportion to the Library's online database, the card catalog is still the SOLE listing for portions of our collections in certain subjects, including history.  For subject searching, you must look in the cards by the subject method listed above, the subject heading method.  See above for examples to try.  Students may find that the card catalog is particularly helpful in finding books on Union College history or various nineteenth century topics in American history.

Book locations: Click on the blue hyperlinked word beneath the brown box "Where Is It?", and a map showing the book's location by floor and specific area will pop up.

Manuscript Materials:

The primary tool for discovering unpublished writings (i.e., manuscript material) is the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC), a service of the Library of Congress.  At the link above, one can enter NUCMC and see the portion of its data collected after 1986.  (Naturally, historical material may be collected and listed at any subsequent date; in short, a comprehensive search must utilize both the online NUCMC above and the print NUCMC below.) 

One may utilize NUCMC's  search engine to obtain listings and descriptions of personal papers and correspondence held in research institutions. In some cases, physically visiting the owning institution can be avoided if copies of the papers exist on microfilm and can be borrowed on Interlibrary Loan.   Students are advised to consult with the Interlibrary Loan staff about such a contemplated loan request.

For collections listed before the online NUCMC, consult the printed volumes in Schaffer's Reference Collection:

National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections.    (Washington, D.C., Library of Congress, 1961--  )

CALL NUMBER:  Ref Bibliog Z6620.U5 N3  (1959-93)

Other Means of Finding Books, Essays, and Chapters

Essay and General Literature Index--in the first volume are citations to essays and chapters in books from the years 1900 through 1933.  Also available Online

CALL NUMBER:  Ref Bib AI3 .E752

Public Affairs Information Service Bulletin (PAIS)-- indexes (from 1915 onwards) a wide variety of books and their chapters, as well as social sciences journals and government reports. Also available online. See Databases & Indexes

CALL NUMBER:  Ref Bib Z 7163 .P97

Other Libraries' Catalogs (two choices):

Other individual libraries' catalogs -- Follow this link (through the Schaffer Library home page) into the catalogs of some Capital District libraries as well as into those of major research universities. 

CaDiLaC Online -- This link leads to the online union catalog of many of the libraries of the Capital District.  Because it is "live", some listings display whether books are currently on the shelf or charged out.  Periodical title holdings information is also available.  Log-in as "guest".

Remarks and Debates on the Floor of Congress

U. S. Congress.  Congressional Record--published since 1873, the Congressional Record publishes the verbatim proceedings on the House and Senate floor as well as additional material that legislators wish to insert.   For the period under study the Congressional Record is on microfiche on the First Floor, together with an index filed at or near the back of each congressional session's microfiche.   Located on the 1st Floor in the Microforms Area, filed with the periodicals on microfiche under "u" for U.S. Congress.

U.S. Congress.  Abridgement of the Debates of Congress, 1789-1950--an alternative, though abridged, version, in  paper format, shelved in the Basement as a periodical under U.S. Congress...  The indexes appear in each volume.

Congressional Reports and Documents

U.S. Serial Set Index--lists House and Senate committee reports and documents, which constitute one of the major forms of Congressional publication.

CALL NUMBER: Ref Bibliog Z 1223 .Z9 C65

"Reports" covers a narrowly defined category: the statement of a committee as it sends legislation forward to the floor of the House or Senate. "Documents" refers to a broader classification of somewhat miscellaneous publications used by Congress in its study and deliberation.  (See below for access to hearings.) 

For the period of this class, however, the reports and documents themselves are not held in Schaffer Library.  Once complete citations are obtained from this index, they can be ordered on interlibrary loan or read directly at the New York State Library in downtown Albany.

Other U.S. Government Publications (including Hearings of the House and the Senate)

The Document Catalogue  (Washington, D.C., U.S. Government Printing Office)

CALL NUMBER:  Ref Bibliog Z 1223  .A13

The Document Catalogue lists generally United States government publications for the period.  Because U.S. Superintendent of Documents numbers are not given, it cannot be directly used with our Government Documents Collection.  As an intermediate step, check listings found in The Document Catalogue in the Schaffer Library online catalog and card catalog to determine if they are in our collections.  As above, once complete citations are obtained, they can be ordered on interlibrary loan or read directly at the New York State Library in downtown Albany.