This is a mega super search. EBSCO provides this resource to search our catalog and databases all at once. Many colleges and universities use similar tools. It is a good way to get started but takes much practice to get the solid results you would get from searching each database separately. Please note that there are databases that Discovery does not cover, primarily the Proquest databases. One of the perks of Discovery is being able to save the citation directly to Noodletools.

Includes American Government, American History, Daily Life Through History, Issues, Modern Genocide. The African American Experience, The American Indian Experience, The Latino American Experience, World at War and World History.. Search the databases one at a time or all at once. Citation information available for articles. Login with username and password on your ID card.
A print reference source (Ref 974 ANNALS) gone digital. All primary source documents.
Login with username and password on your ID card. Difficult to search, browse by time periods if keywords don't work. Citation information available.
"Hundreds of thousands of primary source documents in history, literature, science, law, politics, religion and more..." Search by topic, keyword and date. Citation information provided. Dictionary of American History is included in this database but is a tertiary, not primary source.
Powersearch in EBSCO. Login with username and password on your ID card.
To see MLA citation information: email, save or print.
Selected key events in U.S. history thoroughly examined with primary sources included. MLA citation at bottom of articles.
Powersearch across multiple databases. Narrow down your results by looking at the Subject headings or doing an Advanced Search with boolean logic. MLA citation information at bottom of each source.
We are currently testing out Newsbank's America's Historical Newspapers database. The username and password are ncd2075. We are considering using this as a replacement for Proquest SIRS Decades which will soon cease to exist. Let us know what you think of it in this brief survey.
A digital library that "provides access to more than 10 million journal articles, books and primary sources in 75 disciplines". Reference to JSTOR articles is common when searching Google Scholar. JSTOR is also included in our EBSCO Discovery search results. Login with username, powayhigh but with the usual password.
Please note, SIRS Decades will not be available after April 30, 2018. Save all documents that you may need prior to that date.

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History Study Center
Very broad in scope. Covers global ancient through current history. Broken up into groups of information: Study Units, Historical Documents, Maps and Reference, Multimedia, Journals.
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Sir Decades: 20th Century American Sources is an electronic subscription resource containing primary source and reference content from the 20th century.
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Citation example:
Carafano, James Jay. "West Point at War: Officer Attitudes and the Vietnam War 1966-72." Journal of Popular Culture, vol. 21,no. 4, 7 June 1996,
pp. 25+. Proquest History Study Center.
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Citation example:
Stoddard, Lothrop. "Should the Negro Be Encouraged to Cultural Equality?" Forum, Oct. 1927, pp. 510-19. Proquest Sirs Decades.
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Salem Press, a book publisher has made much of it's reference books available online. Once you are at the site, click on the Remote Login tab and enter the PHS database password. MLA citation information available. You will need to register to send or save articles but this is a quick and easy process. Includes Decades (1920s - 2000s) reference encyclopedias and The American Immigration reference set.
Our online encyclopedia is a good place for authoritative introductory information. Also contains primary source information for topics, see the right sidebar after your search. MLA citation information at the bottom of the article.
Excellent source for primary source photographs, complete with MLA citations.
Login with your Novell username and password.
- Search the library catalog using the names of the decades e.g. 1920s or look for topics like racism, immigration, women.
- Browse the 973s and 305s of both the nonfiction shelves and the reference room.
- Reference Print History Encyclopedias- These are all multiple volume sets. Use the index or table of contents to access information.
Some of the most comprehensive are listed by Call Number in the glog below.
Additional Reference Books are available online via Gale Virtual Reference Library (you will need to login with username on the back of your ID card):
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Some of the Reference Books available in ebook form are:
American Decades American Decades Primary Sources Americans at War American Civil War Reference Library
Bowling, Beatniks, and Bell-Bottoms: Pop Culture of 20th-Century American
Social History of the United States Development of the Industrial U.S. Reference Library
Great Depression and the New Deal Reference Library
U.S. Immigration and Migration Reference Library Family in Society: Essential Primary Sources
Human and Civil Rights: Essential Primary Sources
Literature and Its Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events that Influenced Them
Gale Contextual Encyclopedia of American Literature
- American Memory Collection from the Library of Congress, click on ' War, Military' for the Civil War section. This site is especially good for women's history, African American and Native American history, and immigration.
- Chronicling America : Historic American Newspapers form 1690 to present. Brought to us by Library of Congress and the Nat. Endowment for the Humanities.
- America in Class Primary sources in history, literature and the arts from National Humanities Center
- National Archives: Civil War Photographs by Matthew Brady and soldier 1st person accounts of war.
- The American Presidency Based on the Smithsonian's traveling exhibit. Includes all presidents and artifacts and information about their era in history.
- Primary Sources of American Popular Culture by the Authentic History center complete with artifacts and sounds
- History Central: Major Events of the 20th Century For national and international news
- Documenting the American South from UNC, primary source.
- Ad Access from Duke University, covers magazine and news ads from 1911- 1955.
- American Slave Narratives WPA collected over 2000 interviews with former slaves.
- Digital Library of American Slavery UNC searchable collection, primary sources.
- Vietnam Center and Archives Texas Tech digital library. Primary sources including letters home, photos, documents.
- History Matters CUNY and George Mason University has produced an online search for primary sources by date and topic.
- USC Libraries Research Guide to 19th Century U.S. History: Primary Sources particularly useful for those reading Property.
- Digital History for K-12 U.S. history classes, developed and maintained by the University of Houston.
- American History from the Multnomah County Library
- Internet Public Library Social Sciences, see particular topic subheading e.g Ethnicity, Culture & Race
- Time Magazine Archive 1923 - present
- 20th Century Decades From About.com
- Yahoo! Twentieth Century
- Google: Twentieth Century
Califano Instructions
Primary Sources
Definitions:
- "Firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic under investigation" (Yale University Library Primary Sources Research Colloquium).
- "Work that was written at a time that is contemporary or nearly contemporary to the period or subject being studied" (Cantor and Schneider, How to Study History). For example using Mein Kampf to study Hitler's influence on the German people in the 1930s and 1940s.
Primary Source Formats:
- Oral transmissions: speeches, music, interview, ballads, legends.
- Written transmissions: diaries, letters, newspapers, census data, laws, government documents.
- Visually transmitted sources: photographs, cartoons, videos, architecture, artifacts, maps.
Most of the subscription databases and the Internet resources listed on this page contain primary sources. You are required to use at least one in your paper. If you have trouble identifying or finding them see your librarian.
Additional Databases for Photographs: Britannica Imagequest, Discovery Education
Pictures, Charts and Tables in your paper
Tables: "A table is usually labeled Table, given an arabic numeral, and titled. Type both label and title flush left on separate lines above the table, and capitalize them as titles (do not use all capital letters). Give the source of the table and any notes immediately below the table in a caption. To avoid confusion between notes to the text and notes to the table, designate notes to the table with lowercase letters rather than with numerals. Double-space throughout; use dividing lines as needed" (MLA Handbook 4.5)
*apologies for spacing on the wiki samples, they are not exact*
Table 1.
Period of Entry of the Unauthorized Immigrant Population
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Estimated population January 2009
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Period of entry
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Number
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Percent
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All years
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10,750,000
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100
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2005-2008
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910,000
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8
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2000-2004
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3,040,000
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28
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1995-1999 |
3,080,000 |
29 |
1990-1994 |
1,670,000 |
16 |
1985-1989 |
1,190,000 |
11 |
1980-1984 |
860,000 |
8 |
Source: Hoefer, Michael, Rytina, Nancy and Bryan C. Baker. "Estimates of the Unauthorized Immigrant
Population Residing in the United States: January 2009." Immigration Statistics. Office of Immigration Services,
U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security, Jan. 2010, www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/Unauthorized%20
Immigrant%20Population%20Estimates%20in%20the%20US%20January%202009.pdf. Accessed 27 Jan. 2017.
Pictures and Charts: MLA considers "any other type of illustrative visual material —for example, a photograph, map, line drawing, graph, or chart—a Figure ( abbreviated Fig.), assigned an arabic numeral, and given a caption: A label and caption ordinarily appear directly below the illustration and have the same one-inch margins as the text of the paper. If the caption of a table or illustration provides complete information about the source and the source is not cited in the text, no entry for the source in the works-cited list is necessary" (MLA Handbook, 4.5).
When you refer to the figure in text do not capitalize fig. Also, if you choose to add a caption rather than the full source citation to your figure you will need to cite it completely in your works-cited.
How do I cite an image found through an online search engine like Google Images?
from the MLA Style Center.
How to cite an image on a website
from OWL Purdue
Examples:

Fig. 1. H.C. White Co. Making Link Sausages--Machines Stuff 10 Ft.
per Second, Swift & Co.'s Packing House, Chicago, U.S.A. 1905.
Library of Congress, Washington D.C. ABC-CLIO American History.
In text reference:
Sinclair refers to conditions of workers in packing plants, both the supervisors and those on the line (see fig. 1) in hopes of "arousing sympathy for the conditions of the workers and promoting the cause of socialism" ("Pure Food and Drug Act").
Adding an illustration to your research paper that your writing in Google docs can be a little tricky. Here is a how to guide if you need some help.

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