Subject Areas
Don't forget to browse the stacks!
Our library uses the Library of Congress Classification system.
To get started searching our physical collection, we recommend starting here:
C Auxiliary Sciences of History
CB History of Civilization
CC Archaeology
CD Diplomatics, Archives, Seals
CE Technical Chronology
CJ Numismatics
CN Inscriptions, Epigraphy
CR Heraldry
CS Genealogy
CT Biography
D History (General)
DA Great Britain
DAW Central Europe
DB Austria -Liechtenstein - Hungary - Czechoslovakia
DC France - Andorra - Monaco
DD Germany
DE Greco-Roman World
DF Greece
DG Italy - Malta
DH Low Countries
E, F History of the Americas
If you are still unsure of where to look, please visit the info desk to ask for library student assistance.
Need off-campus access?
Library Services now uses OpenAthens as a proxy server! Follow these steps:
Welcome to the History Department Research Guide!
The purpose of a Research Guide is to help get you started on your research projects. On this page, you will find our librarian's recommendations for best resources for your subject. This includes relevant resources, such as specific Databases, citation format guidance, search tips, and contact information of the subject librarian.
Require further assistance? Reach out to your subject librarian! We are always happy to help.
Best Bets: Databases
Unsure of which Databases to use for History?
Here is where we recommend starting:
Founded in 2008, HathiTrust is a not-for-profit collaborative of academic and research libraries preserving 17+ million digitized items. HathiTrust offers reading access to the fullest extent allowable by U.S. copyright law, computational access to the entire corpus for scholarly research, and other emerging services based on the combined collection. HathiTrust members steward the collection — the largest set of digitized books managed by academic and research libraries — under the aims of scholarly, not corporate, interests.
Humanities Source Ultimate offers access to key content covering literary, scholarly and creative thought. It also includes hundreds of scholarly full-text journals cited in leading subject indexes to round out student research.
JSTOR provides access to more than 12 million academic journal articles, books, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
Alternate Name(s) Oxford University Press. 16000+ scholarly books in 20 subjects with an estimated 1000 additional titles per year
Project Muse - Social Science Collection
Provides access to high quality, peer reviewed, interdisciplinary journals in the social sciences including cultural studies, economics, anthropology, politics, and much more.
[The] Student Activism collection is intended to serve as a scholarly bridge from the extensive history of student protest in the United States to the study of today’s vibrant, continually unfolding actions
The Washington Post is an excellent source for news on current events, national politics, and global issues. To access freely from anywhere, create an account with your Juniata email and navigate to "Subscription & Billing"
Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS)
The Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) is a series of publications detailing internal State Department communications, organized by presidential administration. These documents provide insight into American foreign policy from the Lincoln Administration to the Clinton Administration. Please note that, while FRUS is periodically updated with new records, many recent administrations have not yet had their records digitized.
Search Tips
Getting Started:
When searching in any search engine, (databases, library catalog, google scholar, etc.) it is best to use keywords rather than typing the full question or topic. For example, if your question is:
"What socioeconomic factors led to the start of the Cold War?"
Remover the filler words such as "what", "to", "the", "of". Break the question in categories & think of synonyms such as this:
| Who? | Which figures involved in the war are you curious about? |
| What? | What war? (Obviously stated in the question) Time period? |
| Where? | Which states countries or countries do you want to focus on? |
Next, brainstorm synonyms OR related key words. You may type words such as these in the search bar:
| socioeconomic, Cold War, war, United States, Harry Truman, Soviet Union, World War II, democracy, capitalism |
Advanced Search Tips:
Using Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT)
Boolean operators are used to either refine or expand your search. They are place in between your keywords to yield more specific search results.
| Too Few Results |
| Use: AND |
| For example: |
| Too Many Results |
| Use: OR, NOT |
| For example |
Visual Brainstorming:
If you prefer to draw when brainstorming, you may want to draw a concept map. You can do this on paper, a white board, or a smart board. For online resources focused on concept mapping, we recommend Canva.
So, how do you organize all of that information to ensure you're giving credit to the author(s)?
For online resources, we recommend Purdue Owl at: https://owl.purdue.edu/ to get started.
Remember - this to get started, you do not want to copy and paste! It is a tool to help you build the bones of your citation - always edit before turning your work in!
For a book or eBook, we recommend:
Chicago Style Handbook
Have you ever wondered if the author of a source is legitimate? Or have you ever felt overwhelmed by the amount of information you collected and start to wonder if all of your sources relate to your research topic? Does the website you found information on seem outdated or sketchy?
Check out this nifty acronym - CRAAP. Oh CRAAP! I can't tell if this source is credible...
The CRAAP Test exists to help you identify credibility and relevance of source. The purpose of the test is to sort through sources and determine whether or not some choices are appropriate for your research.
Juniata College
1700 Moore Street
Huntingdon, PA 16652
Juniata College
1815 Moore Street
Huntingdon, PA 16652
