KAP: Introduction to the Kenyon College Library and Its Resources


Finding Books: Using the Library Catalog and Browsing the Stacks

The CONSORT catalog can be used to locate books, government documents, video and sound recordings, and special collections materials available in the Kenyon, Denison, Ohio Wesleyan and Wooster libraries. However, your guest Kenyon library card only allows you to borrow items owned by Kenyon, so be sure to use the Limit by location feature of CONSORT to limit your search to Kenyon. For published primary sources, these suggested subject headings.

Browsing

Kenyon's collection is cataloged using the Library of Congress classification system. If you wish to browse the stacks to see what books are available in history, the following list shows the call numbers used to for specific subcategories of the subject. These call numbers are mostly located on the third floor.

View the complete Library of Congress Classification System.

 

Book Reviews and Journal Articles

Library catologs like CONSORT don't contain information about individual articles within journals and don't always contain information about articles in anthologies or other book-format collections. Instead, a variety of other resources for finding articles may be used. Available online are several article databases, some containing the full text of articles others only article citations. In the latter case, once you've identified an article that you'd like to read and the journal or book in which it was published, you must check CONSORT to determine if Kenyon has a print or electronic version of the publication that you need.

Full-Text Article Databases

  • JSTOR
    Provides access to the full content of a variety of scholarly journals. Coverage generally begins with volume one of a journal, and ends 2-5 years from the present. Journals may be browsed or searched.
  • Electronic Journal Center at OhioLINK
    Includes the full text of approximately 2,500 journals. Most relevant titles will be found in the Social Sciences and Arts and Humanities categories.
  • Academic Search Complete (partial full text)
    Academic Search Complete is the world's largest scholarly, multi-discipline, full text database designed specifically for academic institutions. This resource indexes over 4300 periodicals and contains full text for over 3400 scholarly publications. Academic Search Premier includes full-page images as well as color embedded images. This scholarly collection provides full text journal coverage for nearly all academic areas of study - including social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language and linguistics, arts & literature, medical sciences, and ethnic studies.

Citation-Only Article Database

America: History and Life (1964 - )
Indexes and abstracts scholarly literature on the history and culture of the United States and Canada, from prehistoric times to the present.

Book Reviews

Some scholarly journals also publish book reviews, many of which are available online and in full-text, depending upon the book's year of publication. If you are looking for reviews of an older book, you may have to consult one of the print indexes to book reviews located in the reference collection.

The New York Times Index [Ref. AI21 .N45] 1851-present
Palmer's Index to the Times Newspaper [Ref. AI21 .T458] 1899-1905
The Annual Index to the Times [Ref. AI21 .T458] 1906-1913
The Official Index to the Times/Index to the Times [Ref. AI21 .T46] 1914-1972
The Times Index [Ref. AI21 .T26] 1972-present

Recommended Databases for Finding Book Reviews

  • America: History and Life (1964 - ) In addition to finding scholarly articles, you can search specifically for book reviews by selecting article type: review. This is mostly a citation-only index, so in order to access these reviews, you'll need to open a new window and search for the journal title in CONSORT.
  • H-Net Reviews in the Humanities and Social Sciences (1993 - )
    This is particularly good for more recent works. You can also browse reviews on the front page, or search by entering the title or author into quick search --be sure to use quotation marks when doing so. The Advanced Search allows you to search by category, including title and author. Remember to enter authors' names first last (simon schama).
  • Humanities International Complete
    Humanities International Index is a comprehensive database covering 1700 journals, as well as books and reference sources in the humanities. All data from American Humanities Index is included with the addition of international coverage. This database provides citation information for articles, essays and reviews, as well as original creative works including poems and fiction. Photographs, paintings and illustrations are also referenced.
  • JSTOR
    You can also limit your searches in JSTOR to retrieve reviews by using the Advanced Search feature.

Finding Primary Sources

Primary sources can include a range of materials: interviews, newspaper articles, published or unpublished letters and diaries, and even government documents. Look at Kenyon's research guide on Primary Sources. For published primary sources, try these suggested subject headings. Some primary source collections relevant to American History include:

Historic Documents (1972--)
Browse by year or by topic. Includes documents surrounding the "most important" events of each year.

Primary Sources in African American History and American Women's History
You can search in either or both of these collections by keyword or subject. You can also browse by document type.

Finding Government Information

Government documents are another useful resource for history research. Many of the government documents in Kenyon's library collection are cataloged in CONSORT, but not all. For more information on finding government documents, see the KAP: Introduction to Government Documents guide.

 

Newspapers: Current and Historical

America's Historical Newspapers 1690-1922
Full text of more than 1,000 U.S. historical newspapers published between 1690 and 1922, including titles from all 50 states.

American Periodicals Series Online 1740-1900
Consists of digitized reproductions of more than 1,100 eighteenth and nineteenth century newspapers and periodicals in the original microfilm reproduction series, American periodical series, I, II, and III.

HarpWeek: The Civil War Era and Reconstruction I (1857-1871)
Full text and images of Harper's Weekly from 1857-1871.

Reader's Guide Retrospective (1890-1982)
This database indexes 375 of the most popular general-interest periodicals published in the United States.

African-American Newspapers and Magazines on Microfilm
List of African-American newspapers and magazines available at Kenyon on microfilm.

More Newspaper Resources
For more current and historical newspapers, see the Newspapers and Periodicals page.

Selected Internet Resources

All of the article databases mentioned above are proprietary resources -- they are not freely available on the Internet. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you evaluate Internet resources. Below is a list of some reliable freely available history web sites.

 

 

Reference Resources

Reference works are a good place to begin your research. They can provide a quick overview of a topic and are useful for developing a list of keywords that will help you when searching library catalogs as well as article indexes and databases. The following is a selective list of reference works in Kenyon's collection.

The American Heritage Encyclopedia of American History [Ref. E174 .A535 1998]
This encyclopedia contains brief entries for nearly 3,000 events and people in United States history. Some entries include additional bibliographic information.


The Reader's Companion to American History [Ref. E174 .R43 1991]
Provides entries which are generally one-half page or longer. Signed entries also include bibliographical information. It also includes cross-references to other relevant entries and a detailed index.


Readers Guide to American History [Ref. E178 .R43 1997]
Contains brief articles on a variety of topics and people in United States history. Each article is preceded by a brief bibliography for further reading on the topic.


United States History: A Selective Guide to Information Sources [Ref. E178 .B57 1994]
Provides listings of various types of reference resources useful in researching United States history. It also contains some sections on specific areas and eras of history.


Other Resources

The Gerritsen Collection of Women's History, 1543-1945 [On microfiche/microfilm]

This microfilm/microfiche collection is international in scope and includes over 4000 monographs and 265 serials. The richest part of the collection centers on the 19th century and includes monographs and periodicals in the following areas:
  • BIBLIOGRAPHY
  • HISTORY AND SOCIAL CONDITION
  • EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
  • WOMEN AND EMPLOYMENT
  • FEMINISM
  • PHYSIOLOGY OF WOMEN
  • PSYCHOLOGY OF WOMEN
  • BIOGRAPHY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY
  • OPINIONS, SATIRES, ANECDOTES, APHORISMS
  • WOMEN AND THE ARTS
  • POLITICS AND SOCIAL REFORM
  • RELIGION

The collection is located in the microforms area on Level 2 of Chalmers. Items in the collection will appear in CONSORT searches or may be searched specifically by adding the word gerritsen to your keyword search (e.g. "gerritsen and suffrage"). For help in using the collection, ask at the Information Desk.

Need Help? Contact:

Nina Clements
Email: clementsn@kenyon.edu
Librarian & Technology Consultant
740. 427. 5668