Databases are online indexes of journal articles and abstracts. Many include full-text journal articles. Some databases also contain book chapters, newspaper/magazine articles, citations for books, and more.
In plain English, a database is what you would use to find articles!
The library subscribes to a number of databases that provide historical results in addition to broader, interdisciplinary databases like JSTOR and Academic Search Complete. As an advanced searcher, you may also want to use OneSource to search multiple databases, the Hiram Library Catalog, and OhioLINK at once.
Use the Bibliographic Tools menu to locate additional search resources.
If you need assistance with searching, ask a librarian, or check out our article search tutorials.
Your historiography research will focus more on content written by historians rather than primary sources. However, the library does subscribe to a number of databases that will help you find primary sources when you need them.
JSTOR and Academic Search Complete are the two best places to locate book reviews, although you may also find them in other subject-specific databases or in OneSource.
Reading the bibliographies of a good article or book can be very helpful. But how do you find one of the sources listed? Look up the part written in italics.
If your citation looks something like the one below, then it's an article. (Hint: You know it's a journal article if you see volume/issue/page #s.)
Morrow, P. ‘‘Those Sick Challenger Jokes.’’ Journal of Popular Culture. 20.4 (1987): 175-84.
Finding it:
-look up the title of the journal in the OneSource Journal Finder (Note: Look up the journal title, which is in italics, not the "article title," which is in "quotation marks.")
-if the journal is available electronically, you can search within the journal itself or click on the "Full Text Access" link, and check if we have access to the year you need
-if the journal is available in print, read the rest of the journal's record to see if we have the volume/issue you need
If your citation looks something like the one below, then it's a book. (Hint: You know it's a book if you see a city and a publisher/press)
Framing Monsters: Fantasy Film and Social Alienation; Bellin, Joshua David; 2005, Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press.
Finding it:
-look up the title of the book in the Hiram Library Catalog
-if we don't have it, click on the OhioLINK button to find it in another Ohio library
If you already have a citation from a bibliography or other source, you have everything you need to find the article if the library owns it!
First identify the title of the journal or the title of the article.
Example:
MacDonald, Susan Peck. “The Erasure of Language.” College Composition and Communication 58, no. 4 (2007): 585-625.
In the example above:
Then find the article: