This guide identifies basic history resources at Pius XII Memorial Library. The materials are located in the Reference Department on Level 1 of Pius XII Memorial Library or are available via the Web. The guide is not comprehensive; rather, it should be used as a starting point for research for high school students who are visiting Pius Library.
 

Basic Library Tour and Tutorial

Browsing Aid to Library of Congress Classification

How to Read Call Numbers in an Academic Library (University System of Georgia)

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The Reference Collection is located on the first floor in the reference room.  To find history reference sources, browse call numbers that begin with D for World History and E-F for American History.

[You will only be able to access the online reference sources listed below from within Pius Library.]

Gale Virtual Reference Library
This is a collection of over 400 reference books that are searchable together or title by title. Subjects covered include history, philosophy, religion, science, business, information & publishing, literature, law, medicine, education, technology, and biography.

Oxford Reference Online
There are currently over 180 reference titles available. Titles include many of the Oxford Companion to... series, subject dictionaries, foreign language dictionaries, and illustrations from the Visual English Dictionary. Another feature is timelines drawn from many of the sources.

Biographical Information
For biographical information, try searching one of these online reference sources.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Find biographies of deceased persons of note (either good or bad) associated with the British Isles from the fourth century BC to 2000. This subscription provides for use by one person at a time.
Print equivalent: Ref. DA 28 .O95 2004

American National Biography Online
Find biographies of over 17,400 deceased men and women who made significant contributions to building the United States.
This subscription provides for use by one person at a time.
Print equivalent: Ref. CT 213 .A68 1999

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To find books in the Library use the Saint Louis University Libraries Catalog (which includes the holdings of all SLU Libraries).
[You can access the Saint Louis University Libraries Catalog from anywhere.]

Primary Sources

Primary sources are first-hand accounts of events or time periods in history.  Secondary sources are books or articles that are based on the examination of primary and/or secondary sources.

The following words indicate primary source material and can be found in subject headings or used as part of a keyword search on a topic.  Also, remember to search for important persons as authors as well as subjects. 

Location Information

Click on the SLU Pius link in the LOCATION section of a book record to view a map and see where the book is located.
Note: SLU MCL = Medical Center Library. SLU Law = Omer Poos Law Library.

OR

Use this Location Guide to locate books in Pius Library. Fit your book's call number into the ranges on the guide to figure out which floor of the library to go to.

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Use library databases to find articles on your topic.
[You will only be able to access these databases from within Pius Library.]

Some databases include full text articles; others only include citations and you must find the journal in another library database or in print or microfilm in the Library.  Try searching the following databases:

Historical Abstracts
Covers the world's scholarly literature on the history of the world, except the United States and Canada, from 1450 to the present.

Humanities Full Text
Indexes and/or abstracts over 600 humanities periodicals. Full text is available from approximately 230 journals.

America: History and Life
Covers the world's scholarly literature on the history of the United States and Canada.

JSTOR
This archival journal resource provides access to the full-text of over 500 journal titles, including many history journals. Note that the last 1 to 7 years of each journal are not available in this resource.

Project Muse
This electronic journal collection provides full-text access to nearly 250 scholarly journals, including many history journals.

Academic Search Premier
This multidisciplinary database provides indexing and abstracting for 8,040 journals with over 4,060 in full text.

Search additional History Databases.

Location Information

As with books, the call number determines the location of periodical publications in the library. There are four possible locations for each periodical title.

• Browsing Area/Cafe Libros (Level 1) - most current issue of high-interest publications such as Time, Newsweek, New York Times, etc.
• Current Issues (Level 2) - current year of most periodical publications received by the library.
• Circulating Book Stacks (Lewis Annex plus Levels 2-5) - back issues of most periodicals are bound with a hard cover and shelved with the books by call number. Use the Location Guide to figure out which floor to go to.
• Microfilm (Level 2) - back issues of most weekly and daily periodical publications are kept on microfilm, as are some volumes of other periodicals.

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