History of Illinois
Reference | Library Catalogs | Primary Sources | Magazines | Indexes | Internet Sites | Writing Papers | Citing Sources
Reference
- Almanacs of American Life
Reference E 169.1 .A5
- Dictionary of American History
Reference E 174 .D52
- Encyclopedia of Chicago
Reference F 548.3 .E53 2004
- Encyclopedia of the American West
Reference F 591 .E485
- Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century
E 169.1 .E626
- Encyclopedia of the United States in the Twentieth Century
Reference E 740.7 .E53
- Historical Statistics of the United States Part 1, Part 2
Reference HA 202 .B87 1975
Library Catalogs
Use the catalogs below to locate print and audio-visual materials. Some suggestions include:
- Subjects beginning with Illinois or specific cities or regions in Illinois, for example: Cahokia.
- Illinois as a subeading, for example: Slavery -- Illinois.
Some interesting sources in the General Collection include:
- Illinois Historical and Statistical F541 .M9 1895 v.2
- Illinois Historical Collections F 536 .I25
- Territorial Papers of the United States: Illinois Territory F 545 .T47 1948
- Transactions of the Illinois Historical Society F 536 .T72
Primary Sources
There are several ways to locate primary sources in the College of DuPage Library.
Some may be found in the Reference Section
- American Decades: Primary Sources
Reference E 169.1 .A471977
- Annals of America
Reference E 173 .A793
- Historic Documents of.... (1972-present)
Reference E 839,5 .H37
- United States Supreme Court Reports
Reference KF 101 .U6584
- Vital Speeches of the Day
Current Periodicals and Microfilm
There are considerably more primary sources available in the General Collection. To locate them use the College's Library Catalog.
- Do an author search.
Anything written by a participant would be a primary source. For example, for a primary source about the Korean War, look up "Truman, Harry S. " as an author and you will find Public papers of the Presidents of the United States, containing the public messages, speeches, and statements of the President .
- Do a subject search.
- Primary sources often contain one of these subheadings: sources, personal narratives, diaries, or correspondence. For example, look up "Illinois History Civil War " and scan the results for those subheadings.
- Sometimes primary sources are found in broad collections with or without the subheadings above. Look up a broader heading such as "Mormons" and limit the search results to "source material" to find some useful collection.
Many of the Internet Sites mentioned below also have collections of primary sources. Using Primary Sources on the Web is an excellent guide to finding and evaluating web-based primary sources.
Magazines
Local and State magazines are seldom included in indexes. You will need to browse through them for information.
Titles the Library subscribes to include:
- Illinois Archaeology : Journal of the Illinois Archaeological Survey 1989-present
- Illinois Heritage 1997-present
- Illinois Historical Journal 1984-1998
- Illinois History 2002
- Illinois Issues 1975-1979, 1990-2001 ; 2002-present
- Journal of Illinois History 2000-present
- Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 1953-1984, 1999-present
Indexes
In addition to online indexes specifically for history, many general sources cover the topic well. In many cases, the databases will have the full text article available online. If you are using these databases from off-campus, please be sure to have your library card available.
- History Databases
(not specifically Illinois)
- General Indexes
(not specifically Illinois)
- Academic Search Premier (1984-present)
Indexes over 3,000 journals and magazines; sometimes inlcudes primary sources.
- Expanded Academic Index (1980-present)
Indexes over 2500 journals and magazines.
- Historical New York Times (1851-1999)
Full images of the entire paper.
- JSTOR
JSTOR is an archive of digitized journal articles ranging in date from the 1700's to the early 2000's. These collections span a variety of subjects in the Humanities, Social Sciences and Physical Sciences. - Newspapers (1980s-present)
Full text of the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times (last 90 days only).
- Illinois Sources
Internet Sites
The Internet is an excellent place to find primary sources for the study of history. Primary sources are original documents from the time period. These texts are the foundation upon which other studies and interpretations are made. The Internet is also a good place to find images on historical topics. While there are good sites with secondary information, they are often not in enough depth for academic research. It is best to critically evaluate these sites before using them. Some suggested sites include:
(P) denotes the site contains some primary sources.
Writing Papers
Here are some helpful sources to help you research and write papers in history.
Citing Sources
The MLA format (Modern Language Association) is commonly used to create bibliographies or works cited pages. The sources below may help you.
Professors in other disciplines or professors at other schools may prefer a different citation style. It's always best to ask to be sure what style they would like you to use. For professional writing in the field of history, the Chicago Manual of Style is the prefered citation format. These are some sources to help with that format
Marianne Berger, Reference Librarian
630-942-2338
berger@cdnet.cod.edu
1 September 2005
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C.O.D. Library Catalog