JOUR 474/774: Mining the National Archives

Instructor: Prof. Ira Chinoy
Web page maintained by Maggie Saponaro, UM Libraries

The University of Maryland Libraries have many resources that will help with your research. If you need additional information, please contact Maggie Saponaro or speak with a Reference Librarian at McKeldin Library's Service Plus Information Desk.

Because of licensing agreements, access to bibliographic databases and electronic journals is restricted to UM faculty, staff, and students. These may be accessed from off campus; consult our Remote access instructions for further information. For a complete list of electronic resources available to University of Maryland faculty, staff, and students, as well as information about the full range of library materials and services, consult the UM Libraries' home page.

Table of Contents

• Library Catalogs
• Multidisciplinary Databases
• Subject-specific Databases
• Electronic Journals
• Government Documents Databases
• NARA Databases
• Citing NARA documents

• UM Libraries' Catalog
  Use the Catalog to search for books and other reference resources on your topic available in the UM Library System. Use a "words anywhere" or "subject words" search.
  Example: national youth administration
  
  Use the Journals portion of the Catalog to find out whether the Libraries subscribe to a particular journal. Type in the journal title (not the article title) under "Title beginning with" in the pull-down menu.
  Example: Journal of American History
  
  
• The Archives Library Information Center at Archives II (ALIC) is a research library containing reference works on American history and other topics of interest to NARA researchers. Search the catalog or view full-text documents online. Note that many of the items found in ALIC can also be found at the University of Maryland Libraries.
  
  
• WorldCatUM
  OCLC’s catalog of books, serial publications, media, visual materials, musical scores, and archival materials in libraries worldwide plus holdings of UM Libraries, UM System and partners.
  
  
• WorldCat
  Catalog of books, serial publications, media, visual materials, musical scores, and archival materials in libraries worldwide.
  

Many of the citations you will see in the Libraries' databases have a yellow "Find It" button next to them. Find It provides links from a citation in a database to the full-text of that article, where available, and to other helpful resources and services. It is a quick way to find out whether the Libraries have the online full text of an article. Click on the Find It button to see a menu of options for accessing the full text of an article. For more information about Find It, see Find It Frequently Asked Questions.

• Academic Search Premier
  Articles from scholarly and popular journals in a wide range of subject areas. Some full-text is available.
  
  
• LexisNexis Academic
  Full-text access to US and international newspapers, journals, wire services, and news transcripts including the Washington Post and the New York Times.
  
  
• Historical Newspapers (ProQuest)
  Searchable full-text of major American newspapers. Included within the database, but also searchable individually, are:
  
  
  • New York Times Historical contains the full text of NYT articles from 1851-2007. For articles appearing after 2007, use LexisNexis Academic.
    
    
  • Washington Post Historical contains the full text of Post articles from 1877 to 1994. For articles published after 1994, use LexisNexis Academic.
  
  
  
• Early American Newspapers (Readex)
  Searchable full-text issues of: Early American Newspapers, Series 1, 1690-1876; Series 2, 1758-1900; Series 3, 1829-1922; and African American Newspapers, 1827-1998.
  
  
• NewspaperArchive.Com
  The largest historical newspaper database, contains tens of millions of newspaper pages from 1753 to the present from small, local newspapers from all over the U.S.
  
  
• Ethnic Newswatch
  Provides indexing and full text for small papers not covered by LexisNexis Academic.
  
  
• America: History & Life with Full-Text
  Includes unique full-text coverage of nearly 200 journals and 100 books. Information on articles, books, book reviews, and dissertations on U.S. and Canadian history from prehistory to the present.
  
  
• Historical Abstracts with Full-Text
  Includes unique full-text coverage of nearly 200 journals and 100 books for non-U.S. and Canadain history. Provides indexing for over 1700 journals from 1964 to the present.
  
  
• JSTOR is a searchable file of core journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. It includes complete runs of journals with full-text of all articles published prior to the most current five years. New indexing makes searching JSTOR easier; for best results, use the Advanced Search screen and search for keywords within the abstracts instead of in full text.
  
  
• Social Sciences Citation Index
  Indexes over 17,000 journals in 50 disciplines by subject keyword, author name, journal title & author affiliation. Select "Cited Reference Search" to locate articles citing major articles from 1954-present.
  
  

Note: When off-campus, you will need to log in to access databases. [Further Information].

To find a database specific to your topic, go to Research Port and use the "Find Databases by Subject Category" section to browse subjects.

• Dissertations and Theses: Full Text
  (Formerly: Digital Dissertations.) An authoritative source for information about doctoral dissertations and master's theses. Includes the work of authors from over 1,000 graduate schools and universities. Full text is available from 1997 to the present.
  
  
• American History in Video
  From Alexander Street Press. Provides the largest and richest collection of video available online for the study of American history, with 2,000 hours and more than 5,000 titles on completion. The collection allows students and researchers to analyze historical events, and their presentation over time, through commercial and governmental newsreels, archival footage, public affairs footage, and important documentaries.



• World History in Video
  A collection of critically acclaimed documentaries on topics related to human history from the earliest civilizations to the late twentieth century. Video content covers Africa and the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania.
  
  
• CIAO (Columbia International Affairs Online)
  Contains the full text of articles, working papers, and analysis of foreign affairs topics.
  
  
• Air University Library Index to Military Periodicals
  The only resource that indexes magazines and journals published by the military. It is an excellent source of information on Defense Department agencies and military topics (including military history).
  

• Congressional Indexes, 1789-1972
  Access to the indexes for the U.S. Congressional Serial Set Index, published and unpublished Congressional Hearings, Congressional Committee Prints, and Senate Executive Documents and Reports.



• LexisNexis Congressional
  Authoritative source for bill text and tracking; CIS index, abstracts & legislative histories; Congressional Record; public laws; U.S. Code; Federal Register (1980 - present) and Code of Federal Regulations (current).



• LexisNexis State Capital
  Full-text of bills and laws, constitutions, proposed and enacted regulations, legislature membership, newspapers of record, for all 50 states. May be searched by individual state, any combination of states, or all 50 states at once. Also includes abstracts from Martindale-Hubell State Law Digest and policy analysis from State Capital Journal and the NCSL Legisbrief.



• Catalog of U.S. Government Publications
  The finding tool for federal publications that includes descriptive records for historical and current publications and provides direct links to those that are available online. Searchable by authoring agency, title, subject, and general key word. Advanced search available.
  
  
• FRUS: Foreign Relations of the United States
  The official compilation of material from various government agencies about foreign relations topics. Volumes are organized by topic (e.g. Cuban Missile Crisis). Sometimes it is easier to use the paper copies which are located in the McKeldin Government Documents Department (fourth floor) in their reference section (ask at the first floor Information Services desk).



• U.S. Federal Government Agencies Directory
  Comprehensive list of Federal agencies websites, arranged alphabetically, hierarchically, and by branch of government.



• Maryland State Publications
  Finding aid for Maryland State publications available electronically and at the University of Maryland Libraries.
  
  

• ARC: Archival Research Catalog
  "The online catalog of NARA's nationwide holdings in the Washington, DC area, Regional Archives and Presidential Libraries." Detailed information on how to search ARC is available.



• AAD: Access to Archival Databases
  Provides "online access to records in a small selection of historic databases preserved permanently in NARA."

Refer to Citing Records in the National Archives of the United States for proper citation form.

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