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Search the Online Reference Databases for Background Info
By searching the reference databases (below) using your subject keywords, you will find information from encyclopedias, handbooks, dictionaries, and more. This background info will help you get up-to-speed quickly on your topic, start an outline for your paper, and assist you in writing your introduction.
- Credo Reference This link opens in a new window Credo Reference is a general knowledge database providing articles, images, charts, maps and other materials on thousands of topics. With 750+ searchable, full-text titles, Credo Reference places particular emphasis on subject encyclopedias, dictionaries, atlases, and reference handbooks. Also included are more than 1,100 short reference videos, more than 475,000 high-resolution art images, photographs, and maps across all subject areas.
Primary Sources vs. Secondary Sources
Primary Sources are:
- direct or firsthand evidence about an event, object, person, or created work
- historical and legal documents, including maps, official statements, treaties, and laws
- newspaper articles
- eyewitness accounts
- personal written accounts, such as letters, diaries, or autobiograpies
- results of experiments and/or statistical data, including surveys
- audio and video recordings
- interviews, conversations, or speeches
- direct Internet communications such as email, blog posts, listserv comments, and newsgroup
Secondary Sources are:
- written or recorded materials that describe, discuss, interpret, comment upon, analyze, and/or evaluate primary sources.
- commentaries, histories, biographies
- review articles in academic journals
- books or articles written to analyze how a historical era, person, or event is relevant to our world now
Primary sources present facts and data, while secondary sources ask questions and find answers concerning what those facts and data might mean.
Protocols of Using Middlesex Archives
- Ask a library staff member for assistance if you need to access archived materials. Appointments are strongly encouraged: mx-library@ctstate.edu
- Archival material may not leave the designated work areas.
- Materials can not be scanned without supervision.
- No food, drink, or gum.
- No pens or pencils.
- Wash and dry your hands before touching archival material.
- Gloves may be necessary for handling objects or photographs in order to protect the materials from the oils and other residues left by hands. The Library will provide gloves.
- Handle items carefully and maintain their order in the archives.
Search for Articles in History Databases
These are also great databases to begin with if you are searching for a topic to research!
- In Context: US History This link opens in a new window Gale in Context: U.S. History is an online experience for those seeking contextual information on hundreds of the most significant people, events and topics in U.S. History. Topics range from the arrival of Vikings in North America all to the way to the first stirrings of the American Revolution and on through the Civil Rights movement, 9/11, and the War on Terror. Content includes reference works, millions of news and periodical articles, and more than 5,000 rare and vital primary source documents that range from slave journals to presidential papers.
- History Reference Center This link opens in a new window Full text for more than 1,990 reference books, encyclopedias and non-fiction books from leading history publishers. Covering both U.S. and world history topics, History Reference Center is a full-text database featuring historical reference books, magazines, journals and thousands of primary source documents.
- African-American History This link opens in a new window This resource offers a fresh way to explore the full spectrum of African-American history and culture for the past 500 years. Hundreds of videos, as well as speeches, timelines, biographies, and countless informative articles are contained in this unique database. View the Topic Centers for specific subjects, such as the Underground Railroad, the Harlem Renaissance, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which include articles, sharable slideshows, videos and primary sources.
Search for Articles - General
Note: Off-campus users will be prompted to login via CSCU IdentityNow - Connecticut State Colleges & Universities
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window Academic Search Complete is the world's most valuable and comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. Indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 journals and more than 13,200 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,400 journals.