LibGuides: History & Historical Research: Getting Started

Guide Objective

By reviewing this guide, learners will be able to:

Describe the purpose and role of reference sources, monographs, scholarly articles, and primary sources in the historical research process.
Identify and locate relevant primary and secondary sources for historical research using Masland Library resources.

Related Subjects and Class

Related Subjects
History Sociology Political Science Social Studies

Related Courses

SOC 333
HUM 212
HUM 211
HUM 431

History and Historical Research

Welcome to the Malsand Libraries guide to history research at Cairn University. Here you can find a variety of research tools to support your academic work within the discipline of History.

Use tabs at the left to find primary sources, secondary journal articles, books, reference, and other history resources.

Search Library Resources

Quick Start: History Resource

Below are a few highly recommended history resources

AM Explorer
Through AM Explorer, search millions of pages of primary sources spanning the 15th – 21st centuries. Includes resources spanning the social sciences and humanities, developed in collaboration with leading libraries and archives.
Cambridge Companions Online: Complete Collection
The Cambridge Companions Online: Complete Collection is a fully searchable, full text collection of from the renowned Cambridge Companions series. The Complete collection includes: The Companions to Literature and Classics; The Companions to Philosophy, Religion and Culture; and, The Companions to Music.
Cambridge Histories Online
Full text of all Cambridge history volumes (250+) published to date. Subject matter ranges widely across the humanities with a concentration on political and cultural history. Each volume includes authoritative narrative accounts by specialists and extensive bibliographies. The subject categories containing the most volumes are regional history, general history (with its chronological series) and literary studies, but there are also several series on the history of religion, philosophy and economic history. Content is displayed as page images and can be searched via metadata and full text.
JSTOR Arts & Sciences I-XV
JSTOR's archival journal collections include more than two thousand journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. It ontains the entire runs, from the first volume up to the volumes published only a few years ago. Currently published titles have a "moving wall" of 3-5 years after which the current issues are added to JSTOR.
World History in Context
World History in Context is an online database for those seeking contextual information on hundreds of the most significant people, events and topics in World History. This resource merges Gale's authoritative reference content with full-text magazines, academic journals, news articles, primary source documents, images, videos, audio files and links to vetted websites organized into a user-friendly portal experience.