General Help
Library Staff
Welcome to the CCA Library History Research Guide! This guide provides information about searching and citing resources for History research.
Research in History involves identifying useful information sources, evaluating these sources for reliability and credibility, and analyzing the information they contain. Conducting research in this way helps historians create syntheses, interpretations, and narratives to address historical questions.
Use this guide to access and explore History resources from the CCA Library. Good luck with your research!
"Primary sources allow a unique and particularly authentic glimpse into the past. The work and the challenge of the historian are ... to question, interpret, and communicate those experiences." (Boivin and Bonhomme 2010, xvi-xvii)
Finding History: Research Methods and Resources for Students and Scholars by Primary sources provide first-hand accounts of events, as well as insight into perspectives, attitudes, or customs of an era. Primary sources are important resources for History research in determining the accuracy of historical events and comparing perspectives on a topic. Click on the links below to explore Library databases with collections of primary sources:
Provides access to more than 12 million journal articles, books, images, and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
Primary sources including legal, colonial, economic and cultural issues and many more.
Contextual information on hundreds of the most significant people, events, and topics in U.S. history. Search using keywords or explore curated topic pages.
Contextual information on hundreds of the most significant people, events, and topics from the ancient world to today's headlines. Search using keywords or explore curated topic pages.
Secondary sources explain and interpret primary sources. These sources provide analysis or commentary on topics and events by bringing together many different resources as evidence of a claim.
Search the Library Databases to start looking for secondary sources. They can also be found in databases that focus on a subject or discipline.
Reference sources are authoritative works that contain information about people, places, events, and ideas. They offer concise summaries in a clear and organized way to provide general, background information on a subject.
You can find reference sources by searching the Library Databases to start looking for secondary sources. Click on the links below to search reference and background information databases to see what information on your topic comes up:
This all subjects resource includes 3 million entries from notable subject encyclopedias, handbooks, etc. It also provides access to more than 1,000 videos, 500,000 visual aids, images, photographs and maps.
Offers full text ebooks, periodicals, nearly 57,000 historical documents, biographies of historical figures, historical photos and maps, and more than 80 hours of historical video.
This resource covers hundreds of topics, each with an overview (objective background/description), point (argument) and counterpoint (opposing argument). It also includes academic journals, newspapers, magazines and more.
