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First Year Seminars: FYS 167 Pity of War

Searching at Musselman Library

SECONDARY — Scholarly Articles and Magazines

Interdisciplinary Databases

 

History-Specific Databases

SECONDARY — Scholarly Encyclopedias

Although many of us often read Wikipedia entries for background information, we too often skip this sort of background information in scholarly research.

In addition to getting a quick overview of key events, places, and people, the references at the end of scholarly encyclopedia entries can save you hours of searching. Check Muscat Plus or databases for titles you see listed.

Public, Online Encyclopedias

 

Library Subscriptions

PRIMARY — Books with Primary Source Content

Keyword and Subject Searching in Muscat Plus

  • First try a KEYWORD search which searches all words in the titles, authors, subjects, and table of contents on MUSCAT Plus records. You can enter words in any order. A broad keyword search is a great place to start.
  • Next try a SUBJECT search with the subject headings from the keyword search. Look at the bottom of a catalog record if you already have one book that looks helpful. The subjects will help you to find similar materials.
  • Finally try an AUTHOR search to find original writings of a person or documents published by a government or organization.

 

Subject Headings

  • Once you have done a keyword search and find a book that looks helpful, scroll to the bottom of the Muscat Plus record. You'll see subjects, or tags, for different events, time periods, people, or types of content. Using these can save you a lot of time. 
  • Either click on the subject itself to get everything else we have with that subject or use some of the terms for a new keyword search.

The following terms from subject headings can be helpful to find primary source material:

diaries

correspondence

sources

documents

biographies

photographs

cartoons

posters

pictorial works

personal narratives

interviews

anecdotes

underground literature

 

Subject Heading Examples for Primary Sources

 

Keyword Searches Examples

  • "World War I" AND documents
  • "First World War" AND "trench journals"
  • "World War 1914" AND "personal narratives" AND nurse

PRIMARY — Historical Newspapers

PRIMARY — Digital Primary Source Collections

Musselman Library's Special Collections and College Archives

Browse materials online using GettDigital by scrolling down to the section "Not sure where to start?" and change the "Choose part of" menu to World War I GettDigital Collection.

You can also browse more specific collections of digitized content, like The First World War Letters of H.J.C. Peirs.

If you'd like to visit Special Collections and College Archives on Musselman Library's fourth level, the reading room is open from 1–5pm Monday–Friday. You can also schedule an appointment ahead of time.

 

Library Subscription

 

Public Digital Collections

The sites below are only a small collection of major, free digital collections.

The International Encyclopedia of the First World War maintains a large list of other websites, which can be viewed by theme or geographic region.

The Library of Congress has a central portal for discovering their WWI holdings. It pulls together photos, posters, sound recordings, manuscript collections, and other materials.