Librarian
Getting Started
Knowing basic information about your topic is the first step of any history project. Encyclopedias and historical dictionaries are great places to start.
- Oxford Research EncyclopediasFull-text encyclopedias on a range of topics that include in-depth, peer-reviewed summaries written by scholars across all fields of study.
- Oxford Digital Reference ShelfFull-text reference works from Oxford University Press covering a broad range of subjects, and including timelines, quotations, and overviews.
- Routledge HandbooksAround 2,700 handbooks providing up-to-date overviews of classic and current research across the Humanities, Social Sciences, Education, Psychology, Engineering, and Built Environment from Routledge and CRC Press.
- Very Short IntroductionsHundreds of short ebooks (around 100 pages each) that offer concise expert overviews of a diverse range of concepts. Subjects include climate, consciousness, game theory, ancient warfare, economics, and literary theory.
Alternate access link: http://proxy.ohiolink.edu:9099/login?url=https://academic.oup.com/pages/very-short-introductions
- SummonSearch the BGSU library catalog alongside the vast majority of our journal content at one time using Summon. Find and link to full text articles in scholarly journals and newspapers, ebooks, and images.
- BGSU Libraries CatalogSearch for books, videos, music scores, CDs, journals & newspapers, and archival and special collections available at the BGSU Libraries.
BGSU has many databases that you can use to find scholarly articles, however, the databases below are your best bet for finding History and Education related articles.
For a full list of Library Databases visit A-Z Databases.
- America: History & Life (EBSCO)Index to scholarly journal articles on the history and culture of the United States and Canada.
- Historical Abstracts (EBSCO)Index to scholarly journal articles from international historical journals, covering the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present.
- JSTOROver a thousand full-text scholarly journals and books covering all subjects in the humanities, sciences and social sciences. History, economics, art, literature, and mathematics are particularly strong. All journal titles are archived back to the first issue, many dating from the early 1800s.
- Academic Search Complete1887-present. Good for almost any topic! Contains both scholarly and popular articles, many of which are full text.
- Dissertations & Theses (ProQuest)Index to more than 2 million doctoral dissertations and master's theses written from 1861 to the present for universities all over the world, with full text access to most.
- Education Research CompleteIndex to and full text of articles about all fields of education and all educational specialties.
- ERIC (Education Resource Information Center)ERIC indexes education-related literature, beginning in 1966. It includes citations to research reports, journal articles, and books, many of which link to full text.
When conducting your research, it is important for you to distinguish between journal articles and magazine articles. Databases are used to find and identify articles from peer-reviewed journals and other types of documents.
Journal articles are usually referred to as "scholarly," while magazine articles are commonly considered "popular."
Consider these points when differentiating between journals and magazines:
| Criteria | Scholarly Journal | Popular Magazine/Blog/Online Publication |
| Audience | Academics and/or Researchers, Professionals | General Public |
| Authors | Experts and/or Specialists | Journalists and/or Freelance Writers |
| Editorial Review/Peer Review | Journal Editorial Board and Peer Reviewers | Professional Editors |
| Reference/Works Cited | Yes | Not always required or provided |
Evaluating Scholarly Articles
- Patterns in Scholarly WritingThis hand out will help you to recognize the patterns in a scholarly articles, making them easier to read and navigate.
- Evaluating InformationOnce you’ve found sources for research project, the next step is to evaluate whether or not they meet your needs for your topic. While your sources may broadly or loosely relate to your topic, you really want sources that relate more directly – either supporting or refuting your points. There are multiple ways to evaluate sources, but one that we recommend is the RADAR method.
- Guided Note-TakingUse this worksheet to help you keep the information gathered from your chosen scholarly articles organized.