What are Secondary Sources?
Secondary Sources are secondhand sources. They were created by historians who drew their information from primary sources. The most typical types of secondary sources are books and academic journal articles.
Books at Gorgas Library
- ScoutUse Scout to find books, eBooks, scholarly journal articles, magazine articles, newspapers, and more.
- Classic CatalogThe classic catalog is best for print books that we have on the shelves here at Gorgas. Can also be used to find government documents
Browsing the Gorgas Library
Historians find some of their best books by browsing the shelves. Open the document below for a guide to browsing the Gorgas Library for history books:
Finding Books on WorldCat
- WorldCat FirstSearch This link opens in a new window
WorldCat is the world's largest network of library content and services. WorldCat libraries are dedicated to providing access to their resources on the Web, where most people start their search for information. You can search for popular books, music CDs and videos—all of the physical items you're used to getting from libraries. WorldCat can be used to verify citations, locate an item in another library, or to provide accurate citation information for inter-library loan requests. (Does not include citations to individual articles, stories in periodicals, or book chapters).
- Interlibrary LoanUse Interlibrary loan to request any books, journal articles, theses/dissertations, newspapers, or other sources that the university libraries don't have. With print books and some other sources you may have to wait 1-2 weeks for them to be delivered, but electronic copies of things like scholarly journal articles can be accessed in a matter of days!
eBooks
- HathiTrust Digital Library This link opens in a new window
HathiTrust is a partnership of research institutions committed to digital preservation of the cultural record. The Digital Library provides access to public domain and some in-copyright content from a variety of sources, including Google, the Internet Archive, Microsoft, and in-house partner institution initiatives.
- ScoutUse Scout to find books, eBooks, scholarly journal articles, etc.
General Journal Collections
- Historical Abstracts with Full Text This link opens in a new window
Covers the history of the world (excluding the United States and Canada) from 1450 to the present.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Images of the full text of many scholarly titles in a range of subject areas, including literature, biological sciences, economics, finance, and statistics. Search the archive or pull up a specific article.
- Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Web of Science (formerly Web of Knowledge) offers a wide range of interdisciplinary content. Also included: prominent journals and conference proceedings, Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1985-present); Science Citation Index (1955-present); and Social Sciences Citation Index (1900-present).
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Google Scholar is a freely available scholarly search engine that allows you to search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles – from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.
- Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance This link opens in a new window
A collection of materials pertaining to the Middle Ages and Renaissance (400-1700). The platform contains databases, books, and journals.
- BrepolisA cluster of databases - Includes the International Medieval Bibliography Online, the Bibliography of British and Irish History, and more.
- American Bibliography of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ABSEEES) This link opens in a new window
List articles, books, book chapters, book reviews, dissertations, and selected government publications published in the United States and Canada and some European countries on East-Central Europe, Russia, Soviet Union and the former Soviet republics.
- DigiZeitschriften This link opens in a new windowDigiZeitschriften is a full-text collection of core German research journals in a wide range of subjects: arts, humanities, social sciences, law, mathematics, and science. The database includes extensive back files, but no recent issues.
- ScoutUse Scout to find journal articles, print books, eBooks, and more.
Journals: Religious History
You will also be able to find journal articles about religious history in some of the general journal collections.
- ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials This link opens in a new window
ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials is the full text version of the ATLA Religion Database. This database provides a collection of major religious and theology journals selected by religion scholars in the United States.
Journals: The History of Science
You will also be able to find scholarly articles about the history of science in some of the general journal collections.
- ScienceDirectInformation source for world's scientific, medical, and technical research, but also includes social science and humanities topics.
- JSTORIncludes science journals of the 1600s-1800s!
Reference Books: A Great Way to Start Your Research
Reference books consist of encyclopedias and dictionaries that offer concise essays about specific topics. I recommend using these tools for three reasons:
- To gain background information about your topic. Maybe you're doing a paper on a topic you don't much about and need to learn about it quickly. Or you want to know the historical debates over your topic to help you find a thesis you can argue.
- To glean keywords to use in your searches for primary sources in other resources.
- To find lists of key books and articles on your topic that you can then look for in other library resources. Reference books are excellent at telling us what the most important books and articles are on a topic.
(You can also use Wikipedia to find keywords and discover other sources, but please avoid using wikipedia essays as sources in your paper!)
Reference Collections
Here are several reference book collections that are good for history topics:
- Cambridge Histories Online This link opens in a new windowCambridge Histories includes hundreds of authoritative volumes in a vast range of topics, including political thought, American foreign relations, Iran, Medieval history, science, Africa, British theatre, music, Judaism and much more. Content available through 2016.
- Cambridge Collections Online: Shakespeare Survey by Volume This link opens in a new windowShakespeare Survey is a series of Shakespeare studies and production, with one volume published each year. Each volume is devoted to a theme, play or group of plays and contains a section of reviews of that year's textual and critical studies.
- Gale Virtual Reference Library This link opens in a new window
Gale Virtual Reference Library is a database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research.
- Oxford Reference This link opens in a new windowThe Oxford Reference Online Premium collection contains reference books covering a wide variety of topics; dictionaries of architecture, plants, geography, literature, mathematics, mythology, and many others. Includes the popular “Oxford Companion” series.
For information about specific historical figures, try these collections:
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new windowDatabase of biographies of men and women who have shaped British history.
- Biography and Genealogy Master Index This link opens in a new windowBiography and Genealogy Master Index indexes various editions of biographical reference sources, both current and retrospective, that cover historical as well as contemporary figures from all fields of endeavor.
Book Review Digest
- Book Review Digest Plus This link opens in a new window
This database features full-text reviews from various periodicals, review citations, and master records for each book. It has retrospective coverage from 1983 to the present for a wide array of English language fiction and nonfiction books. This online version of the print edition is updated weekly and includes a vast amount of additional information.
- Book Review Digest Retrospective: 1903-1982 (H.W. Wilson) This link opens in a new windowThis database provides excerpts from and citations to reviews of English language fiction and nonfiction books from 1905-1982.