Trexler Library | Muhlenberg College

Colonial America

Need help with your research? Contact:

Kelly Cannon
Humanities & Business Subject Specialist
phone: x3602
email: kcannon@muhlenberg.edu
IM (AIM, Yahoo, MSN): refcannon
Reference desk IM: talktotrexler

Reference works

The American Historical Association's guide to historical literature (Ref Collection 016.9 G946 1995)
Recommends "classic" studies. Sample

American National Biography (Ref Collection 920.073 A512a) ***RECOMMENDED***
Good for recommending articles and chapters on historical figures. Helpful too in identifying differing viewpoints. Sample

Dictionary of American History (Ref Collection 973.003 D554a)
Good for recommending articles and chapters on historical subjects. Helpful too in identifying differing viewpoints.

How do I locate peer-reviewed (scholarly) journal articles?

general indexes with full text. . .

American History & LIfe ***RECOMMENDED***
NOTE: Access from the Trexler Library website > Articles A to Z
Index to historical research about U.S. history, 1492-present.

Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com)
An open-access web crawler that looks for content it identifies as "scholarly." Emphasis is on books and journal articles. Intended as a "federated search" to search across disciplines (weighted toward sciences and social sciences). Not always full text. Check our catalog to see if Muhlenberg has access to the full text.

JSTOR
NOTE: Access from the Trexler Library website > Articles A to Z
Subscription database of purely academic journals. Archival database: most recent issue is generally 5 yrs. old.

getting to the full text. . .

Once you have found the citation of a journal article you're interested in, click on the Get It link found next to the citation, or run a journal title search in Trexler Library's online catalog. NOTE: Access from Trexler Library website > catalog.

articles via interlibrary loan. . .

Journal articles not found in Trexler Library can be ordered on interlibrary loan.
NOTE: Access from Trexler Library website > ILL

How do I locate scholarly book (and book chapters)?

Trexler Library Catalog
NOTE: Access from the Trexler Library website (http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library) > catalog.
Catalog of all books and documents in Trexler Library at Muhlenberg College.

WorldCat
NOTE: Access from the Trexler Library website > Database > Most Popular > WorldCat
Catalog of books and documents in libraries throughout the world. Watch especially for the AREA LIBRARIES designation.

Citing sources

For tips on citing print and electronic sources in the Chicago style, visit Trexler Library's Citation Guides for Print and Electronic Resources. NOTE: Access from the Trexler Library website > Citation Guides.