U.S. History & Government 

Need a Topic?

If you are having difficulty deciding on a topic for your paper, take a moment and browse the following two titles:

                 Eyewitness to America  REF 973 E975

 The American Heritage Encyclopedia of American History  REF 973.003 A51245

 The Annals of America vol. 22  REF 973 A6134

                  Encyclopedia of American Parties, Campaigns, and Elections REF 324.973                   B26143 

The first two sources are broad overviews of American history beginning with its “discovery” by Columbus in 1492 up to 1998.  The Annals of America covers the years 1997 to 2001.   The Encyclopedia of American Parties, Campaigns, and Elections offers explanations of both common and complex political terms, biographies of political figures. 

 All three of these sources are on reserve for your class to use while in the library.

 After you decide on a topic, search the World Book Encyclopedia or the Encyclopedia Britannica and read one general encyclopedia article outlining your topic.   Take notes on the basic facts:

                                                        

 Gotta find the holes...

Now begins the real brain work.  Start with the notes you took from the general encyclopedia article and begin to fill in the missing details.  Maybe a biography or autobiography of the individual credited with your event would be helpful.  Or, perhaps the “how” of your topic is still a bit sketchy.  Break the larger event down into its smaller components to help focus your paper and search for sources that chronicle the events leading up to, during, and after your topic.  Glean the “how” from this.  Did the “where” affect your event?  If so, how and why did location affect the final outcome?  It is helpful to make a list of questions of what information you need to find to help you focus your research.

Gotta fill in the holes...

 …with sources.  Brain-work marries foot-work during this part of your research process.  Use Alexandria to help you find books, DVDs, and e-books on your topic.  Remember to look both in the table of contents AND index to find out if a title has any information on your topic before you lay a source aside.  Remember to look not only for your topic as a whole, but also look for the list of facts and people and dates you discovered from World Book and Britannica. 

Still have questions?  Then try searching one of the McClain’s databases:

 

 
Be sure to check Thomson’s Encyclopedia of Politics and American Decades.  Also, be sure to check out the Memphis Public Library’s Biography Resource Center.  It will give users biographical sketches as well as magazine articles on their topic. 

The information found in these electronic sources might be in the form of an academic journal, magazine, newspaper, or reference book article. 

You have to look closely at the original publication / source information to figure out what type of source you are using.  Use Boolean operators to help expand and contract your search.    

Internet websites can provide hard to find information on a lot of topics; HOWEVER, it’s buyer beware.  Before you decide whether or not to include a site in your research process, make sure it is a viable source (http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Evaluate.html). 

Primary Sources

Check out the McClain’s webpage on how to find primary sources http://www.sgis.org/page.cfm?p=1873.

Reminders...

Make copies or printouts or note cards of all of your sources and research.

Photocopy all titles pages and their versos so that you can format your MLA bibliographic citations.  MLA handbooks are available to the left of the photocopy machine.  Your Harbrace also has a good section on MLA format. 

If you get stuck along the way, ask Mr. Covington or Ms. Allison for help.