FINDING INFORMATION ON MATERIAL CULTURE AND AMERICAN HISTORY

Reference Works:

• Encyclopedias
  General and subject specific encyclopedias provide useful introductions to material culture and the historical time periods during which they were created, evolved, and were influential.  Consult those behind the Reference Desk in the first floor Reference Area, in the Reference Collection, or the electronic  Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

Other reference sources:

• Handbook of American Popular Culture [REF] E 169.1 H 2643 1989 v 1-2.
• Columbia Chronicles of American Life  [REF] E 169.1 G664 1995
• This Fabulous Century  [REF] E 161 T55 v. 1-5
• 1776-1976  200 Years of America [REF] E 174.5 B52

Monographs

• The Libraries' book collection includes works that offer comprehensive treatment of many  subjects. Choose Books and More/Online Catalog, to search PILOT, our online catalog to find books in our collection as well as links to the full-text of electronic reserve items and other valuable information on the Internet.
• To search the catalogs of other Pennsylvania Libraries and to borrow from them directly, choose Books and More/PALCI from our web page. (To borrow items, log in using your 16-digit I-card number.)
• To search the broadest database of books, journal titles, and Internet sites on any subject search WorldCat. From our web page choose Articles and More/All Databases/. WorldCat While many of these materials will not be available in our library, they can be ordered through Interlibrary Loan's Web Page. Click on ILLIAD.

General Online Sources of Full-text Scholarly and Popular Magazines and Newspapers

Scholarly and popular magazines and newspapers offer concise and timely treatment of material culture and history. IUP patrons can access large collections of such information through the following services. (To gain access at home to the first two, use your 16 digit I-card number.)

• Ebsco Host--access to the full-text of over one thousand periodicals and newspapers, the bibliographic references to thousands more, and links to Internet sites and information on local holdings of periodicals.
• Infotrac/Onefile-- access to the full-text of over one thousand periodicals and bibliographic access to thousands more.
• Lexis Nexis Academic -- full-text database includes the last twenty years of local, national, and international newspapers and many other useful sources.

Specialized Indexes
Though large general databases offering full-text are easy to use, sometimes the source of the most scholarly and most relevant information is a specialized index. You also may wish to look at the complete list of these under Articles and More/All Databases on our web page. Here are some examples:

• America: History & Life -- a complete bibliographic reference to the history of the United States and Canada.
• Anthropological Index--one of the major indexes for Social and Cultural Anthropology.
• Art Abstracts--indexes and abstracts art journals from more than 313 periodicals worldwide
• Biography Resource Center-- reference book entries, scholarly and popular articles and Internet sites on famous people.
• Sociological Abstracts-- databases covering sociology and related disciplines by including bibliographic citations, abstracts and enhanced dissertation citations

Remember specialized indexes are often the most comprehensive guides to relevant sources, but are not always the best source for full-text. If the full-text is not available from the database itself, and it does not offer a link to PILOT you will need to determine if we have it in our paper or electronic journal collections.  To do this you need to check both Pilot at Books and More/Online Catalog for paper and some and use the electronic sources or  go to Articles and More/E-Journals , IUP Libraries Electronic Journals Search. This will let you know if we have access to the journal in electronic format.

Some useful sites include:

• Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture
• American Women's History: A Research Guide Material Culture

For information on how to evaluate information found on the Internet, try the following:

• Evaluating Web Sites: Criteria and Tools from Cornell
• Criteria for evaluation of Internet Information Resources

• MLA
• APA
• Citing Online Sources

Notable Web Pages

• IUP English Department
• IUP Writing Center

Reference assistance is available to library users most hours the Library is open:

Walk ins:  Reference librarians staff a central reference desk most hours the library is open.

Contact us by phone: Call the reference desk at 724-357-3006

E-mail a question: Reference librarians and subject specialist can assist you by email.

Chat : Available  Monday through Friday  1:00-4:00 pm when classes are in session.

Request a Research Consultation: Make an appointment to meet with a librarian to help begin or continue your research.

Correspondence regarding this site should be sent to its creator, Theresa McDevitt, PhD or maintainer, Ed Zimmerman, edzimmer@iup.edu> . Please see IUP's statement regarding pages that do not officially represent the university. Revised on 03/03.