History 302
Health & Disease in America
Library Resources
Reference Works and Statistics | Searching for Books | Government Publications | Articles -- Contemporary Publications | Articles -- Secondary Sources | Collections of Primary Source Documents
Reference Works
Use reference sources for brief overviews of historical people, places, and events. They also refer you to key articles and books and supply important names, dates, and terms.- Online Reference Shelf The Gale Virtual Reference Library contains many reference works including, The Encyclopedia of American History, The Encyclopedia of Public Health, Encyclopedia of Aging, etc...
- Disease and Medical Care in the United States: A Medical Atlas of the 20th Century
- Call # RA804.S54 1993, Life Sciences Library Reference, 4th Floor Paterno
- Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970 Online
- Also: Statistical Abstract of the U.S., 1878-present
Government Publications
- Century of Lawmaking
- Contains searchable text of debates in Congress, laws and bills up to 1873. For later debates see the Congressional Record, Call # J11.G5, 2nd Floor Paterno
- Lexis Nexis Congressional Universe (Index to Congressional Hearings and U.S. Serial Set)
- Congressional documents not online can be found in the Social Sciences Library, 2nd Floor Paterno
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
- Includes: Center for Disease Control and the National Center for Health Statistics
- U.S. Executive Branch Documents, 1789-1909 & 1910-1932
- Call # CIS U.S. Executive, Social Sciences Library, U.S. Documents To locate specific topics consult the printed guides, Call # J83.P87
- Monthly Catalog of United States Government Publications, 1895-present
- Call # J83 .C7196, Social Sciences Library Reference, 2nd Floor Paterno
- United States Reports(U.S. Supreme Court opinions)
- Call # KF101.U49, Social Sciences Library, 2nd Floor, Paterno
Online via Lexis Nexis Academic Universe
Searching for Books
Use a Library Catalog to search for materials (books, videos, maps, etc.). You can access the library catalogs listed below by going to Books & More:
- The CAT (Penn State's catalog)
- OCLC WorldCat (Libraries worldwide. Use the "Request via ILL link in WorldCAT to have items delivered to you.)
Search E-Books
Book Reviews
- For key early works of medicine consult: Morton's Medical Bibliography: An Annotated Check-list of Texts Illustrating the History of Medicine
- Call # R131.M67 1991, Life Sciences Library Reference, 4th Floor Paterno
Articles -- Contemporary News and Magzine Articles
Use to get a snapshot of contemporary opinions and thoughts.Use NewsCAT to locate newspapers by country, by state, by language, by format, or by time period.
18th, 19th and early 20th Century News Databases- American Periodicals Series, 1741-1900+
- Full-text of over 1,000 magazines up to around 1930.
20th Century News Sources
- Ethnic Newswatch
- includes Asian-American, African-American, and Hispanic-American news sources
- Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe
- Full-text of newspapers and magazines. 1980s to present.
- LGBT Life
- an index to articles in gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender studies
New York Times Historical Archive, 1851-
- Proquest
- Full-text of various news and magazine sources from the 1980s to present.
Searching for Scholarly Articles
- America: History & Life (Articles published since 1954 in history journals)
Includes links to full-text from History Cooperative, JSTOR, & Project MUSE - HAPI,(Hispanic American Periodicals Index)
- Health and Safety Science Abstracts (Works since 1980 relating to public health and safety)
- History of Science, Technology & Medicine
- International Index to Black Periodicals Full Text
- PubMed (Medline) Articles in medical journals PubMed Central is a free digital archive of back issues of biomedical and life scienecs journal literature from the U.S. National Institutes of Health
Other Primary Sources
See also the sections on Government Publications, and Newspaper and Magazine articles
- American Memory
- Digital library from the Library of Congress.
- Early American Imprints, 1620-1800
- Books published in the U.S. colonies before 1800
North American Women, Letters and Diaries
Penn State Special Collections Library
Guide to locating Historical Speeches
Questions????
Ask at any Reference Desk, or contact Eric Novotny, ecn1@psu.edu, 814-865-1014,
IM: HistoryLibrarian