Arts & Humanities Library
W321 Pattee Library
Penn State University
814-865-1014
ecn1@psu.edu
Arts & Humanities Library
W321 Pattee Library
Penn State University
814-865-1014
ecn1@psu.edu
Many Government reports can be found in LionSearch. Use the Government documents facet on the left after running your search.
Congressional (Proquest). Reports and documents produced by Congress, including hearings, and the texts of laws passed by Congress. Also includes the Serial Set - which contains reports by government agencies and the Congressional Record - debates on the floor of Congress.
Executive Branch Documents can often be found in LionSearch or The CAT. Search by topic or agency. Many 19th Century reports can be found in the Serial Set, part of Congressional (Proquest) More recent reports can often be found on the Web at www.usa.gov.
Some Presidential messages (speeches, news conferences, etc.) are online through the American Presidency Project
Historic Supreme Court decisions and the texts of laws can be found in HeinOnline. Select U.S. Statutes at Large to search for laws by their popular names. Use the U.S. Supreme Court library to find texts of legal decisions.
The Archival Research Catalog contains some digital records from the collections of the National Archives. Includes extensive material on Chinese Exclusion and the Bracero Program.
These sources are similar to Wikipedia in that they provide general essays on topics. Usually they will list sources for further reading.
Gale Virtual Reference Library - full text of hundreds of reference sources in many subject areas
Oxford Reference Online - over 100 dictionaries and encyclopedias published by Oxford University Press
Use the Statistics Research Guide for data resources. Also see these free government websites:
LatinoBarmometer — an annual survey of opinions in Latin America
America: History and Life - Search for articles in academic history journals published since 1954
Bibliography of Asian Studies - Materials about Asia, not as much on Asian-Americans
ERIC - Use to find articles, book chapters, and reports in the field of Education
LGBT Life - Index to sources in gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender studies
JSTOR - Full text of many academic journals, mostly back volumes.
Project Muse - full text of recent academic journals
LionSearch - a search engine for fast, simple access to materials from the Penn State University Libraries. LionSearch searches the CAT (online catalog), and some of library databases, e-journals, and e-books. It does not replace the databases above, but can be a convenient starting point.
Google Scholar - provides a convenient single search of scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, including some books and articles. It does not include all of the Penn State Libraries' content, so use it as a supplement to library searching, not a replacement. For best results: Before searching Google Scholar, click on the link to Scholar Preferences. In the Library Links type: Pennsylvania State University and click on Find Library. Now, the Google Scholar search results will include a link for GET IT! @ Penn State to connect to library subscriptions.
Books and other materials, including CDs, DVDS, and more, can be found using the Libraries' online catalog, The CAT. Use Advanced Search for more options, including the ability to limit searches by date, a useful tool for locating primary sources (for example, look for chinese and limit by date to 1882-1883)
If Penn State does not have what you want, use the databases on our Materials NOT at Penn State page to search and request materials from libraries worldwide. For more information abou obtaining materials from other libraries see our Interlibrary Loan FAQ.
Many historical books have been scanned and are available online. To search inside Books, use the E-Books page which contains links to databases and websites that offer full-text of historical works. Two of the more significant collections are:
Google Book Search - This is a digital index to the contents of millions of books contributed by university libraries and others.
Hathi Trust Digital Library - a digital catalog and repository created by research libraries. Some overlap with Google Books.
African American Newspapers, 1827-1998
More than 270 African American newspapers from 35 states
American Periodicals Series (1740-1900+)
General interest magazines with some publications up to around 1940.
Black Historical Newspapers 1910-2002
Includes the Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Courier, and Philadelphia Tribune
Chronicling America
U.S newspapers up to 1922, hosted by the Library of Congress.
NewspaperArchive
Pennsylvania newspapers (other states not available through database). Primarily 19th and 20th centuries. with papers from many small and medium-sized cities
British Periodicals - up to the 1930's
Illustrated London News, 1842-2003 More than a million color images providing a vivid pictorial commentary on British and world affairs
The Economist Historical Archive 1843-2007 - business and political news
Latin American Newspapers, 1805-1922 (World Newspaper Archive)
Recent News Sources - mostly since the 1980s
Google News Archive includes a mix of freely available and pay-for view news sources. Before paying, check to see if the library has a copy of the newspaper. The University Libraries provide access to many newspaper titles in print, microfilm, and electronic formats. Use NewsCAT to locate newspapers in any University Libraries' collections.
ICON: Newspaper Digitization Projects A helpful list of digital newspapers by state.
To see which newspapers are in the Penn State Libraries' collections by state or time period use NewsCAT.
