Searching America: History & Life and Historical Abstracts

Madeleine Clark Wallace Library subscribes to two electronic
databases produced by ABC-Clio which index scholarly historical
journals and other history secondary sources such as PhD dissertations
and book reviews. They are available from the Libary's Electronic
Resources Page.

America: History and Life indexes materials published since 1964 on
U.S. and Canadian history, pre-history to the present.

Historical Abstracts includes materials published on the history of the rest of the world since 1955 covering 1450 to the present.
When you first log-in, you will get the Simple Search. We suggest for most searches that you will find the Advanced Search more useful.


Searching the Databases: On the search screen, you will see the list of ways you can search or limit your results. Keyword (looking for the word anywhere in the record), subject (assigned subject heading), author, and title are the prime methods.
Selecting Search Terms: Next to some of the choices there is a little magnifying glass icon which allows you to see the index or list of possible entries. Select the subject icon and type in your term. It will show you cross references to help you find the appropriate subject term and the subject sub-headings to make your search more specific, e.g. biographies, bibliographies, or review articles, etc. Under subject or author you will find variations in names such as Hoover, Herbert, Hoover, Herbert C., and Hoover, Herbert Clark so that you do not miss relevant entries. In the other search categories the magnifying glass shows you possible entries for language, document type (journal article, book review, dissertation, etc.), journal name, or time period. Use the "Paste in Search" button to paste your selection into your search.
Searching by Historical Period: You can use the magnifying glass and select the appropriate time period or type in a specific date or dates, e.g. 1815, 1805-1825 or 1800-1900. Each entry is indexed by time period. Entering 1815 would yield anything with a time period entry which covers 1815, e.g. materials with an 1815 date and the longer periods as in the example above.
Combining Search Terms: You can put terms together using and, or, or not. The default and requires both terms to be in each record, e.g. Jefferson and Louisiana Purchase. Or indicates you want at least one of the terms to be in the record, e.g. Indians or Native Americans. Not indicates you want to exclude a term, e.g. not dissertation to leave them out.
Truncation and Wild Cards: You can increase your search results by using a truncation or wild card symbol when you want to retrieve plural or other variant forms of the word. Use a ? for each unknown or variable letter. Wom?n would get woman and women; German? would get German, Germany, or Germans. Use an * for an indeterminate number of letters. German* would not only get the terms above but also Germanic or Germanies, etc.
Clio Notes: Here is help for defining your paper topic. Click on Clio Notes and select the time period you are interested in, shown on the left. You will get a chronology and summary of events in that era. Click on a summary of events choice and you will get an encyclopedic of the topic and an opportunity to do a guided search of the database at the very top. You will also see a list of questions on which you could focus your topic.
Listings of Results: The short entry gives you the bibliographic citation. Selecting the full entry will add the abstract or summary and the subject headings assigned to the entry. Using these subject headings can be helpful in finding more related materials if needed or for limiting large search results to a more specific subject term.
Printing, Saving, and E-Mailing Results: Select the records you like, called tagging, by using the little box in the upper left corner of each record. When you are ready, use the Output Options button to send the tagged records to the printer, save them to a file, or e-mail them.
Help: Note the Help button under the New Search button for further assistance. Help is also available from the Reference Librarian at the Reference Desk or by telephone at x3700.

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This page is maintained by Margaret Gardner. Last updated on 4/17/06.
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